Happy Seamus's Bath Day!

 But I don't WANT my face washed!!!

So yesterday was St. Patrick's Day which I normally don't pay a whole lot of attention to, excepting the part about dodging pinches because I don't bother to wear green usually. It was also Lexington's official "First Beautiful Day of the Year" being in the 70's and gorgeously sunny with a bit of a nice, warm breeze. Such a relief after a nasty winter! I've been waiting desperately for a nice day in which I could give Seamus his first bath and not have to worry about freezing the poor boy to death, and yesterday was that day.

I left work and dialed up Cindy so I would have a helping hand and we got to the barn and set things up for bath time. Seamus took it well with only a little dumb racehorse antics, mostly because he had to stand still in the wash rack when he would have rather been eating. Got him all cleaned up pretty and combed out his mane and tail. I'm so very glad to be able to get all the residual dirt and MTG grunge out of Seamus' coat and the roots of his mane and tail! I even scrubbed his white socks up with Castille soap.

After the bath, Seamus stood around on the lead rope wearing a cooler and picking grass until he dried, then we took him in for a little clipper work on his whiskers, bridle path, and even his fuzzy ankle hair! Then we took weekly pics :D

Seamus is turning into One Beautiful Horse! As you can see, he continues to fill out slowly. He's still ribbier than these pics show, but that topline which has been worrying me so much is still coming up. Seamus has been on stall rest for the last three weeks due to his hoof softness and he's been fretting a bit in there. I have noticed a tendency in him to weave when bored so I suspect he is doing that when he's done with eating. He gets enough hay that he usually has some leftover in his hay bag and he has a Jolly Ball and a pool noodle to fiddle with in the stall, but I think now that he's had some turn-out experience, he wants more and is getting tired of this whole "stall rest" thing.

His hooves are toughening up so I am aiming to have Seamus going out in a field during the day starting next week or so. For the last week, while I clean stalls, he's been turned out in the lane to pick some grass and blow off a little steam, but there's not much room for antics in there. Yesterday after the bath and photo time, Cindy and I let him out in one of the big fields for a little playtime and we got a great 10 minute video (please excuse the audio LOL):

 

It's a little shaky at the beginning, but it gets better; Seamus also takes a little bit to get into the whole "freedom" thing. As you can see, he thoroughly undoes all that hard work that Cindy and I put into cleaning him up! Listen for the whinneying when he gallops from behind the tobacco barn- Seamus' sheer joy in running again is evident... and his trot is elevated and extended, naturally. He does take a slip once, but bounces right back and he came in from it fine, no worries. He was finished with his running after the video and he was brought in minutes after. This is the first time he's been in one of the larger fields since I got him almost 12 weeks ago and his natural energy levels have only really started to come back in the last couple of weeks. It's honestly taken him this long to truly start getting back what was lost to him due to his starvation in Chuck's care.

I can't wait until Seamus can be turned out again, he will get fat quick on all the bluegrass we've got coming in and gain muscle back running off his "stall rest" :)

All photos and video by Cindy, thanks pal!