Fifth Season

Canada has many seasons.  Wedged in somewhere between Road Construction and Winter, there is a short-lived season that is well known to anyone with kids and animals.  Mud season.

As the snow melts and the ground pushes its way back up into view, there is mud everywhere.  The lawns are so saturated that they squish as you walk across them. Vehicles leave ruts in driveways that are normally impervious to such things.  Right now, Mud Season is in full swing.  Or should we say, in full squish?

Along with mud season comes Muddy Paw season -- pans of water emerge on porches, along with old towels, to clean up the dog's feet before the pet makes it to the couch.  In the barn, mud season accompanies Shedding Season. Bailey, the big Irish gray in our barn, leaves a snowdrift in his wake.  He loves mud -- if you roll in it thoroughly, the loose hair sticks to the mud as it dries and helps move the shedding process along.

Of course, in the interim, riders have to deal with the aftermath of mud bathing.  Laurel is a dab hand with a vacuum cleaner, which is one of the most efficient ways to get a grip on the worst of the mud stuck to Bailey!  Horses must be scrupulously clean before a saddle and girth go on. Any dirt under the tack will rub up a sore place... and in the process can get the rider bucked off because of the horse's discomfort.  The cleaning methodology involves shedding blades to remove the loose hair;  hard rubber curry combs to break up the dirt and loosen more hair; stiff bristled dandy brushes to carry the crud away.  And a little massage with the vacuum cleaner to get out dirt that you'd be brushing away for weeks.

The end product today was a quite startlingly clean Bailey!  Mind you, tomorrow he will be once again the Colour of Mud.  But on the plus side, he'll have just that much less winter hair to lose!