It was finally warm enough today to give Ace the first post-winter bath. And boy did it feel good! I thought about titling this post something catchy about “spring cleaning”, but then realized Ace’s bath wasn’t so much about cleaning him off as it was transferring his loose hair and dirt to me. Either way, it was a beautiful thing.

Ace gets a cookie for behaving so well for his bath. I gave him one the day after I bought him last fall, and he wasn’t thrilled. He stood well for the hosing, but backed up and wouldn’t stand while I scrubbed. Months and lots of work and trust-building later, he was a perfect gentleman. (we don’t have a wash stall or anything, so Dave, Tracie, and I tag team scrubbing and being a hitching post in the driveway).

Ace was absolutely filthy, but it was a deep down dirt so I just couldn’t get any “before” pictures to really do it justice.

In these few “after” pictures, you can see how ridiculous he is looking mid-shed. I have never seen a horse look so motley while he’s shedding, and that’s saying a lot.

The light hairs are his winter coat and the dark ones are his summer coat. It’s like having two different horses in a science experiment gone wrong. Just look at his face! And the color difference is even more pronounced than it looks in these photos.

And look at the weird spots he’s got on his neck and side:

He has ridiculously long, coarse winter hair, too. Just look at the ones that are still hanging on blowing in the breeze post-bath:

And here’s an example of why I have such a hard time getting pictures of Ace to illustrate his blog:

I can’t keep him far enough away from to get a decent shot!