{"id":3272,"date":"2016-10-18T09:49:21","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T20:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/?p=3272"},"modified":"2019-09-05T13:01:40","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T01:01:40","slug":"mud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/mud\/","title":{"rendered":"Mud"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a while, and I’m still not quite done with that plastering<\/a>,\u00a0so here’s a little pony tale for you in the meantime.<\/p>\n

Spring\u00a0is\u00a0a time of year that those of us responsible for grooming horses\u00a0approach with heavy hearts. It’s the season in which our equine friends shed their fluffy-like-a-teddy-bear winter coats and find mud puddles to roll in.<\/p>\n

\"Summer<\/a>

Summer – it takes commitment to achieve that\u00a0extensive\u00a0mud coverage.<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ve no idea whether shedding\u00a0and rolling in mud are connected. Perhaps losing all that hair\u00a0creates the sort of itch\u00a0which ponies believe to be\u00a0best\u00a0remedied by a good coating of mud. Either that or\u00a0there’s been a big advertising push by\u00a0Shiseido<\/a>\u00a0in the bottom paddock.<\/p>\n

\"Bonnie<\/a>

Bonnie – before.<\/p><\/div>\n

Whatever the reason, the combination of caked on mud and loose hair creates a grooming\u00a0challenge of epic proportions. Prepare for clouds of pony dust (hint:\u00a0it’s\u00a0not half as glittery as fairy dust), and brushes clogged with fluff. I thank my lucky stars for my friend Amy-next-door<\/a> who loves\u00a0to brush Bonnie, and will\u00a0often come over to help out.<\/p>\n

\"Summer<\/a>

Summer – after.<\/p><\/div>\n

On the plus side, standing in the sun brushing a blissed-out and dozing horse is really rather therapeutic. It’s way\u00a0more fun than vacuuming the house, and provides the sort of\u00a0vigorous workout that\u00a0fits with my thesis;\u00a0‘I don’t need a gym membership. I have a farm<\/a>‘.<\/p>\n

\"Bonnie<\/a>

Bonnie – after.<\/p><\/div>\n

Then there is always the opportunity to play at an\u00a0equine version of Pimp My Ride.<\/p>\n

\"Bonnie<\/a>

Bonnie with daisies – still channeling Beyonce<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Don’t get too attached to your attempts at beautification though, once everyone is clean and tidy you can usually count on the next round\u00a0of mud rolling starting within the\u00a0hour. That’s horses for you, fully\u00a0committed to fostering the practice of\u00a0acceptance<\/a>\u00a0in their humans.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a while, and I’m still not quite done with that plastering,\u00a0so here’s a little pony tale for you in the meantime. Spring\u00a0is\u00a0a time of year that those of us responsible for grooming horses\u00a0approach with heavy hearts. It’s the… Continue Reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4,3,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bonnie","category-kaimanawa-pony","category-ponies","category-spring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3272"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6488,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions\/6488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}