it’s still cold

And I’m finding myself hugely unmotivated to ride because of it! I feel bad. I could use Win’s funky shoulder as an excuse for him, but my girl should be progressing and she isn’t. I also haven’t had a lesson in forever, so I’m cancelling shows left and right. This also means my next show is IHSA regionals, so I’d better get my butt in the saddle!!

On the upside, I finally bought a harness!! That should give me something fun to do! It’s, um, a bit big (surprise? no), but once I punch some holes it should work great! I don’t have a cart yet, but since the pony doesn’t really even ground drive yet, I figure I’ve got some time!! Doesn’t my girl look adorable in her new tack?

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a whole new kind of cold

Air temp of -7 degrees, with a windchill of -28. Wind gusts in excess of 40 miles per hour. For those fortunate enough to live in, say, Arizona, that’s REALLY COLD. The kind of cold that sucks the air right out of you. And that wind – it blows snow around that’s not even there. It looks like it’s a blizzard, but there’s not actually any snow falling DOWN (yes, that’s right, it’s falling UP). The snow blowing over the roads leave everything slick and icey. The road commisssions salt, but that just melts the ice which quickly refreezes.

This is the third day in a row we’ve had of this wonderful weather, and it’s supposed to be here for another 4-6 days, at least.

The horses have been inside. We don’t have a windblock in the pastures. The wind blows all the hay away. And the blowing snow is a quick way to frost bite. My girl has big ears, but I’d prefer not to shrink them 😉 So, they’ve been in for three days now. I’ve been going out to let them run around the indoor, which they do quite happily. Lots of bucking, which I’m not very encouraged to see out of my girl!! No, no, don’t strengthen that hind end until AFTER you’re broke! But that only lasts for a few minutes – don’t want to get them sweaty since there’s no good way to cool them out. And it’s hard to breathe in that cold of air. But hopefully this will be enough to keep them from colicing. Quite the Catch-22.

Where’s my dang global warming?!?

there is a very fine line between ‘hobby’ and ‘mental illness.’

Dave Barry said so, so it must be true 🙂

But I’ve been thinking about that a lot over the past week, and the other night three of us at the barn confirmed it. Road conditions were such that we all showed up late, but fortunately all of us showed up to laugh about it.

It is about a half an hour drive from my house to the barn. A decent hike, but not too bad on most nights. But not the last trip out. I backed out of my driveway, turned into the street, put it into drive, and proceeded to spin my tires and and fail to turn the rest of the way around. Hmm…should be an interesting trip!! I finally got my car straight and forward (ha!), and headed on out. Sure enough, the roads were horrible. Slick and snow covered, I couldn’t see where the road was, and could barely steer around the corners even if I did. It wasn’t much better on the highway, where my speed averaged 25 miles per hour. The blowing snow was still coming down, and visibility was about nil. I laughed out loud as somebody sped by me at about 90 in the left lane – only to spin off into the ditch later on (they were okay, for the record). Roads and visibility continued to get worse, and I finally made it to the barn more than an hour after I left. I then bundled up in my seven layers of warmth (You think I’m kidding!! I’ve got it down to a science, but with Under Armour Cold Gear, long sleeve t-shirt, t-shirt, sweatshirt, fleece jacket, down vest, and Carhartts, I can keep my core warm), and tiptoed my way from the car to the barn. I almost slipped twice (I’m surprisingly NOT nimble on my feet while wearing two pairs of pants, three pairs of socks, and muck boots), but finally made it to the door. Phew – I made it!!

But then I walked into the dark barn, and it was all quiet except for the munching of hay. I made my way down to Snow’s stall, where she stopped her eating to push her nose gently to my face. I scratched her neck while she poked around for sugar. Win squeezed his nose between stall bars so he wasn’t left out. And the three of us huddled in the cold dark for a few moments.

Eventually, I broke the silence and turned on the lights. Others showed up, also wearing seven layers apiece. And then we each had a nice ride, accentuated by foot warmers sliding back and forth in our boots. We compared notes on road conditions and crazy drivers. We commented on how we MUST be insane. And then I gave my girl one last pat before braving the elements again.

It’s a fine line, but I’m happy to walk it 😉