Blankets, blankets, and more blankets

It’s a good thing I didn’t hit snooze one extra time. I was hoofing it to get everything done this morning even with getting up earlier than normal (ok, getting up when I should be getting up). I’m glad that I had the stalls ready the night before, otherwise chores would have taken over two hours to finish last night. As it was, we walked through the door two hours almost on the dot after getting everyone settled for the long night. Let me just say, I am not fond of this cold weather. Everyone seemed pretty chipper last night doing chores.

I pulled the more delicate flowers into the barn and then went about blanketing everyone else (who I had blankets for). I wish I would have had the good sense to try on blankets this past weekend when the weather was nice. I had to do some fast adjusting last night to get some of the blankets right. Luckily Sam’s old blanket fits Thor almost to a T. I was pretty shocked. Those two have such different body shapes/sizes but Sam’s blanket works perfectly for Thor, so now it’s Thor’s blanket. Thor was pretty content to eat his alfalfa while I messed with the blanket. Babe gave me some trouble because I couldn’t get the front chest buckles buckled. She wouldn’t lift her head from her alfalfa, the stinker! I also put a blanket on Brego since he wasn’t going into the barn. He’s a little bit thinner skinned but he’s young. He does like to hang out in the new leanto. I figured he’d be happier with a blanket and hanging outside with Ivan than between two grumpy horses in the barn. I wasn’t sure how well blanketing Brego would go. I haven’t really done too much with him in the form of handling, saddling, blanketing, etc. But he took it like a pro. I think he knew what I was trying to do.

This morning when I went out to do chores, I was surprised that the wind wasn’t more fierce. But the temps were below zero and I guess with just a little bit of a breeze we were dealing with twenty below zero wind chills. I guess I was rushing around so much that I didn’t feel the cold too much. I did manage to get a different blanket on Flower. She is definitely NOT a 72. I’ll have to figure out a different blanket for her but I didn’t want her to go without for today’s cold weather. Bo is also NOT a 72. I put the brand new blanket on him this morning too. I love trying out new blankets but I wish I would have had more time to play. Zeke got his old blanket with the tail flap that’s half ripped off. Hopefully Maverick leaves it alone. I put Jim in Rain’s green blanket after I fixed the belly clip. I should have switched Jim and Rain’s blankets so that Rain could be better covered but he’d been wearing his old heavy canvas blanket for the past couple days so I didn’t want to do any swapping since rain was warm. I don’t like the canvas blanket as well since it doesn’t protect as much of the belly but it’s sure heavy and that’s what Rain needs right now. I also threw the old red canvas blanket on Rabbit. I wasn’t sure how well she would handle the blanket but she wore one all last winter. I think she appreciated it. Queen was already tucked in her blanket and was happy to get into the barn last night. I think she just wanted her grain.

I do hate letting the horses out of the barn after putting blankets on. The horses act like it’s new horses instead of the same horses just wearing different colors. I swear they all freak out and act like I’m putting new horses into the herd. Even Mayhem got squirrely after I put the red canvas blanket on Rabbit. Luckily Rabbit wont’ take any gruff and has a fairly big bubble. She put Mayhem in her place pretty quick.

I wanted to leave everyone in blankets today because the high for today is only 1 degree above with wind chills still in the 20 below zone. I’m not too thrilled with this type of weather and I don’t think the horses are either. But I’ll rest easy knowing that they are staying warm (as long as Maverick keeps his grubby hooves of the blankets!)

Luckily the low for tonight isn’t supposed to be as cold and I don’t think they are predicting the wind chills like they were for last night and today. I still evening is so much easier to do chores in. Unfortunately, the weatherman is now calling for 100% chance of snow tomorrow. It’ll make the trek to the vet a little bit interesting. Hopefully the snow will hold off until after we get home. I would prefer to take the big trailer but I am not good at maneuvering around the vet’s parking lot; it’s pretty small as far as I’m concerned. I don’t think I can get the big trailer turned around without risking hitting a vehicle. Instead I’ll use the stock trailer and keep the blankets on. I’m not happy about it but that’s about my only option. Unfortunately the stock trailer is full. I scored a deal a couple weeks ago when someone was selling stall doors. I picked up three for less than the price of one! But we’ve never unloaded the doors and they are super heavy. I guess we’ll be unloading doors tonight.

The weatherman also said that Friday night’s temps are supposed to be about nine below zero. I have no idea about the wind chill. I took all of Friday off to go to the vet, get chores done early, and head to the Mitchell Horse Sale. I’m worried about the weather. No one is going to want to be sitting in the stands when they start the loose horses because the doors are pretty much open the entire time. Loose horses only get about 30 seconds in the ring (at the most). I guess I’ll just do chores early, put horses in the barn and head to the sale wearing layers. I hope the weatherman changes their tune but we’ll see. An evening sale with super cold temps doesn’t mean there’s much hope for those poor loose horses. I’m more than worried for them. I sure wish we were in a position to take one or two in.

I’m hoping tonight’s chores don’t take two hours to finish. With the colder temps though, I wouldn’t doubt that it takes that long. Last night as Mike and I were walking to the house after wrapping up chores, we started taking bets on how late it really was. I expect we’ll do the same thing tonight.