From Floor Mat to Polar Bear

I have a white horse. I am grateful that Speedy is such a diva because otherwise, I don't think I could live with a white horse in winter. Even though he avoids mud and poop, Speedy's very long coat still gets pretty stained and coarse. 

With a show just days away, I was really worrying about how to make him at least somewhat show presentable. And then the weather gods smiled from above and gave us a Saturday filled with warm sunshine and highs in the 60s. My mission was to turn my grimy floor mat into a fluffy polar bear.

I know he doesn't look that dirty, but he was.

Speedy wasn't too happy about it as the water was pretty cold, but he got a through bath with bubbles. The only thing I left dirty was his face. As I hosed and scrubbed, dirty water flowed from his coat rinse after rinse. I am sure I could have kept scrubbing, but at some point I decided he was clean enough, especially since the show was still a week away.

Post bath and nearly dry.

I covered him with a fleece cooler and set him free in the yard. It took the better part of an hour for him to dry off, but he looked and smelled so much better. In the sunlight, it almost hurt my eyes to look at his coat; it was so white.

We'll be in the Ventura area for the show, and the weather there is predicted to be warm and mild for this weekend. Speedy will get another bath tomorrow where he'll hopefully come out looking less like a carpet and more like a fluffy show pony.

Maybe we'll blind the judge a little during the half pass, and he won't see our trailing haunches.