Happy birthday, Olive

Like Thoroughbreds, most BLM mustangs celebrate their birthday on January 1.

I didn't know this when I got Olive, and at first, I really didn't like it.

"Wild horses don't have babies in January," I said to anyone who would listen. "It's dumb. I'm just going to make up a birthday for her."

Then... I don't know... I came around.

Olive is a mustang through and through. It's fitting that she shares a birthday with her formerly feral family. Also, my birthday is in January. It works.

Which is all a really long way of saying: Today is Olive's birthday.

She's thirteen.

I had to work today, so instead of going for a ride, I decided it would be a spa day. This was an especially appropriate decision seeing how Olive was unusually dirty.

She rolls in the mud maybe once a year, and yesterday was the day.

Here's today's official before picture.

And after. She's still an unclipped, Wyoming mustang in January, but now she's a clean unclipped Wyoming mustang that smells like marigolds.

After the grooming session, we went for a walk.

There were lots of geese,

lots of stares...

and lots of food stops. The weekend feeders always drop hay at the entrance to the white barn, and Olive is happy to help pick up after them.

This was a quiet celebration, but a celebration nonetheless. Happy birthday, Olive. Here's hoping for many, many more.