Belle and Foxy BFF

Belle and Foxy have been best buds only since August. Before that, Foxy had her own little life running the herd, being lead mare. She pushed around the other mares and when the geldings were out, she pushed them around, too. They were in a big pasture and all of the horses were in a rotation so that injuries and bickering were at a bare minimum and the pasture did not get over grazed during the summer. When the horses did get hay, Foxy and Belle did not eat at the same feeder. Foxy would try and steal Belle's treats. After their long trip to Wyoming, everything changed. They are now inseparable.
Before Belle's bath

I bring this up again, because Belle is once again off her feed. She does this periodically to see if I am paying attention. She still had alot of hay five hours after feeding time. This is not normal. Today was the first warm, sunny day where I had the day off in weeks. I had planned a trail ride with the pup and kids. I had also planned to scrub Belle's legs to clean up her feather.

(sidenote -- why is the plural not feathers when referring to the long hair on horse's legs? It would make sense.)

There was no way that I felt OK with riding her, so out went Foxy and her nonenemy Ike

(Sidenote 2 -- Foxy only has one friend, Belle. Everyone else is the enemy or nonenemy, but not a Friend.)

I kept Belle in to clean her legs, since I don't know when the next nice sunny day might be. Foxy did not completely panic without Belle, but she wasn't happy. She did get alot of exercise, though. After scrubbing Belle's legs

(sidenote 3 -- When scrubbing a Clydesdale's legs, always be aware that at anytime they will lean on you. She really enjoys it because it scratches all of the itchy spots, but she really gets into it.)

After cleaning her legs with her medicated shampoo and rinsing thoroughly,

(sidenote 4 -- Rinsing thoroughly is not fun. I don't have a washing stall, so I use one leadrope to tie her to the running board on the side of my truck and another one to tie to the fifth wheel in the bed of my truck. This keeps her on one side of the truck as I hose off her legs. My white truck now needs a bath)

I then turned her out with Foxy. Now you may ask why I did not make sure that she was dry before turning her out.
1 --The wind was strong enough that she would dry quickly.
2 -- It was colder in the barn than outside.
3 -- The sun was out and she needed to be in the sun.
4 -- If I left her tied to my truck, she would splash in the mud.
5 -- If I left her tied to my truck she would dent it -- again.
6 -- Foxy was pacing the fence.
7 -- I wanted to see if I could get Belle to eat if she was with Foxy.

Of course, she rolled immediately, grinding her clean legs into the dirt. But as soon as the hay was over the fence, they both started to eat. Foxy only took a few mouthfuls, she wasn't really hungry. Belle started eating. As Belle ate, Foxy made sure that Ike did not get an opportunity to get any of the hay. It was really cute how Foxy stood guard. Another horse was put in with the girls, but Foxy just kept that one away, too, until Belle was done.

It's good to have a friend.