The water bath

Mezza, cool and relaxed after the 'bath'

I think both Dawn and I wondered if we'd end up wetter than we did!

Mezza, not overly concerned with the spray.

Dawn and I met just after 11am--it was already hot. Perfect for working on bathing Mezza.
Mezza was ambling about in the round pen. We brought her out and Dawn hooked up the hose. It was set so the water was not real cold, and the sprayer was on a light "rain".

Mezza is taking fly spray like a champ now, and takes sponge baths from a bucket, but hadn't seen the hose for a "bath" since last fall. Then she was very wary of it, so we were interested in reaquainting her with it and getting a bit farther along this time.

Honestly she did great!  Starting at the feet Dawn was able to work up to her chest, along her body, and even most of her rear end with Mezza standing well for quite some time. Mezza even let Dawn hold the  hose in front of her face, and Mezza reached out and played with the water several times.

She does not like the water trickling down her back legs, so I started rubbing them as if I were washing her with soap. She did well with that. We got to a good standing point with the water on her and called it a day!  It will have to be repeated, but it was a positive experience.

Wet Pony

I stalked Mezza and practiced for the show (used both halters, and did longe with the chain on, but not attached to the lead, just hooked on the flat halter), and then got out the spray bottle--what a change--after the first few moments of insecurity she let me spray her entire body!!
Then I took a bucket with water and a sock, and I wet down her entire body!!

The puddle wasn't as easy--she finally walked through the mud, but was still hopping over the actual water part, so I left it at a nice walk through the mud and we walked on out to the out door, where I turned her out for a bit. The we continued our walk down to the east end and all the way back up along the road. Stopped at the trailer a moment (for practice) while I got her a few timothy pellets, then continued on to her run. A really good day.