Horse problems

Don't remember if I posted anything about it earlier or was just talking to some friends about it, but Duke got a MAJOR sunburn on his bald face a week or so ago.  The edges of his nose had scabs a good quarter inch thick all the way around them and the whole rest of his bald face was scabbed over and peeling as well.  So I started bringing him in to the wash rack each evening, washing his face and putting Minard's GNatural cream on him.  It was sort of a last-ditch effort.  I really couldn't imagine that it would work since it's just a light cream and it's only SPF 25.  I had been applying sun screens with SPFs as high as 60 and none of them worked.  But that was no doubt because when Duke drinks, he dunks almost his entire head in the barrel and those sun screens just rinse off!  I decided to try the Minard's when I read that it is absorbed into the skin and lasts two days whether they try to rinse it off or not.  Well they must be right about that because it's only been a few days since I started putting it on his face, and it's pretty much cleared up already.  It's still a bit pink, but all those scabs are gone except one little place inside his one nostril.  Good stuff!

Of course every evening we have to have yet another serious discussion about why putting that cream on there really IS necessary.  I think it smells really good, but Duke . . . apparently not so much . . .

Hmm.  Maybe I need to get him an electric toothbrush, too.

Anyway, now that his problem is pretty much solved, I guess I need to figure out what the heck is going on with Lizzie's mane! 

It was growing out beautifully.  Now all of a sudden it's not only thin, but a big chunk of it is gone completely!  It looks like she's been sticking her head through the barbed wire that's on one side of that paddock, but I have no idea WHY.  If she were trying to eat the grass that's on the other side of the fence it seems like she would stick her head through the bottom wires, but the hair stuck to the barbs is on those TOP two rows of wire.  And even if it's been getting caught on the wire, how did she manage to rip out that one huge chunk???   Not sure what to do about it except figure out how to get her out of that paddock and away from that barbed wire. 

Aaaaaaa!!!   I WANT MY HORSES HOME !!!

Postscript:  You know, I didn't notice it before, but looking at this picture I see that Pops' mane looks just like Lizzie's -- that area mid-neck is very very short and the rest is shorter and thinner than it used to be!  I wonder what's going on.  You think maybe they're nibbling on each other's manes?  But I never see them do that.  Maybe I'll get a chance this weekend to sneak out there and just watch them for a while to see what's happening.