"Are you eating her belt??"

Red has an obsession.

He likes to nibble on the ends of my western belt and literally grate his teeth on the stones. Don't know why. Every time I wear a belt buckle-which is basically everyday-or if I wear this western belt, he nibbles on it. It's not a bite, it's a nibble. The other people at the barn haven't seen him do it, so when I went in the barn today where Red was lounging and waiting for food, he greeted me like this, as always-

"I like to hug!!"

and for the first couple minutes he stayed in that position, then, I got the MTG, fly spray, cut ointment-spray, comb and brush, went back in, and started combing his mane. As usual, he starts nibbling on the belt then. I have horse teeth marks on the pink stones from this, okay? I don't care though, it's kinda cute..Plus, it's a Western Pleasure belt, isn't it supposed to be all horsey?

A person at the barn looks at him and was like, "Red, are you eating her belt??" and he looked up at him like, huh?

"What are you talking about? I always do this!"

Then continued his munching. I said, "Yes, he always does this." Yes..I have a bizarre "pony" I do, indeed!

I brushed him out real good, made sure there was no more mud caked onto his hair

Then I began the real work. I literally SMOTHERED his tail with MTG since it's going bald again in order to stop the itching so he doesn't rub. It didn't look as rubbed or messy as it did yesterday evening when I put the MTG on it the last time, so I think it's working! It seems like it's the same, but if it continues stopping the itch, I'm hoping the hair will be back to how it was beforehand in a few weeks, give or take.. I really don't *mind* if it goes back to it's old baldness..I'll love him and think he's gorgeous regardless, but I really, really, really really want him to continue on this path of healing.

Not a great picture but you can kind of see the balder spots.

Other than his tail, he still has no bad places other than a couple bald places on his chest, but I'm not worried about those, they are tiny and I've kept MTG on them and they don't seem to itch anymore..

After the MTG, I saw a sore on his knee that was probably from running into something or playing with the other horses, so I sprayed a spray-on ointment on it to help it heal faster..Checked for dirt around his sheath since he has a history of beans and I'm supposed to make sure it doesn't look nasty down there. ;) ;) Looked fine though!

Waiting at the gate for food..

Every time I see this horse-which is pretty much daily-I just fall in love even more. He is just so loving and sweet!!! I walk in and he wraps his head around me, Jeff walks in with the baby stroller and my little brother and Red walks over to "Petey" and sniffs his head like, "Hey, I know you!!" and is so personable. I love this pony!

"Yeah yeah yeah I love you too, now where is my grain?"

Spirit was in Red's stall, so Red was just hanging out in the front of the barn and ate his grain in there like yesterday. :) He does really good doing that and at the moment, we need one more stall, so one horse-normally Red-gets to roam around..We're planning on building another stall June/July... :)

:) :)

Going to try and ride this next week..It may rain this weekend, so.... :P Spirit needs a bath, so while mom bathes him I'll probably ride Red in the round pen and work him..