Garland training + today's photo

Sunday is Christmas photo day at the barn. The horses will be expected to wear all manner of costumes, everything from Santa hats and reindeer antlers to garlands, bows and socks. This is not our first rodeo, and I've learned it's better not to surprise Olive with these things on the day of the event. She requires a little preparation.

Which is a long way of saying, yesterday was garland day.

The first year I did this with Olive, it took nearly two weeks to get her comfortable enough to wear a garland on her back.

Last year, it was two days.

Yesterday, we got it down to two minutes.

Admittedly, she wasn't delighted.

She was irritated by the loose ends touching her neck and legs.

She put her ears back, swished her tail...

and completely lost her ability to walk.

Fortunately, she got over it pretty quickly. She's going to be fine on Sunday.

This is Kaffi's first Colorado Christmas, so he also got a training session with the garland.

His nose...

to shoulder...

to back progression was even faster than Olive's.

And, weirdly, he was fully capable of walking with the garland on his back.

Good boy, Kaffi. You are also ready for Sunday!

Today's prompt for the Advent Model Horse Photo Challenge is Custom.

For this, I chose to use Melekush, who despite being one of my oldest customs, has only appeared on this blog once. She is wearing a set of Akhal Teke collars by the late and still very much missed, Dee Crawley. Unlike Olive, she did not require a training session. I put the collars around her neck, and that was that.

Twenty down, five to go. I think I'm going to make it.