Super Twink - Picnic Tables and Flymasks

Despite feeling a little under the weather this weekend, I still rode my pony in my weekly lesson.  The heck I would miss that!  :)  In hindsight, I probably should have cancelled the lesson because even though I did not think I overdid things, I was pretty worthless the rest of the day (can we say three hour nap and early bedtime?!).  However, that aside, I had a fantastic ride on Snipes.  He really is a sweet thing when he's being, well, a Sweet Thing.  I've gotten to the point where I can correct things in all three gaits (walk, trot, canter) and still keep going after the fact (unless of course, I get a 'village idiot grin' and in my blondness, forget what I was so wonderfully doing).

Well, around the barn the last week or so, the horseflies (bugs of hell) have been nasty.  The rain we got mid-week did not help, either.  Now, unless you've been around horses, you can't fully appreciate the 'power of the horsefly'.  Watch some horses peacefully grazing in a pasture - then watch as a horsefly lands on the back of one of them.  First the horse will twitch it's skin to encourage the horsefly to move along.  If that doesn't work, then comes the tail swish accompanied by a pissed off look and ear pinned back.  If the bug is still there (which it most certainly is), then comes the contorted body twisting as the horse tries to bite the little shit off while almost instantaneously throwing in a buck and then, a millisecond later, takes off galloping across the field, pasture mates close at hoof.  At times, the horse will even employ the 'stop, drop, and roll' method, if warranted.

I've been fairly successful in teaching Snipes to stand still when a horsefly is on him - this allows me to kill the bug before I get nailed by a hoof or some teeth, and it works pretty darn good.  During my lesson, I managed to kill one or two of the buggers on Snipes before he went crazy.  After the lesson, I tied him to his tree, took off his tack, and went into the tack shed to gather supplies to give him a quickie bath.  In the time it took me to carry the bucket and hose to the wash area, one of these blasted horseflies landed on Snipe's back.  I was too far away to help him and stood helplessly by (well, I was running and yelling for him to calm down) as he proceeded to twitch, swish, ear pin, contort, and then buck his way onto, and through, the plastic picnic table right next to him.  After assessing the damage and seeing that all looked alright, we proceeded with our bathing activities.

Damn horseflies.  Damn picnic table.  Damn heart attack.

Sniper with his flymask.  :)