Stella did not enjoy all of the wind and rain on Friday. She tends to, er, freak out whenever it rains. I think it's mostly from the rain hitting the roof, but perhaps there's something else that she doesn't like that I don't pick up on. After the rain, however, I turned her out in the muddy arena so that she could trot around a bit and so I could safely clean her stall. I took lots of pictures of her because I happened to have my camera with me. There are also a few pictures of my poor paddock boots completely engulfed in mud and Jack frolicking in the puddles with a stick that he found, but they're mostly of Stella. I also brushed Stella after I finished her stall, and then we had a wonderful de-spooking session with the purple duster.
Stella got upset when I was dusting the cobwebs all the way across the barn, but when I finished with our de-spooking session, she thought of it as a funny-looking, purple treat dispenser. I started out by offering a treat to her, but only if she would bring her nose a few inches from the duster. I made her go closer until she was touching it and wiggling her lips over it, and then I started to rub it on her back and poke her with it. I touched her with it until she stopped twitching, and then I immediately removed it. I started to stroke her with it and touch it to random parts of her body. She was perfectly fine with the duster when I was all finished, so I offered her a final treat and ended our session.
On Saturday, I went to the barn for a while too. I basically did the same thing, but with more stall mucking and less de-spooking and photography. It was still fun, though.
Today, I went to the barn for an hour or so, just to say goodbye to Stella. I put her out in the muddy arena, cleaned her stall, watered the horses, and went to bring her back inside. She rolled right in the biggest mud puddle out there; her entire right side was caked. I waited as long as I could for her to dry and then curried the dried mud off. Hopefully a kind soul will see her tonight and finish the job for me :)
I went out to Jack's Pond to see how everything fared during the hurricane. Our boat was fine, but I saw two big black snakes. The first one really startled me. I was walking through some stuff and then I heard rustling leaves as the snake slithered away. I saw his entire body, and I'd guess he was nearly three feet long. I left that area and went over to the little tree that's fallen into the pond. A frog jumped into the pond and another snake slithered into the tall grass. I still can't decide whether it looked more like a brown tail or a black tail. Either way, both of the snakes could have been poisonous or nonpoisonous. Oh well, I didn't get bitten, so it's all good. I'll have to be more careful when I'm down there from now on.
I'm excited about riding again on Tuesday. I need to do homework before then, though. I guess I'll do it tomorrow, as it's nearly midnight now.
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