What's Up Wednesday: Winter Edition

First things first, I want to thank everyone for the input on yesterday's post! Most of you all gave me the advice I would give too: have a convo with trainer. Which would be easier if we were in the same state. And also if I was better at having those talks. But yeah, we need to chat about things, she and I.

Next up, I'm sure you're all wondering how the vet visit went on Friday. Unfortunately, the "assistant trainer" misunderstood the office when scheduling, and the vet isn't coming until THIS Friday. So we are still waiting. Ok... now on to What's Up Wednesday!

The weather has been bonkers here you guys. Like one day it's in the forties and the next thing I knew, my driveway looked like this:

Ice... as far as the eye can see...

In case you're not sure, that's just ice. Everywhere. Ice. Super fun. I'm actually really glad the horses are on small paddock turnout for once. Much safer where they go out than the ring, that's for sure.
Backing up though, I actually got to ride this weekend! One of the adults at the barn wasn't coming out because she had some projects to work on at home, and offered her horse to me for Saturday. I jumped on the opportunity (after getting permission of course, don't want to get anyone in trouble!). It felt great to get some saddle time, and fun to ride a new to me horse.

That blurry one in the front is me and the loaner pony

Here's a cuter photo of his face:

Saturday wasn't too cold either, so that was nice. But it was the calm before the storm, and it was one of those that they didn't really know what was going to happen. Initially they were threatening two feet of snow. But then it set up a lot warmer, and they were saying snow, turning to freezing rain, and then regular rain. Which is more or less what happened. I was happy to have less snow that's for sure. But the problem was, we had torrential rain on top of a few inches of snow for most of Sunday morning. It was borderline temperature wise, hovering around 35 degrees. So I went out to the barn early to take care of Eros while it was still raining (more on that later). I got done there pretty early, and headed back home to groom the boys. I was in with them maybe an hour and half, and in that short amount of time, the temps dropped fast. Everything was freezing up. And by night time it was 5 degrees. Ugh. Frozen tundra. Yuck. When I got to work Monday morning it was -1 and the feels like was -13. There was ice on the INSIDE of my office windows, and the heat wasn't working right. It wasn't off, but it was quite cold in the office. Double yuck. Fortunately they had it back up and running after lunch.
Have I mentioned I hate winter? Yeah? Ok, just checking.

Anyway, back to Sunday. Everyone keeps asking me if Eros is still off, and truthfully, I didn't know for sure since we'd just been hand walking. So I decided to hop on Sunday to see what we had. It had been almost two weeks that he'd had off so it was possible he'd be feeling better.

This was only a test. Had it been an actual ride, it would have been on Instagram.

Unfortunately, he wasn't any better. I trotted for a few laps to the left, because at first he just felt stiff, but then when I changed direction it was very obvious on the turns that he still was not right. So I went back to walk. Then the "assistant trainer" asked to see him trot and she was like oh, still not right. Then in the next breath she asked me if I was sure, because he's not the soundest horse out there. I wanted to run her over. Seriously? Yes, he does come out stiff some days, but he works out of it, and this isn't stiff, it's LIMPING. Honestly. Anyway, I'm glad the vet will finally be out soon. I realize the vet coming won't fix him, but hopefully we can figure out what's actually wrong and set about trying to help it.
Not too much else going on really. The pugs took advantage of the ridiculous weather for extra snuggles:

The tall kids have been getting mini grooming sessions. They're really shedding, but I don't want to take their hair off when it's 1 degree out. So they haven't enjoyed any mega groomies. Tomorrow is supposed to be almost fifty though (and raining of course) so maybe we'll get the shedding blades out then.
And I saved the cutest for last! I ordered a couple Pony For a Ponies around holiday time with a note that they weren't gifts, so no rush. And they just arrived yesterday! I had one done of my junior hunter Bud:

And it came out ADORABLE:

And the other was of course, of Rio:

And I mean... Look at that FACE!

 Spot on, right? I love how they came out and am so excited to have little mini versions of my two heart horses.
How was your week/weekend? Do anything fun? Did you get hit with this arctic front too?