Appaloosa

When I was a kid I always wanted an Appaloosa.  Now I can't for the life of me fathom why.  I know that I had read as a child that they were difficult to handle and were prone to having scrawny manes and tails, but I still wanted one more than any other type of horse.  Either an Appaloosa or a bay Arabian.  Goes to show how much things change - these days I can't imagine a horse I would want LESS than an Appaloosa or a bay anything, much less a crazy Arabian.  I think as a youngster the idea of conquering a horse noone else could handle was irresistable to me.

Anyhow last week after brushing Starbuck out really well and seeing her in full sun, I noticed that her winter fur and her summer fur are two completely different colours, giving her a kind of mottled look, not unlike a very strange, black Appaloosa.  So here are the photos of my Appaloosa - Thoroughbred - Zweibrucken filly!
Last week:

This week:

More Snow!

Forget Friday's post-- yesterday we woke up to a thick white blanket of snow covering Palma and yet more still coming down!  Worried that it would melt as the morning went on, I hurried to get dressed and drove (carefully) out to the stable only to find that it was snowing even harder there!  After helping Marina and Javi fix some fencing which had gone down with the weight of the snow, laying down a fresh layer of nice fluffy hay in Starbuck's shed and making sure she was warm and dry under her blanket, I took a bunch of photos.

In the end two of the other owners Virginia and Selina took their horses Coco and Monty out to the big vacant lot, but seeing as how even the grown up horses were freaking out and prancing around with the snow everywhere, I didn't want to have a battle of wills on wet, slippery terrain.  So Starbuck stayed in her paddock much to my dismay and envy when I saw how happy the others were running around in the snow... still, with her limpiness the other day and not being used to her plus-sized blanket and my clumsiness I think it was the right decision.  Anyhow here are some of the photos, you can check out the rest on Facebook (even if you don't have a FB account).

Anyone who thinks I might be overstating my clumsiness just take a look at this graceful stance...

Photo Friday: It snowed!

I promise!  I was at the stable at lunchtime as usual and it was raining pretty hard for Mallorca (that means more than 10 raindrops a minute) and was chilly-- I sure was glad to have put Starbuck's blanket on yesterday.    Anyhow I was topping off the straw in her stall so she'd have a nice soft warm bed tonight and giving her a little extra hay to keep her busy and all of a sudden my jacket started making noise.  Except it wasn't my jacket but the SNOW falling on it... little white juicy sleety flakes of it.

I grinned ear-to-ear (I always claim to hate snow but when it first starts falling I feel like a giddy kid) and called out to Starbuck to come out and play, but she just huddled further into her shed.  So I took a picture of her butt through the snow (which is of course completely invisible in the photo-- the snow I mean, not her butt) and then walked around to the front of her shed to take another one.  While I debated sending a text message to Marina who was on her lunch break to come out and play, it stopped snowing and started just raining again.  So it snowed for like a minute and a half, but hey, I was there to enjoy it with my baby girl!

Since I was pretty bored, I took some more photos of her and her roommate Meline, here goes.  Doesn't she look nice and toasty with her blankie? (thanks Virginia!!!)

Blankie

I have to admit, I wasn't planning to put a blanket on Starbuck at all this winter, hoping that her furry coat, metabolism and her hay-filled, three-sided shelter would be enough to keep her warm.  I mean, we're not exactly in Siberia here.  And according to the folks at About.com, that should be the case as long as it's not raining or windy.  But apparently rain takes away the coat's ability to insulate the horse's skin from the cold and the wind sucks away body heat, which I noticed when we were sacking out with the umbrella-- it wasn't even that cold (I was just wearing a normal hoodie and a slicker) but she was shivering and obviously miserable about the temperature.  So I started thinking it would be nice for her to have a blanket only for rainy or even snowy nights this winter (yes, apparently it does snow here on Mallorca from time to time).  So great, another expense, right?

But my amazing friend Virginia, proud owner of Coco, has once again come to the rescue!  Coco has outgrown her old blanket and Vir got her a new one yesterday, handing me down the old blanket.  We tried it on Starbuck yesterday and it's a little big but otherwise perfect for my girl!!!  So here she is, modelling it:

And here are some helpful links on blanketing (or not):

• Should you blanket your horse?
• Will blanketing prevent winter coat growth?
• How to fold a horse blanket
• How to put on a horse's rug
• Turnout Rugs
• How to fit your horse rug
• To blanket or not
• Why not all equines need a winter horse blanket