Buckled Down

Back in October, our mule had surgery to remove a skin tumor from his shoulder. To keep muck and insects and other general ickiness away from his sutures during recovery and stall rest, I bought him a bright red sleazy blanket so he'd feel like Superman and heal quickly. Being the rambunctious boy that he is, and being confined to a stall (which he does not take kindly to), I had a suspicion that the poor blanket wouldn't last long. It had a hole in it the first night. There was a rip by the third night when I washed it for the first time. By the end of the second week, he'd managed to rip off both straps so it couldn't be buckled under his belly anymore the way it was intended. We managed to rig it up to work until he no longer needed it, but it sure didn't look like the same Superman cape I put on him when he came home from the hospital.

I had washed it and tucked it away and not really given it another thought since Z's been turned back out on pasture, until dear daughter came up with the idea to replace the plastic rings that were originally on the blanket with little metal D rings we found while we were craft shopping last week. I doubled over some 2" trim, stitched it up and sewed it to the side of the sleazy blanket. Voila!

With all of the rips and holes also repaired, the Superman cape is ready for use once again - but hopefully never for the same reason as it was originally purchased.