Only Danny....

Today was an epic day. Even for Dan. 

Seriously.... Only Danny and I would have this happen to us. So... this morning when I went to grab Dan from the pasture I noticed he had smears of stuff on his butt... that looked like black dirt but also some red, from the berries I thought. Great.. he's a mess and will be dirty for my lesson but I didn't have time to give him a bath. So we got to High Point and I'm grooming him in the sun. I got to his butt with the curry and I'm like... "Gah.. what is that smell? That's terrible... it's not pee... it's not poop".... and I carry on because... hello, it's me and I'm short on time. So we get tacked up and head down to the arena and as I'm almost inside I realize what that smell is! It's the Fly Trap Stuff.. you know... the juice that already smells like death now full of rotting fly carcasses... that's been sitting in the sun.... smells like death and maggots. OH MY GOODNESS YOU STINK DANNY!!! It was awful. And because I was on top of him, I couldn't really get away from it. Yucky. But again, no time, so... I carry on. We head into the arena and start warming up. He's being super. He's just happily walking and trotting along and with the momentum, the smell isn't so bad for me. And then... Dutch starts being stupid for Erin and Guardian starts freaking out for Alex. And then we notice that Vinny is in the cross ties freaking out!! Cindy was trying to figure out what they were looking at and spooking at. And... they were all sort of staring towards the gate mid arena on the far side, but we couldn't see anything that would spook them. And then they all got really riled up and were looking at three different spots. So Erin and Alex got off because those horses are typically not spooky. And then Vincent got pulled out of the cross ties and brought into the arena to help him settle. And he didn't. He got worse and was doing his best Arabian horse tail in the air hover trot impersonation. At this point, I suggested to Cindy that perhaps the smell of death on Dan was what was setting them off. She sort of shrugged and was like "no... I don't smell him.. it can't be that"..... And they kept freaking out. Meanwhile Danny is traipsing around without a care in the world while there are 3 very talented riders OFF their horses in the arena trying to not get trampled. And then the wind shifted, or I rode closer to Cindy and she smelled us. Ha ha. And she said that she thought I was right. That perhaps the stench of death really freaked them out because they couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Oh my.... talk about embarassing!!! Seriously Daniel.... What on earth!!! And the funny thing was that he look pleased as punch. I could just hear him saying "Excelllllennnnnttt.... my plan has worked!". Ha ha...  Eventually, after a 20 minute lunge session, they got Vincent calmed down enough and then Erin was able to get back on and finish her lesson with Dutch. She joked that Dan gave her the side eye and a very disappointed look when she got back on. ha ha...  So embarassing but so funny. 


So then we finished our lesson which was quite nice. We worked on keeping MY BUTT IN THE SADDLE instead of allowing Dan to float me off. I focused on keeping my seat aids rather than focusing on leg aids and while it created a slight leg/knee creep up, it helped my seat. Hopefully my leg will relax again and my seat can continue to be in use. We also focused on Danny going forward and upward, not just forward. Lift Lift Lift!! It was a good ride. 

So after my lesson I untacked and gave Dan a bath. Before I could get the bath started, I noticed he had about 10 flies buzzing around his butt. GROSS!!! Seriously Dan... GROSS!!! I scrubbed his butt hard... twice... and then sniff tested him. He finally passed. :)