Snow Kidding

Shoveling Supervisor

Well, folks, the PONY'TUDE crew survived the Great Blizzard of 2016!

With about 30" of snow total, it was one of the biggest storms I've ever seen in my lifetime. I am so thankful that we never lost electricity, and that even in the worst of it one of us was always able to get to the barn to care for the horses.

That large hump you see behind Clarence the Civic? That's my husband's car. YEAH.

After a day spent digging and pulling our vehicles out of the snow, Michael and I headed over to the barn for some pony playtime. We somehow found an overturned water tank buried somewhere in the snow, hopped on Dino and Sully bareback, and went for a romp in the pasture!

SNOW FUN!

The boys thought all this was great fun, and I was really impressed that Michael managed to stay on for a bit of trotting, and didn't eat it even when Sully unexpectedly launched out of a deep snow bank.

There was quite a bit of hysterical laughter as I tried to stay on Dino as we trotted around - I had to grab mane and pretend I was riding a Grand Prix dressage horse in an attempt to stay with him! I love the crazy suspension that the horses get when they go through deep snow, it's so entertaining.

Best Pony Ever

We walked all the way down to the bottom of the hill and then back up, the horses marching with their ears pricked the whole time, and everyone just having a great deal of fun! By the time we got back up to the barn, Michael had reached his limit of bareback riding for the day, so we hopped off and started untacking.

The world as seen from behind Sully's ears

Lo and behold, at that very moment Windows' mom arrived to play! So I hopped back on my mighty arctic steed and we went back for more!

She hadn't ridden Windows bareback in years, (the last time did not end well) and wasn't sure how things would go, but soon she was trotting around and giggling like a maniac with me! Windows wasn't so sure about this whole bareback-riding-through-3ft-of-snow thing, but he was such a good sport and played along with our silliness.

We've got the giggles

We eventually wandered down to the bottom of the pasture, and emboldened by our adventures up to this point, my friend wanted to trot all the way up the hill.

Seeing as how I had to make a Herculean attempt to stay on while trotting for about ten strides at a time, I did not think this was a good idea.

We did it anyway. Dino thought it was THE BEST THING EVER. I had no brakes. There was no slow jog through the snow, it was FULL SPEED AHEAD!

We giggled all the way up, and I did not fall off! My seat is, surprisingly, better than I thought it was.

Watch with sound on for giggling and singing!

Of course we had to do it AGAIN!

Orchard Hill Farm being the paragon of safety, we totally forgot that Sully was now turned out in the dry lot, with gates open to the pasture we were riding in.

Whoops.

By the time we had gotten to the bottom of the pasture, Sully had noticed that both of his Bestest Buddies were far, far away, and about to have fun without him. This just would not do, so Sully GALLOPED down the hill to us.

Turns out you can't hear a galloping horse when they are galloping through 2.5 feet of snow, and Sully was making a beeline straight for Dino, unbeknownst to me. This offended my steed, who responded in kind by spooking and galloping away down the hill.

I somehow stuck this maneuver, and managed to pull up. Dino was now totally jazzed and thought that blasting back up the hill to the barn sounded like a GREAT idea.

However, in the interest of nobody dying, we decided to walk as sedately as possible back up. This was made more difficult by Sully prancing and running around us. Dino felt like he was about to explode at any moment, Windows was a champ, but we all made it back unscathed.

The Three Amigos!

All in all, it was a fantastically fun afternoon spent playing in the snow! I highly recommend it!