May 25, 2009 – Polishing

I decided that I want to tidy up Rory's shaggy mane so I took him out yesterday and braided his mane over to one side (I picked the right side) as a first step. It's not braided all the way down, just a few crossings then an elastic to hold it all on one side with the rest left loose. He was pretty good about it and I let him nibble on the grass while I started at his withers. He did have an "OMG what is that!" moment when he spotted the neighbour tossing mulch around. We went over to see that he was harmless and chat for a minute. Then I took him back by his paddock and tied him so I could do the last few braids up behind his ears.

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday and I scritched him and examined his summer coat peeping through the holes in his coat, and looked at his chest and his ears. There are a lot of darker red highlights gleaming in the sun now. He looks like he might be bright chestnut again. I did get a couple of pictures. Many of the pictures seem to be Rory walking towards me because he wants to see what I'm up to. I enticed him out of the shelter yesterday by turning my back on him and combing TOW's mane and tail. TOW enjoyed it and actually stood without trying to nibble on me or my stuff. I did look at Rory's tail, but he's got the same spiral hairs as his half sister so I didn't bother combing it out. His tail hairs are a mix of bright red chestnut and dark brown apart from the pale bits of baby hair.