Last night the wind was howling and there was rain or sleet or hail or something that was coming out of the sky and smashing against the house and windows. It was just about the time I was due to head out to the barn and feed the horses. I had gotten home after dark, because my mom was in town and she brought me shopping and out to dinner. Anyways I had planned on working with blanketing Pistol all summer, and then all fall, or at least when I had daylight and nice weather. But do I ever follow through with any of my plans? Sheesh procrastination award goes to me! When I got to the barn after mixing the boys their supper I noticed that Pistol was shivering and his coat hasn't come in as thick as Duke's. He's still a bit on the thin side so I decided that since it was just going to get colder over night I might as well bite the bullet and throw his blanket on.
I dug through the barn, trying to remember just where exactly I had hidden the winter blankets to keep them safe and obviously they were the last place I looked...in and old army footlocker underneath another old footlocker. I dug out the larger of the two blankets, threw it over my arm and grabbed a halter and lead rope, and said a little prayer as I headed for the boys. The wind was blowing at about 40 mph and therefor shaking the barn making all kinds of creaky sounds. Perfect time to blanket a horse for the first time!! The boys were still munching on their supper when I haltered up Pistol. I shook the blanket next to him. He sniffed it and went back to his dinner. I rubbed it against his body, and he kept eating. I draped it on his back and still nothing. I let the buckles drop and he didnt' even notice. So I started buckling him up and he stood there like a champ. Didn't even freak out as I tightened the buckles to fit around his belly and legs.
So either this isn't his first rodeo with a blanket or someone really did an awesome job to desensitize him to scary things when they owned him before. OR Piney's ghost has entered Pistols body ;-)
My phone had just died when I went to take a picture so I can't show him off. The funny thing is now that he has a blanket on he looks like a fancy horse. :-) Even this morning when I looked out into the pasture I thought that he looked so handsome. He looks really sharp in navy blue. He also looked quite happy this morning when I went to check on them. I'll probably take it off in the next day or so when the temps warm up. It was in the high 80's last weekend and now we have snow on the ground the horses aren't quite ready for winter. Next week looks like we will be in the high 50s and 60s so hopefully we will be back to normal fall weather!
I sure am glad you were able to get his blanket on, you had me worried there for a minute. I think he must have appreciated the extra warmth. Good boy!
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