Winter Braids

My mother in law suggested (last year) that I put the horses' manes and tails into braids for the winter so they have lush, full, beautiful hair come spring. Well, I finally got around to it today. I did Nine's mane, laughed about how silly he looks, then I had to go inside to switch the laundry to the dryer, and when I came back out he was standing fine. But then my daughter and the dog spooked him. Apparently the knot was loose, because when I looked, after getting Elayne away from the horse, he had reached the end of the lead, which suddenly caught and whipped him around. His head hit the end of a pole. I put Elayne against the wall and told her not to move, and when I got to Nine he was working his jaw, which worried me a lot because I feared he had broken his jaw. Luckily he did not, but he did knock a tooth loose. I got some pliers and yanked it the rest of the way out. Nine drank some water so I didn't need to splash his mouth clean. So I took a look, and the tooth that came out was a baby tooth. The adult tooth is already through, so I don't think we have much to worry about. It looks like his mouth was open when it hit the pole and he has a cut in his gums. I will keep an eye open for infection.

Later Elayne took a nap so I went back out and did Nine's tail and Hammer's mane. Hammer did not enjoy it at all! He keeps giving me dirty looks. Nine doesn't seem to mind, even though he looks like a Rastafarian. He feelin' groovy mon.