Itchy little bugger

Peanut has hives.

Or Peanut had hives.

Or something.

Peanut's lumpy.

I vaguely noticed it earlier, took him for hikes which he spent going from tree to tree, scratching his neck and sides, and then moving to scratch his butt.  And oh, the joy when he found a butt-scratchin' tree within reach of a leafy tree.  Butt scratching and leaf eating at the same time?  Peanut heaven!  During rides, he started biting at his girth.  At the end of the ride I couldn't find anything amiss, so I started to experiment with making the girth looser, etc.  However, with a squishy treeless, the girth should loosen quite a bit when I climb aboard.

He wasn't very bumpy then, at least not that I noticed.

Then there was a trim.  The trim went well!  I believe I've mentioned how the little bugger had not been picking up his feet for Kate and starting to turn into a pill, but I turned this trim into a clicker session from the very beginning and he was an angel.  He ended up pulling a rear foot away once and lost his balance when the top of a rear was being trimmed, but other than that he was spectacular.  Perfect textbook trimming patient.  Kate especially loves how, when she's done trimming the bottoms and moves to trim the tops of the fronts, he'll pick up the foot himself and sometimes start reaching for the stand.  He's always done that.  He loves the top trim.  A good stretch and he gets to watch?  What's not to love?  Although I keep telling him that he's going to get a rasp handle up his nose one day....

....but anyway.  He was lumpy on trim day.  He had large welts meandering down his side like drips, his neck was bumpy, his side was bumpy.  He didn't seem uncomfortable (after all, he was so good for the trim) so I ventured to take him for a ride.  For the first hour or so he was fine, and then the girth biting started.

It was pretty incessant.

And if I realized what was going on, Mona would have worn two saddles again.

When I finally got him back to the barn (we turned around at the first turn after he started biting), Rick yanked the saddle off and found large welts behind his girth and billets.  After I got the bridle off, before I could get his halter on, he reached back and scratched scratched scratched at them with his teeth.  Poor dear.

I realized later that day that I had started using a new fly spray on him this summer - a summer filled with very little activity.  He has reacted to one brand of fly spray before (I use the non-chemical ones... not a fan of something that bears dire warnings about the possibility of getting on my skin yet I'm supposed to coat my horse in it), and so I knew that he was sensitive to something in some sprays.  It has been many years, though - probably close to 6 or 7 since it happened.  But that day, being trim day, he got a sprayed a lot.  He needed to stand still, plus the non-chemical sprays don't do all that much.

Monday after work I gave him a bath and sprayed him up with all of the fruity Equus stuff that I know he's fine with.

Tuesday he's looking better.

Sunday he looked even better.

I don't know if he's out of the woods, but here's hoping.  I haven't had the courage to ride again yet.