What's Up Wednesday

 

I feel like a lifetime has passed since last Wednesday. December is a RIDE isn't it?! Aside from the usual duties at home, I've attended three holiday band concerts for my nieces, a holiday party at last year's winter barn, and I got a new part time job! Also found some time to finish holiday shopping, wrap all the presents, and the holiday cards are heading to the mailbox in the morning (I'm a little late on those). So yeah, it's been busy. Add to that a snow storm and my helper out sick Monday.... Vacation can't come soon enough!

Okay, let's back things up a little. Last week was really cold around here, but I did still manage to ride pretty much every day. Even of some of the days were walk only rides. I'll take it, better than nothing! Then Saturday was actually quite nice. I was a little late getting chores done so rides were a little short, but we were able to do all the things. Might be the last time I get to canter for awhile! Haha! 

It was supposed to end at 10am (this photo was around 8) 
but it kept going until mid afternoon. 

And then Sunday. We were supposed to get a little snow. 2-4" they said. They were incorrect. We got about 6". Enough for the plow guy to come. Which thank goodness I found one before this storm happened! I can't tell you how difficult it was to find someone. But I did, so should be all set for the season with him. 

Tools of the trade on a snowy day

As much as I dislike the snow, the horses seem to enjoy it. Well. The boys do. Shiny doesn't seem to have an opinion really. The boys both like to prance through the snow. Eros does the big trot and Al gets full on zoomies. But Al also really loves to eat the snow, and wandered around clearing all the snow off all the jumps. It was pretty cute. 

I had briefly considered riding them in the snow after chores, but the wind started to pick up and honestly I was pretty frozen. So they enjoyed a few days off after the snow. 

My worker had texted me Friday evening that he came down with a fever and I should disinfect the barn... Yeah, after I had already touched everything he touched.... But I did anyway, better safe than sorry! So Sunday evening I set an early alarm in case he was still unwell and couldn't come to work. Which good thing I did that because he called out at 6am. Totally understandable, if you're sick I don't want all the cooties in the barn anyway. But I will say, he probably had an inkling Sunday that he needed another day... could have let me know the night before. The worst part about the extra day of chores, wasn't the chores at all. It was the fact that when I went out to the barn at 7 it was 8 degrees. Not feels like 8. Actually 8. Miserable! I puttered a bit hoping the sun would warm things up a little before I put the horses out. It kind of did... It was 11 when they all got out around 8:30. They really don't seem to mind the cold too much though. They were content out there while I cleaned up inside. Since it was Monday it was their usual day off. But I wouldn't have gotten on anyway with it being so stupid cold. 

Tuesday was a little better. It got almost to 30, and the sun was out part of the day. But I opted to wait one more day to ride because starting today, we're getting temps in the 40's!! Yay! But Tuesday everyone got a good grooming, and I finally got around to conditioning and brushing out their tails. I don't really comb them out much in the summer because they're always swishing and knotting them up. Too much chance to pull hairs with all those tangles. So unless we're showing, I just leave them be. But come winter I like to keep them brushed and conditioned. I've been slacking though, it was definitely time!

Today I finally climbed aboard! I made a pretty big error last time we got shoes and forgot to get winter shoes put on, so despite it being downright warm out, we stuck to tack walking. They were all getting snow balls, Eros the worst of all because he's the only one with front shoes on. I'm not out to get anyone hurt, so we just all had nice meanders through what's left of the snow. They'll be due soon, so we'll get proper footwear then. Well. Eros will all around and Al will behind. All the rest of our feet are barefoot. 

Oddly enough, Al was the smartest in the snow. He walked carefully and calmly and only had a snowball issue once that I can think of. The other two kind of got a little panicky about the snowballs. But they did figure it out eventually. Tomorrow is another nice day, so we'll probably do more of the same. Friday will definitely be a day off for the horses though. We're supposed to get a crazy rain storm with 50mph winds... And then it will probably all freeze over night. So ice. Ice everywhere. Then it will warm up a little again, so I dunno. We'll see what we end up with. 

We're supposed to do our family Chanukah party Friday night, but most everyone else has been sick, so we may postpone that until next week. I wouldn't mind. Germs are gross.

And the last little bit of news. I am officially working very part time for Turnout HQ! I would love to interact with you all over there, so check it out if you haven't already!

How's the weather where you are? Is winter doing it's thing super early for you too? Or is it just here because I decided to stay home this winter? I'm kind of thinking it might be the second one...