Grooming on a Rainy Day

Yesterday I went down to the stables, and as MiniOwner put it, "the whole ground's saturated." So, instead of the usual cleaning stalls + working the minis, we headed into the upper barn to pull out a couple yearling minis and groom on them.

First MiniOwner took Echo - an E^eE^e/Ch^ChCh⁺ (gold champagne) filly, and I got Ruger - an A^aA^a/To^To-/Z^Z (silver on black) colt.

Ruger was pretty calm about the whole grooming process, and there wasn't much I had to reprimand him for (other than pawing when I stopped grooming temporarily). However, as we'll be showing Echo next year, MiniOwner decided that then was the time to get the filly used to clippers.

Bottom line was that Echo finally got over it. At first, though, she was rearing and freaking out all over the place. MiniOwner just kept going at her (which is honestly what has to be done until the horse realizes that clippers won't kill them. This technique is known as flood training) until she got over it.

After we were done with those two, I got out Reggie - an E^eE^e/To^To (chestnut and white) colt, and MiniOwner pulled out Cayenne - an E^eE^e/Sb^Sb1Sb⁺ (chestnut sabino) colt. For a little while, Reggie was nervous when I was picking out his hoofs; after awhile, though, he just stood there completely still and let me do whatever I wanted to on him. He was shedding a lot (wait...maybe that was Ruger? Grr my memory is getting confused) for merely a yearling, and he really really liked being brushed with the shedding blade. :)

Cayenne, however, decided he was going to act silly when MiniOwner was trying to lead him out of his and Reggie's stall. Short story even shorter, he reared up the first time and struck MiniOwner (thankfully he's a fairly small mini), she warned him not to rear up again, he did, so she pushed him over onto his back.

It may seem mean to a simply "playful" horse for those who don't know much about horses, but they need to learn. And that wasn't just playing, it was also disobedience, and that kind of behavior should not be allowed to reside in any horse; no matter the size.

Anyway, I didn't get any picture of Reggie or Cayenne, but here are a few of Ruger and Echo. :)

Ruger's head. :) Cute boy, but he didn't want to stand still for the picture!

A dark spot on Ruger's neck. I found it a bit interesting!

Echo, the gold champagne filly.

With some minor editing, you can kinda see the hazel-ish eyes common in champagnes.

She has such a delicate Arab-y head.

And big eyes, too!

More Boarded Horses

This past week, the stables gained two new boarded horses!

Fizzy is a chestnut and white Paint mare, and she seems pretty nice. She didn't like it when I let Angel get close enough to sniff at her, but other than that, she's quite friendly.

Her buddy is a little American (modern) type Shetland gelding. His name is Mikey, and he's a dark bay.  He too seems very friendly, and he is super cute. (:

These are the only pictures I have of them so far; enjoy. :)

Fizzy 

Mikey

Which Paint?

A sometimes confusing term is "Paint". The word can both refer to a breed, and also a color white pattern.

The most common registry for Paint horses is APHA - the American Paint Horse Association. I'd imagine there are registries for pinto horses in other countries, but I'm not certain. A paint horse can have any conformation, any size, and anything else you can think of, so long as the horse has pinto markings. Which means, yes, even a pinto Mini can be registered as a Paint.

However, when someone refers to their horse's main breed (yep, horses can be registered for multiple breed associations) as a "Paint", this usually means a Quarter-Horse-type pinto, or a more modern Thoroughbred-type pinto.

The color of paint is a bit more complicated. It can go by 'paint', 'pinto', 'piebald' (black and white pinto), 'skewbald' (bay and white pinto), and also '[base color] and white' (for example, a chestnut and white).

To most people, the color terms 'paint' and 'pinto' mean the same thing. My friends at the stables say that Native Americans would call horses such as tobianos a pinto, because the spots are fairly rounded and smooth (like a toe); whereas a paint such as a frame overo would be called a paint, because it looks like the horse got splattered (for lack of a better word?) with paint.

Piebald and skewbald are slightly old fashioned terms, but at lease the meaning of each is simple. Piebalds are black and white, and skewbalds are bay and white.

Referring to a horse color by '[base color] and white' is probably the least confusing, although it is a fairly informal term.

I think the main way to reduce confusion is to completely terminate using the word "paint" for a color. Keep it to pinto or the other options, and it will probably help.

Have an awesome day, and if you found this post helpful, please +1, and don't use "paint" to refer to a color. :)