Pre-Emptive Strike Against Cold

We are having some crazy weather around here lately. Sure makes me wonder what’s going on.

On Friday, we had temps in the upper 30s. It was fantastic.  But about the time I was heading home, the skies opened up and it started to rain. That’s right, rain in January! At least the temps didn’t drop while it was raining but in the evening the temps did drop and made everything a sheet of ice. We are now dealing with ice everywhere (except, surprisingly in the horses’ pens). The ice is making chores a lot more difficult (at least hauling water). I’m not a fan of hauling water but now with the added adventure of ice underfoot, I’m really struggling to keep the mares’ water tank full. It’s going to be an interesting remainder to winter.

Saturday was nice. I can handle temps like that. Luckily the sun came out so we were able to warm up just a bit but come Sunday, look out! When I went out to do chores Sunday morning, the temps were in the 30s. It was absolutely gorgeous out. I knew that the weather was supposed to turn bad later in the day so I wanted to do a pre-emptive strike and get the stalls ready so that I wouldn’t have to fight crabby horses that wanted to steal all the hay and push to get into the barn. I must have taken an extra hour to get everything done Sunday morning but I was ready for whenever the cold front was supposed to blow through.

After I went in, Mike went out to work on the stock trailer. The lights on the driver’s side all blew out (except the tail light) so he’s fixing that for me. Unfortunately, by the time he started working on the trailer, the cold front was starting to blow through. By the time I went to drill team practice two hours later, the temps had really plummeted. We lucked out and missed the majority of the snow (and the blizzard warning). And in fact, the local school didn’t even cancel or postpone classes for today. There were a few times that I looked out the window and noticed whiteout conditions, but we missed the really terrible weather.

When I got home from practice, I figured I’d better hurry up and get my chores done. I was so glad I’d thought ahead to get everything ready (I even got hay ready for Monday night’s cold temps!) I wasn’t late in getting to chores but the horses were not happy having to be out in this weather (even though they were all standing in the leanto off the barn!)

I filled water buckets and got the mares ready. I decided that with the wind chills as bad as the weatherman was predicting, that I’d throw a blanket on Mayhem. This would be the second time she’d ever worn a blanket and she was a doll for it. I’m hoping that with me fiddling with her, that we can progress to saddle training soon. Both Rabbit and Mayhem were ready to go into their warm stalls out of the wind. I was worried that the horses might fall by the hay shed when I led them into the stalls. There’s an icebank now and it felt like we were walking on a sheet of ice. You know it’s slippery when you see bird tracks in the snow, and then feather printers in the snow as well. Guess the little sparrow was making bird angels. I finally got everyone into the hay shed stalls and progressed to the barn stalls.

I think I was pretty darn lucky last night to not get hurt. The horses were all riled up by the time I finally got to putting them into the stalls. Dude wouldn’t listen and I think he crow hopped with me right behind him. I could very well have gotten seriously kicked. That darn gelding! Bo tried to run me over so I gave up and let him into his stall early. At least he knows exactly where to go and not bother checking out the other stalls for grain. I was trying to get some of the other horses into the barn (fighting Ivan off from going in until I was ready for him). But Zeke tried to run me over (as did Bo). I need to find my driving whip. The horses respect me a bit more when I’m on the ground and have a driving whip in hand.  But yesterday was exceptionally bad because they all wanted in to their stall and get their evening grain.

When I finally got in from chores I looked on the radar. It said that the temp was 4 degrees and that it was a 20 below wind chill. Tonight is supposed to be just as bad or at least I think so. I’m so glad that I pulled extra hay and piled it up for tonight’s feeding. All I have to do is throw the hay that’s already in the barn into the stalls so I don’t have to fight the horses and their bad attitudes. All I have to do is smash out the ice in their buckets and I’m ready for another cold night.

At least we aren’t dealing with another polar vortex. Although, the weatherman did say that we would be below zero for 30+ hours. I’m now wishing that I would have thrown out a bit more hay this morning. I guess I’ll have to rush outright away when I get home and get everyone into their stalls. The high today is three below. That shouldn’t be allowed. I think the low for tonight is 15 below. But at least we’ll start on a warmup.

This cold weather is slowing down my progress with Maverick. He has such terrible manners when it comes to picking up his feet so I’m working on that. If I want to use him like I do, he’ll need to be a bit more respectful of a few things and I want to take care of those now before riding season sets in. If it ever warms up, I may start messing with Mayhem and getting her used to being saddled. I won’t train her to ride, but if I can get her used to being saddled and bridled, then maybe her training will go more quickly.

There’s always something to look forward to even during these cold days.