I woke to wind whistling around the corners of the house and began to fret. Total whiteout conditions limited my view up and down the street which appeared to have not been plowed in hours. I made coffee and began worrying about getting out to the horses. We began shoveling, battling the winds as we tossed it over shoulder-high embankments. The snow fell at rapid rate, swirling back over the shoveled areas. We finally reached the barn by 12:30 and turned the horses out, first thing.
This blizzard dumped at least 25 inches, if not more, here in our corner of Maine. Some of the drifts were thigh high. We even had to dig a trench for the horses to get out into the pasture. Mother Nature sculpted some lovely drifts with spindrift swirling everywhere. The horses were stumped at first--only a narrow chute ran along side the fence with a belly-deep drift barring them in. Finally Ruffy took the plunge and led them down the hill.
By the time we finished shoveling a "cul-de-sac" for the horses, mucked out the stalls, broken the ice from the buckets, and began heating water for their mash, it was after 3:00. Encrusted in snow and ice, we didn't have to call too many times before they were at the top of hill, eager to come in out of the storm. Poor Harley had snow stuck to his eyelashes!
Once we removed excess snow and icicles, yes icicles hanging from their chin hairs, a nice nosh of alfalfa hay and beet pulp/rice bran mash was in order. Patient Ruffy waited for John to even groom the ice from her tail. But of course, she was rewarded with a carrot!
Tomorrow--more digging as I'm sure the cul-de-sac will fill in over night. And then back to work...
I'd rather be riding in the new snow! Maybe skijoring by the weekend?
I love the galloping through the snow photo!
ReplyDeleteI hope you're all surviving the awful weather.
Another foot of snow today! No more room to put the stuff in my driveway--but will make for fun riding.
DeleteHOW GORGEOUS!!! I loved this post and that does sound like a LOT of snow! I wanted it and we finally got it today. Aren't the horses so beautiful in the snow? I love that when I write about the snow, you are the one who knows exactly what I am talking about! I know the season is challenging, but the rewards are very great in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteIf you are interested, I would love to "friend" you on Facebook. No pressure of course, I will respect all Facebook privacy if it is only for your close friends. I would get great enjoyment from your posts, I am thinking.
Sure, friend me on FB--I pretty much keep it all "horsey" people (rescues, OTTB groups, college riding team) and family. I don't say a lot, but do put up pics there before I get blog posts written. Need more snow days to catch up. :) I'm on FB as Lisa Melone.
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