Back to Winter?

Suki

This week I woke up to about three inches of snow at my house on Monday. Yikes! What happened to spring? I figured there would be some shoveling to be done at the barn. Sure enough, there was snow piled up on the north side, making the big barn door unusable. I spent some time shoveling snow and chopping ice because I knew if I was slipping and sliding any horses getting near the barn would be too. It’s always good to look around and see things from the horses perspective…what could be in the way, what might fall over, what might catch their hooves? A horse that already has physical challenges really doesn’t need another one. :-)

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I’m finding that being around the horses just means paying attention, not only to your own energy, your own conduct, but also the environment around you. Some things are common sense, like not leaving tools laying around to trip over. Some things are less obvious to someone with little horse experience, but it just takes time to learn about the less obvious things. Everyone has been really great about answering my questions and showing me how things should be done. Sherry patiently showed me how to put a blanket on a horse the other day. Simple task, but if you’ve never done it before it takes a bit of instruction. Sherry is really great at explaining things and she put up with my beginner fumblings. :-). We got Louise and Wrangler covered for the cold night to come.

We had another volunteer day this week and did some garden clean up around the facility. It was great to chat with everyone and get another nice lunch feast. Chores like weeding go so much faster when you have a lot of hands! This week I also got a visit from Suki the barn cat. She’s such a sweetie and I was trying to get a good picture of her but she kept coming close to rub up against me. Cats don’t worry too much about posing unless it suits them. :-)