Winter Returns

I really must pay more attention to the weather. We ARE in the middle of winter, no matter what the Ground Hog says. I'd been enjoying our January thaw for the past few weeks and apparently I got really spoiled. So did the horses!

No blankets, no extra worrying, no snow, no nothing. It was great. In fact, the only snow that was left had been melting.

But then winter reared it's ugly head and now we are dealing with 5-6 inches of new snow, the melting snow turned into a sheet of ice (which I did fall on yesterday during chores), and sub zero temperatures. Yup, I'm ready for spring.

I guess I shouldn't complain. We didn't get that much snow. 5-6 inches is good enough to cover most of the pasture and help keep it covered and provide much needed moisture come this spring. The snow starts falling Saturday late afternoon. When I went out to do chores Saturday morning, the wind was out of the east, which is never good for the horses. So I opted to put blankets on Rabbit, Junior, and Bo (Rain wouldn't let me). By evening chores, I decided I'd fight Rain to make sure he had a blanket on. These swings in temperature are hard on him. Bo doesn't ever get a chance to go into any leantos and Rabbit and Junior's pen takes the brunt of any east wind.

I opted to stall Junior, Rabbit, and Mayhem since the wind was out of the east and have to deal with the accumulating snow. I think they were more than happy to get in out of the wind. I left the big herd out but I debating long and hard on weather I should have put some of the harder keepers in.

By Sunday morning, everyone was anxious for their breakfast. I threw out an extra bale of alfalfa because I felt bad for them having to deal with winter returning after such a nice break. By evening chores, the winds had died down and the snow had stopped falling. The snow drifts were in really weird places this time around. I guess that's what happens when you get wind out of the north or north east.

Junior had me a little panicked last night during chores. I apparently have gotten lazy with him. I've taken to putting a halter on him and simply opening the gate. He loves his grain so much that he goes straight for it. Except last night. Of course I didn't put a lead rope on him either. He started wandering but after I called for him he headed for his stall. But instead of going into his stall, he saw the open door to the hay shed (which is normally closed). I figured I better grab his grain bucket to catch him (since he's hard to catch without grain). But by the time I got to the other side of the building, he'd disappeared. I should have looked closer for his tracks. I knew the barn door was open so figured he might have wandered into the barn. Mike was out pushing snow so I thought maybe he would have stopped and gotten Junior but he kept on plowing (which made me think maybe Junior hadn't gone that way). He wasn't in the barn but the red shed doors were wide open and we have a few bales of alfalfa in there. So I tromped up the hill to see if he was in the red shed. Nope, I took a quick peek into the pasture thinking he may have wandered in just to investigate but didn't see any tracks. I should have paid more attention. I figured I'd better go back to his stall on the off chance he was there. Sure enough, there were the tracks and there was Junior. Enjoying his grain mash. He simply wanted to do a quick investigation of the place and get down to business with his grain. That'll teach me to leave the shed door open!

Mayhem seems to be going through a major growth spurt. I've always viewed her as small and petite. But in the last few months I've noticed she's really filled out and looks much thicker. I'm over feeding the back pen with Rabbit, Mayhem, and Junior.  Junior is such a hard keeper I want to make sure that he's getting food without getting pushed out. But he's so slow that I'm not sure the extra hay isn't getting snatched up by Rabbit and Mayhem. Mayhem seems to be full of herself these days and I'm wondering if she's finally filling out and growing up. I'm guessing that anyone that sees here wouldn't realize that she has a heart murmur. I'm starting to think that her heart won't affect her at all. She's full of vim and vinegar these days. I think some of that has to do with Junior.

I am so proud of Junior. He's such a passive horse but last night Mayhem came up on him and he turned around and let both hind feet fly at Mayhem. He even made contact. Now I don't normally agree with that type of rough housing, but Junior is finally confident enough to put Mayhem in her place. That makes me happy. If he can put up with Mayhem's antics and Rabbit's crankiness, maybe he can handle the herd of geldings this summer. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

But for now, we're going to hunker down and try to stay warm against the sub zero temperatures and winter returning.