Oh give me a home, where my horses can roam...

Merry Christmas from our gang to yours!

A solid week of rain, snow, and ice left me feeling miserable all week. The poor horses, hovering in their new shelter, venturing out for bites of hay, gladly ran into the barn at dinnertime. I hope we're not in for a winter of nothing but wet snow, rain, and mud. How dreary!

Our snow has disappeared, except for a few remaining chunks--big scary chunks to scare silly Thoroughbreds--by the side of the road. We have only been able to ride a couple of times with the uncooperative weather, making for pogo-stick ponies! When things get a bit out of hand, I take the lead, literally on foot, proving to Harley that everything truly is safe out there.

The Winter Solstice has passed, so I can start adding those extra minutes of daylight onto my punch list of chores I need to get done. My goal over the holiday week is to finish painting the bedroom. Then I can move on to the kitchen doors, all which need a refresher coat! I've been advised that we will need to sell the house before we can successfully put in an offer on anything--the competition is too stiff!. This scares me--no house or barn to call my own. I even considered renting a place, complete with a barn, but someone beat me to it--that's the story of my life these days. So I'm trying to keep positive and pray our "farmette" will become a reality in the new year.

As long as our horses remain healthy (Ruffy--2 abrasions, Harley--1 choking incident, Rolex--0, tough as nails), as do we, I know we can slog though another winter with traveling to and fro for our horse care. Better days are coming.

The horses all seem to be doing well on their hay, balancer, and beet pulp/rice bran mash diet. I see dapples in their winter coats, and if they were clipped, I imagine those dapples would really stand out. The high quality hay is consumed, with very little wasted, a sign of how much it's enjoyed by our gang!

With no snow, and lots of soft muddy ground, we've been paying careful attention to hoof care. At least if the footing is soft, I don't have to bother with booting Harley. The down side is they come in, covered in mud. Snow baths are so much nicer!

Who knows, we might have an early spring and see grass by April?