For those of you who have become bored reading my lengthy and unorganized rantings: I am sorry. I will be editing more and rambling less. Things with us are better and better each time we ride so I have less to bitch about. This is a good thing and I should celebrate that by giving meaningful updates instead of ramblings. (The ramblings don't help me much except in the way of venting, and I can do that off-line and still give YOU something to read.)
All I have to say today is that winter sucks. Coming from Minnesota, the winters in Central Ohio have not been terribly bad. In fact I often giggle at the weather guy when he uses terms like "arctic chill" for temps in the low 20's and "mother nature dumps 5 inches of snow"... that's not a dump, that's a sneeze. Besides, we stay below freezing for such short periods of time that even when we got the 20 inches of snow last spring it was GONE 4 days later. None of this deep horrible snow pack that we get in MN. (My reader, Ellie will know of what I speak) So all in all I have nothing to complain about, BUT when I have to drive 1/2 hour to the barn yucky roads become major roadblocks. No pun intended. My lesson tonight was canceled due to weather and it's supposed to be in the single digits the next two days and in the low 20's for the next week. Yuck. I have warm clothes that make riding quite tolerable - again, those Mountain Horse Ice Paddock Boots are AWESOME - but getting there isn't much fun. Plus I'm torn about what's best for him when it's that cold: to just stay in his stall and keep warm, or to get a ride or some lunging in. He doesn't have a fur coat so he doesn't sweat up easily so I don't have trouble cooling him out. But just in general: is it better for him to get exercise when it's in the teens? Or just let him have those days off?
Opinions?
Our highs have been in the negative degrees for the last two days. Especially since Junior is clipped I am of the mind that you should ride him when you get the chance. When our horses are inside because it is too cold they get bored with lots of energy. The major downside of this is that they often try to make their own fun by acting like an idiot when you do ride them. I think in the winter it is very important to really be aware of what you are doing with you flat work and really keep your horse mentally engaged.
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