Things You Never Thought You'd Get Excited About

Owning a horse makes a person get excited about weird things.

For instance, poop. If a horse you love and care about is colicing, poop is suddenly a really big deal.

I get really, inappropriately excited about sweat.

As you may or may not know, one of Dino's many afflictions is a condition called anhidrosis, which is an inability to sweat enough, or at all, when his body temperature rises. In hot weather, anhidrosis makes overheating a very real and very scary possibility, so starting in the spring I add a supplement to Dino's feed that helps his body produce the sweat he needs to keep himself at a reasonable temperature when it starts to get hot. Last month, I stopped giving the supplement since cooler weather had arrived, and weather or not he was sweating would not be a life-or-death consideration. Stopping supplementation for the fall and winter months also helps make it more effective when it's really needed, and it also saves me some money.

Yesterday it got to be about 60 degrees.

I rode in a t-shirt.

Dino has a full winter coat already. You do the math.

By the end of our ride, he was SOAKED. I mean absolutely soaked with sweat on his neck, chest, flanks, girth, and saddle area. I was beside myself with childish glee. No supplement for over a month, and we had SWEAT! I'm pretty sure the words that came out of my mouth as I untacked my pony were similar to this:

"OHHHH WHO'S A GOOD SWEATY PONY!? YOU DID SO GOOD TODAYYYY!! YOU'RE SO SWEATYYYYY!!! MOMMY'S SO HAPPY YOU SWEATED SO MUCH WITH NO DRUGS!! LOOK HOW YUCKY YOU AREEE!!!"

Sweat. It's exciting.