Benny and Blake both needed coat changes. Benny is the only one of the boys who is staying fat on last year's coarse grass hay we picked up in early spring to get us through to this year's crop, and he needed a bigger coat.
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| Benny, photobombed by a cat and two horses |
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| "Who are you? Do we know you?" |
Blake's coat fit, but one of the leg straps was dangling so it was only a matter of time until it slipped sideways and entangled him or got ripped. While I had him uncovered, I decided to clean up his fleece. I had him sheared instead of rooing him this spring, which was a mistake. Not only did he get a lot of nicks, my shearer struggled with the rise, going under and over it. In order to have a marketable fleece next year, I needed to remove the cotted mats of old fleece where he was sheared over the rise. After pulling some of it off by hand and snipping some off with scissors, I settled into combing it out with a sturdy mane comb. Combing messed up his lock structure, but it will have plenty of time to normalize before his next shearing.
Blake was oh, so patient; as you can see, I combed off a LOT of old fleece tips! He is such a nice ram to handle – easy to catch, walks beautifully on lead, and stands patiently for whatever I need to do. For his patience, he got to eat some weeds before I headed up to the house to tackle other stuff on that to-do list. That's the problem with having lots to do – I got busy doing it, then my guys got home, so there was no chance to finish this post. That's why you're getting it today – and I have another one in the works!
Posting when I can at . . .
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