Hairy Horse

My old mare Cupcake—who'll turn 30 on May 11—has had a lot of problems in her old age. Since last fall, she's had a recurring hoof abscess in her right forefoot. Part of her hoof wall recently separated where the original abscess was and the vet had to trim it away. She's pretty lame in that hoof and is currently on Bute and antibiotics. That's why, in the picture below, she sports a hoof bandage consisting of  duct-tape over purple Vetwarp over a diaper. It does the job keeping her hoof clean, but she can't go out in rainy weather because water could soak through the bandage.

She also has Cushing's disease, which causes her to have long hair. Because the weather is getting hotter, I decided to clip some of her excess hair yesterday while she grazed on the lawn. The pasture has been too wet and muddy from recent rain for her to walk around in it, so she's mostly confined to her stall. But the lawn is dry, and I figured she'd enjoy the treat. Plus I had a long extension cord on the clippers and could follow her around and clip as she ate.

Here's some—but not all—of the hair that I clipped off her while she was grazing.

After I clipped some—but not all—excess hair, I ran the shedding blade over her. This is some—but not all—of what I scraped off.

She's still pretty hairy.

While Cupcake was out, Melody ran into the stall to eat Cupcake's hay. 

Soon Melody was evicted from the stall, and Cupcake was incarcerated again.

This morning the sun was out, the weather was warm, and pasture was much drier, so Cupcake was allowed to go out.

Where was Melody? You guessed it!

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