I'm Glad We Agree

Dirty nose, festive halter

Dino and I agree on a few things.

One of them is our view on windy, cold weather.

It sucks.

And Mother Nature has, for some reason, decided that winter should come early this year, and instead of easing us into sub-freezing temperatures, we've gone from 60 degree, lovely days right down to a high of 30. Plus, the way the farm is situated, breezy days result in gale force winds that threaten to blow the horses away.

It's fun, really.

Now, thankfully, I don't have the "normal" cold-weather horse problems most of you deal with. My pony doesn't get overly spunky, spooky, and bucky. Wind doesn't freak him out, and he could seriously care less about jumps blowing over and making loud crashing noises as he goes by them. He is just freakin' miserable in the cold and wind. His body gets stiff and I can feel him just scrunching himself up against the wind when we ride. Asking him for any sort of productive dressage work is pretty much a joke, so I get done what I can with him stretching long & low, maybe jump a couple little fences, and call it a day. The fact that I hate the wind and scrunch up against it, too, doesn't help make our rides any more productive.

Last night wasn't windy, but it was COLD, so I decided to just lunge the pony for a little bit in the chambon. He bucked and played a little bit on the line, which was kind of nice to see him doing, and after he loosened up Dino had a really nice stretchy, extended trot going and stretched down nicely into the canter, too. And then did his Wild Arabian Stallion impression. It was entertaining.

Some day, I will have enough money to winter somewhere warm. Or have a heated indoor. Either would be fine, really. Anyone want to make a donation?