Spring Time Craziness

This weather is crazy. A week ago I stayed home from the paying job because they talked about a bad storm (rain turning into freezing rain turning into snow...and lots of it). I ended up sending my parents home (it was Grandma and Grandpa Day!) and what normally takes a half an hour for them to get home, took an hour (it was that bad). I'd prepared the horses so almost everyone was wearing blankets.


I ended up leaving the blankets on after that storm because every time I thought about taking them off, I'd get out to do chores late and it would be chilly. I'd rather not pull blankets going into the evening. I want them to have time to fluff up their coat and get warm before I start messing with them.


Well, it's a good thing I left those blankets on. I knew we were supposed to get something on Saturday but I had no idea how much or even if it was rain or snow. I've been avoiding listening to the weather and I think that's a bad idea. But Saturday morning we ended up going to my parents for some family quality time. Early afternoon it started to snow so we figured we'd better head out. We weren't half way home (only 15 minutes into the drive) and it was snowing like crazy... enough that the roads were completely covered with a few inches of snow!


We finally made it home and I started in on my chores. I scooped the sidewalk and when I turned around to enjoy my handywork, the sidewalk was already covered in snow. It was snowing that fast! I'd say about an inch an hour.


When I pulled the hard keepers in for their grain, they had a hefty amount of snow on their backs. I was worried that the snow would melt and make their blankets soggy but everyone stayed dry. I did end up pulling the mares and Junior in to stalls for the night. I was worried that Rabbit would be sore. She's still off and wearing a blanket probably doesn't help with the sore muscles. Also standing around in boggy mud is not good for her. So I let them stay stalled and pulled Rabbit's blanket. Her blanket was a soppy mess, dripping water but she was happy as she can be (which isn't all that happy). But she was dry and content to stay in her stall.


In the end, we got eight inches of snow on Saturday! Luckily the ground has thawed so most of the moisture is soaking into the earth. I wont' complain about the snow, it's moisture and hopefully will give our pasture a jump start for this year.


And wouldn't you know, we are getting rain again! I decided that I would blanket Rabbit and Junior. It's too warm for blankets but their pen gets the brunt of any wind, unless it straight out of the west. And they were talking wind out of the north, north east. Any wind of the east is damp and cold. They were also talking rain and I didn't want them to get chilled. Their pen is the only one without a shelter so I do what I think is best to keep them happy. Their pen is turning into a boggy, boot sucking muck hole. But I figured if Rabbit wanted to lie down, she'd at least have a layer between her and the wet mud. She's still pretty sore on that front foot and all over. Hopefully I can pull her and let her stand on some solid ground to make things better. It's so hard to know what to do with her at this point. Keep giving her supplements and go from there I guess.


But we are supposed to get rain for the next day or two so we'll see. I didn't blanket anyone else, although I probably should have thrown something on Rain.


I wish each horse had a second blanket. One heavy one, one light weight one, and possibly a rain sheet for days like today. But at this point, I guess I'll be happy to make sure that everyone has a blanket. The stronger horses don't necessarily need blankets but the hard keepers/delicate flowers definitely do. And I wish they had multiple blankets for this weird weather.


Spring is definitely here.


Oh, and the 8 inches of snow we got on Saturday was almost all gone by Monday and was completely gone by Tuesday. How crazy is that?!