B-Baby-sitting horse?

Hey y'all! Today is another day of the alphabet challenge and my letter is B!

B-Babysitting horse? 

The oldest horse at the barn, Dixie, a buckskin sweetheart who is best friends with my Red-man, did something to her leg and it is really swollen, she can't put weight on it at all and appears to be in a good amount of pain from it. So her owner called the vet the second she saw it, of course. The vet came out the next day, shaved the leg down-she is still VERY wooly-and took a good look. She had no idea, but she did know that her leg is as swollen as she's ever seen. It's not a snake bite, we don't think anythings broken, maybe she stepped in a hole or something??? The vet put her on a couple things, I don't know what, to relieve the pain and swelling, and the owner was told to go out everyday, which she does anyways, and soak it in water and ice it down. I feel so bad for the poor girl!! She was put in the pasture with the babies at the barn so the other horses wouldn't bully her too much, and at first she was in there alone with the company of two colts and a filly. She HATED it and kept picking on the babies, so her owner, who also does all of the feeding and etc, she's pretty much in charge of the barn, decided to put another larger horse in there. At first, she went for one of her mares that Dixie has always really liked but she ran off and didn't want a thing to do with it. Red decided to take off to the pasture and try to sneak in, so the owner of Dixie put him in there and he has made it his job to keep the babies away from his precious gal! He herds the babies away and plays with them to keep them away, then occasionally sneaks off to Dixie to check on her. 

Yesterday, we went to the barn to ride, but when we got the Red-man out I noticed a scratch of some sort on his chest where the girth would go, it's a little puffy and swollen, which isn't a big deal for Red because he is so sensitive. He gets a tiny scratch and it swells. :)) I told mom I think he did it on purpose so we wouldn't ride him. So, instead of riding, we just decided to hang out for awhile and do a very thorough grooming session. We were going to bathe him, too, but it started to rain. The owner of Dixie came out and we all hung out for awhile while Red looked nervously over at Dixie in the babies stall as she whinnied to him every two seconds. He enjoyed the attention, though.

 We clipped some of the hair on his fetlocks and on his neck because the hair was REALLY long and was being a nuisance, kept getting muddy and making the hair get matted. 

His chest is starting to look scabby. I saw it and my heart fell. It looks like it did when he had all of the problems! We put some MTG on it and we are hoping for the best. Other than that he looks fantastic....We have an idea, though. Last time we rode we sprayed fly spray ALL over his chest because the bugs were "bugging" him. He hadn't been having ANY problems before then. His previous owners fly sprayed him like crazy...Maybe he's allergic to the spray?? We've told everyone NOT to spray anything on him. Just MTG. We may try Avon Skin-So-Soft and we'll be putting garlic in his food...I'm hoping for the best! I'll love him either way, of course, but I really wanted him to look good this summer. He's such a gorgeous boy and I want him to be able to live up to that and not be all scabby..Hopefully he'll keep the mane and forelock if he does end up looking worse. He literally had no forelock or mane when we got him.

 We really have such a great bond, and that's something that will NEVER change, no matter if his trot magically, somehow gets even rougher. No matter if he is stubborn as a mule. No matter if he goes bald. No matter if all of his mane and forelock, even tail fall out all over again. No matter if he makes me soak  his feed everyday with beet pulp and apple cider vinegar again,no matter if he, in everyone else's eyes, looks bad. He will always be gorgeous to me because he has the best personality in the world and he loves me just as much as I him.  Our bond will never go away.

The first words I ever said about Red were spoken when we were about to go on our first trail ride, before I ever knew my aunt was going to give him to me. I said, even though he looked bald and scabby and a little thin, "He's beautiful." and my aunt looked at me weird and said, "Really?" then looked to my mom and step-dad, whom she were currently trying to talk into the whole thing of giving him to me, and said, "Cindy, Jeff, she said he's beautiful!" little did I know they would soon agree to me owning my boy. 

He'll always be my Red-head. My beautiful, sassy, stubborn, huge Red.

On another note, expect a product review soon!!! I ordered a nameplate bracelet from Horse.com with Red's registered name and I'll review the bracelet as soon as I get it and upload pictures. I have no clue how quick the shipping'll be, but I'm hoping for a quick wait! :D So excited!!!!

Did any of y'all go riding this weekend?