Winter Weather Has Arrived

I only caught a few minutes of the weather yesterday but got the gist of what’s to come. Luckily we aren’t going to see the worst of the storm. But knowing that we are to get snow, rain, and freezing rain I wanted to get everyone situated last night in preparation for the bad weather today.

In looking at the weather this morning, we are now to get .50-1 inches of rain with .10-.25 of freezing rain and 2 inches or less of snow. What does that mean? Lots of very wet and very grumpy horses. I was late in getting home and had to scurry out to get normal chores done and proceeded to prep for this winter storm. Oh sure, we are only in a Winter Weather Advisory but with 18 horses and half of them old or with some type of ailment, I had my work cut out for me.

I decided I’d risk leaving Queen and Flower out in their pen for the night in hopes that the rain would hold off for a little while. I did risk life and limb to change out Queen’s blanket. I lost her normal blanket in the pile of blankets in the barn until last night while I was going through the piles to find ones for Babe, Thor, Rain, and Bo. I know it’s supposed to be warm later today but I can’t risk those ladies and gentlemen getting wet as they are more prone to getting chilled.

Queen was happy to be rid of the red canvas blanket but gave me the stink eye and pinned ears when I put on her soft blue blanket. But it was worth it knowing if it started raining in the middle of the night that she would be dry. Flower was still wrapped up in her blanket as she’s still lying down (will post about her hoof later).

I wanted to get blankets on Babe and Thor. Those two are such champs. Just throw a little bit of food and they totally ignore me while I fumbled with the buckles and getting everything snug. I know Thor isn’t happy not having Queen around and neither is Babe. But Babe and Thor are adapting to each other. I saw Thor give Babe what for. I expect Thor thinks he’s still in charge and has to tell Babe where to go. Babe on the other hand would prefer to be left alone to dine on the round bale and not be bossed around by some dumb gelding!

I decided I’d better blanket Bo too. He’s starting losing a little bit of weight. He doesn’t seem to be affected by the cold weather but I don’t want to take any chances. She’s such a dream. He stood perfectly still while I fumbled with his blanket. I had such high hopes of showing him this summer but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen now. But maybe this year will be a slow progress back into shape for next year’s showing season. I want to give him time to enjoy the good things in life. He’ll have had a year off to gain all the weight back and now we can work on getting him toned up and looking spectacular.

I also decided to blanket Rain. I knew I couldn’t get him into the barn so I coaxed him in to the hay barn. It didn’t take much coaxing. He ignored me while he snitched alfalfa. Rain has been trying to stay out of the wind as much as possible. Hopefully the blanket will help cut down on the wind. I thought we were supposed to get some major wind today but now it sounds like the really bad wind is coming tomorrow. At least Rain will be snug and toasty warm in his blanket. And when I say snug and warm, he’ll probably be roasting but at least he’ll be dry.

I also decided to take the red canvas blanket I’d been using on Queen and put it on Rabbit. I had to move them to a different pen and I hate where they are at but have no other option. I am going to do some brainstorming to see if I can’t move some of the corral panels around to a different location. Luckily Rabbit is pretty good about being blanketed. Once she was haltered and tied, she stood there with no problems. Unfortunately the blanket doesn’t fit her very well. She had the “Fat mare in a little blanket” theme going on. But she didn’t seem to complain. At least nothing like what Queen does.

This morning when I stepped out of the house just before 5:30am, I was expecting rain. Instead we had just a little bit of snow. At least everyone was already blanketed so I didn’t have to rush around in the dark morning trying to get everything situated.

I decided that I would put Flower and Queen in the barn for the day. With the chance of snow, freezing rain, and rain, I wanted to make sure that Flower had a dry place to lie down and rest for a little while. This way they are out of all the wind and I don’t have to worry about them.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the weather doesn’t get too bad. Luckily we aren’t in the blizzard warning. I’m sure I’ll come home to some grumpy horses this afternoon.