Mule Transformation

This weekend it finally warmed up enough for me to bathe Nilla and shave her. I’ve been wanting to do this for months. It’s just been so cold and we don’t have heated water. The water was still colder than Nilla would have liked, but she got to stand in the warm sun post bath, so it worked out. She was not impressed with standing around waiting to dry while I cleaned tack and kept calling out for a savior.

Mules noises fascinate me. I kept just missing getting a video of her make her most desperate noises. She sometimes starts out with a whinny that turns into a bray. Of course, I find this a hell of a lot less hilarious when she does it at a show.

before

after

Her body hair was inches long and shaving it was like shearing a sheep. Just look at all the hair on the ground in the after picture.

You could make a sheep out of all that hair. It took forever because her stomach and legs were insisting on not drying. The legs are really pretty bad looking up close, but I was rushing by that point as I was sick and tired of shaving. It should look fine in a few weeks when it grows a bit and evens out. I also meant to go back and make the spots around her eyes even, but my husband was about ready to leave the barn without me at that point.

I am really grateful to whoever taught this mule to clip. She’s really excellent at it. I never even bothered to put her halter back on after doing her head. She just hung out. She doesn’t care about me doing her belly or moving all around her feet. She doesn’t like her ears done, but I actually don’t like to clip ears anyway, so I left them. And she will let me do her ears if I force the point, but she’d prefer I not.

I turned her out post clip to roll and she was full of it. Here’s a brief video, but she kept it up for a while racing around bucking and rolling furiously. I put her sheet on afterwards and she absolutely freaked out acting like she’d never worn a blanket before (she has and yes she has worn one post shave too). She was running around her stall and paddock bucking and snorting like a nut. I think she just had way too much energy combined with post-shave itchiness and pent up friskiness from standing still for hours being shaved.