Making the Best of It

Can you believe it? The snow melted. The sun shone bright and the sky was a sapphire blue. It was even warm enough for me to don a tank top hit the field for a ride.

Oh goodness, I guess that was just a mirage.

My horse might as well be stalled right now, as much standing around as he is doing. But I don't blame him. After trekking around his pasture on Friday, I realized how difficult it is to get around. The couple feet of snow Paint Girl got at her place has slowly melted down and condensed to an almost solid 5" of crusted snow. Under that is damp mud or ice. Covered in horse poo and scrap hay. I did my best to clean it up and break up ice chunks, but until a bigger thaw, it is what it is.

I am impressed with My Boy's ability to pick his way through the mess. He walks tenderly and slow on the unstable or icy spots. Unless he's running towards his grain bucket!

My Boy has a favorite tree he likes to stand under. Paint Girl's mares currently have access to the run between his and their pastures, so Fritzy, the black and white Paint mare, has been practicing some herd dynamics and standing next to the fence where My Boy often is.

I took some of the shavings out of My Boy's turnout shed and spread them around the tree base. It helped with some of the snow and slush and gave him at least a dry place to stand. At least until the rain begins.

Here he is investigating the new footing. He's probably confused as to why it's not white!

I looked out the window Saturday morning and caught him napping (actually laying down at one point) on this spot so I know my spotted pill appreciated my effort.

I've had to succumb to simply hand-walking my horse in these conditions. Walking was even more treacherous for me as it was icy, but those Muck boots sure have a decent grip, I didn't slip once! I walked my horse around on the gravel driveway and through the yard of snow, letting him graze a bit and stretch his legs. As I said, despite having a whole pasture to roam, with this current snowy footing my horse will stand in one spot all day if there is no reason for him to mosey along (meaning, no food or green grass in sight.)

It is finally supposed to warm up a bit this week. I debated on whether to take off his turnout blanket, which will probably get quite wet and mucky around the fringes as he rolls in melting mucky snow. I opted to leave it on for the week. I'll reevaluate next weekend. One thing I don't love about having a blanketed horse is pulling off the blanket and voila~ a completely clean horse!

Vacation is officially over and I'm back to work today. I love me some winter snow, but I have never looked forward to spring more as I do now!