You Got It : January 2014

Winter always bothers me, not that there is anything I can really do about it, it still gets to me.

Being that I didn't bring Shadow home until July, I'm feeling like it came too soon and can't help but feel like by the time spring gets here, we're going to be starting all over.

Snow: Bonni and I spent the night at the barn (in the house on the property) to keep an eye on things since it was supposed to be bad. We only have a shed row barn with three stalls. One of them being Shadow's. That leaves 3 of our 6 horses stuck outside. I felt so bad for them even though they all have their own LARGE sheds, they chose to stand outside apparently.

Feeding time in the am all the outside guys came over with icicles on their whiskers and eyelashes and snow stuck to their necks while the 3 inside munched away happily. Dry and warm.

We did a lot of shoveling and a lot of salting and made sure everyone had plenty of hay. As I stood there looking at this snow and Shadow (who couldn't be more content) I felt like it was never going to leave!

I stayed home from work Friday because driving conditions were horrible, then we left for our trip to hunter mountain for the weekend. That was an interesting drive for sure. Winter sports are not my favorite by any means and I'm not even really that good at snowboarding. haha All I kept saying was I don't know how to use my muscles for anything other than riding, this really hurts!

The more time I spent on that mountain the more I wished spring would hurry it's way here. Monday came and washed away all the snow and then it went down to about -21 degrees here Tuesday with the wind chills. My hours have been cut at work so at about 3:30 yesterday I ran out to double blanket Shadow who was happily tucked away in his stall with both doors closed to keep out the blistering wind.

It warms my heart to see his pleasant face when I open those doors. The look in his eyes now compared to when I brought him home is like a completely different horse. I spoke to my friends mom again who is the pet psychic I mentioned in a past post. She does a series on you tube and she would like to put him in it. I figured why not? I'm not a firm believer but if it will help her, I don't mind. She keeps telling me he loves me so much and thanks me for "saving" him so to speak. We put a few things together and she said it seems as though he was in and out of SRF a few times and nobody ever looked after him the way we do. It's always nice to hear, whether it be the truth or not. haha

The ground was completely rock solid yesterday, as to be expected. Too hard for me to push my barefooted standardbred around, it hurt my feet with shoes on. This weekend is supposed to be 58 degrees on Saturday and 51 degrees on Sunday, but of course rain both days! No riding, but at least the ground will thaw then, since today is still only 17 degrees (5 with the windchill).

Hopefully the winter improves from here so I can get at least one day of riding a week. (a long shot, I know.)

I hope to buy a trailer come spring time and get out a little, to see Jess or get to some shows for the experience. Shadow needs to be desensitized a little bit. He's very excitable in a new situation, nothing crazy, but the experience never hurt anyone, right?

Sorry for the miserable post! I needed to vent a little about my fear of starting all over come spring. We had progressed so much, and I fear going backwards! I know it won't be too terrible, but I could really do without the lurching trot, and I pray it doesn't come back with all this time off work! >.<