Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WINTER WONDERLAND.

Just kidding. It's all covered in ice.

I actually got a ride in on Saturday morning despite the rather water-logged arena, and Dino worked GREAT, surprisingly enough. I touched-up his clip and extended it over his shoulders and into his girth area, more of an Irish clip than a strip clip, and after standing around on the crossties for an hour/not getting to go out with his buddies, he was fidgety as all get-out. Homeboy practically ran out of the barn once we were all tacked up.

Dino was highly motivated. Our walk warm-up, which is usually rather extensive, consisted of one loop around the arena in each direction, and then I just moved him right into trot work so I wouldn't lose any momentum. It was nice to have him a little bit "up" so that I could just gently shape his body without having to go to great lengths to establish a forward pace first. There were several large bodies of water in the ring, so I just worked on some big loopy turns, circles, changes of direction, etc., and focused on smoothly changing his bend and keeping him working over his back as we went around. I didn't do a ton of canter work, just a few transitions, again trying to keep them nice and smooth and keep Dino using himself nicely. He did a good job, and it was hilarious to hear him snorting with every stride like he was some sort of fire-breathing thoroughbred.

Yesterday it snowed, which was actually kind of nice, and I didn't mind doing the barn in it too much. Dino was still feeling like a sassy-pants, and actually trotted around in turnout and shook his head when I went to bring him and Hollywood in.

But then the snow turned into freezing rain.

And it created a simply delightful layer of ice over everything.

And it's not going to get above freezing again until Saturday.

This is insanely frustrating. I feel like it's going to be a struggle this winter just to maintain the status quo, forget actually improving anything. I found a barn nearby that's hosting some indoor schooling dressage shows during the winter, which I would LOVE to do, but I just don't know if I'm going to be able to put in the hours in order to make that feasible.

Winter. Go away. No one likes you.