Snow Ride

This weekend my friend, Emily, came to visit and - like almost every other time she's come up in the last six months - Mother Nature did her best to interfere with our plans. This week it was a blizzard on Thursday and Friday which left us with 4-6 inches of snow, billowing winds, and frigid temperatures with windchills below zero. Brrr! Snow always makes barn work interesting: buckets freeze, tractors won't start, and it's always more difficult to turn out when you have to trudge through half a foot of snow, but with help it isn't too bad.

Trying to stay warm Friday morning

So on Saturday morning Emily and I, crazy horse people that we are, decided to get up early and show up at the barn to lend a hand with morning chores. We were going to ride later anyway so what was another couple of hours? It was a good thing we did; they were short-staffed and with the snow that would have made for quite a long morning. It was a bit nippy out, though.

Saturday morning

After we finished working we took Charlie and Colby out for a trail ride in the snow, one of my favorite things and a long-time winter tradition for me and Em :) We went all over the place and the horses were great. We mostly walked since we couldn't see what was under the snow, but at the end decided to let them canter across the flat snow-covered fields that led home. What fun! And what good boys! The uncharacteristic 'tude Charlie had had while we were warming up was gone and we were both enjoying ourselves. 

Speaking of his attitude, I had thought at the time it might be from static electricity building up and shocking him from his quarter sheet. However, when prepping food for Saturday night I noticed that there was a half dose of unused SmartCalm Ultra in his bin. Hmmm. Now, I'm not sure how fast a change in SmartCalm dose would take effect, but I know if Charlie skipped Vitacalm I could tell. So if Charlie only got half his dose for breakfast and then was uncharacteristically jerky before our ride, is that just coincidence? I think it really shows the positive effect the SmartCalm has been having and, if so, then SmartPak, I love you! (On a sidenote, how can you screw up SmartPaks? Really?)

Anyway, I was able to have a truly wonderful ride in the end in the most gorgeous winter wonderland. Here are a few pictures; maybe next time I can get a video of us cantering across the field :)

Can't beat that view

An unlikely pair but Colby was such a good boy

Chestnut looks good against the snow