The Recalcitrance of Winter
It's just so much harder getting up in the morning when it's dark until 7.00 in the morning. And cold. The cold is a factor too. And while Arizona doesn't get much below 0˚F, we DO freeze. My favorite part is when the garbage can lids freeze shut and they have to be pried open with a sickening "CRACK."
Of course, out in "the sticks" it gets roughly 10˚ cooler at night than it does in the more urban areas due to the lack of the heat island effect (i.e. tons of concrete and asphalt that retains heat a LOT better than dirt and shrubbery, and radiates it at night). So when it's 40˚ in Phoenix, we're often dropping to 30˚.
Not that I'd dream of complaining when I know people are regularly experiencing highs (or wish they had highs) that equate our lows. I'm just saying that it actually does get a little chilly despite popular belief.
I went for a ride with Mom Wednesday along with her friend Melanie. She has two that she takes out riding, Melanie and Rachel. I need to try and keep the two straight as they're about the same height and build and similar hair color to boot, though I think Rachel is more blonde, but I could have sworn that the first time I met her she was brunette .... but people do have a tendency to change hair color on occasion so maybe it's not just me. I took Panda out again, and she did wonderfully, only one little spook that was barely even a twitch, which makes me happy. She's a good horse, she just needs exposure and to realize that she doesn't have to run away from scary things. She just needs to learn to trust her rider's judgment. Give her a few more years and she'll be awesome.
Sunny on the other hand .... She just keeps confirming her half-brain-ed-ness and her absolute lack of focus. Her ability to concentrate on a task lasts little more than a few seconds before she is either distracted or bored and gets terribly off-balanced and generally isn't much fun to ride. The good thing about her is that she responds readily to all the cues, even if she can't maintain a train of thought. I'm quite grateful that Cinnamon Strudel has at least inherited half a brain from her father an a quarter from her mother's half-brain and has, at least three-quarters of a brain, and perhaps she was lucky and managed to get a whole one. I ground-drove Strudel on Tuesday and must say I much prefer working with her than her mother. Of course, Sunny is still fairly young and hasn't been worked nearly so much as she should be, but at eight or nine she should have a little more of a brain ... one would hope so at least.
Kevin came yesterday and trimmed our horses, trimmed and shod my in-law's and my parents, and I had about two hours of conversation with him. The man can talk ... a lot. When I finally broke away I dinked about inside a bit before going back out with the idea that I was going to groom up and take some descent conformation shots of all the horses. But ended up helping Kevin trim Rayo instead. Rayo is the colt that Mom purchased with her new Rocky Mountain Horse mare who replaced Rowdy. He's been trimmed once and he is eight months old ... which lead to an interesting experience of him running back and forth next to the fence and kicking out with his hind legs.
I did at least get Ruby cleaned up and photographed (pictures to come later). I SCRUBBED her lower legs quite thoroughly with shampoo. Feathering looks cool but it can be such a pain! I need to start scrubbing Ruby's at least once a week, especially once summer starts, to try and reduce the amount of build-up she gets on the pedal side of her back cannons. I should do the same with Panda, Jinjer, and Chewy, but Ruby's gets the worst.
So now that I've wasted a coupe hours I'm going to go out and work Panda. since the sun is finally up and it is slightly warmer and I think the frost just might be considering starting to melt.
Of course, out in "the sticks" it gets roughly 10˚ cooler at night than it does in the more urban areas due to the lack of the heat island effect (i.e. tons of concrete and asphalt that retains heat a LOT better than dirt and shrubbery, and radiates it at night). So when it's 40˚ in Phoenix, we're often dropping to 30˚.
Not that I'd dream of complaining when I know people are regularly experiencing highs (or wish they had highs) that equate our lows. I'm just saying that it actually does get a little chilly despite popular belief.
I went for a ride with Mom Wednesday along with her friend Melanie. She has two that she takes out riding, Melanie and Rachel. I need to try and keep the two straight as they're about the same height and build and similar hair color to boot, though I think Rachel is more blonde, but I could have sworn that the first time I met her she was brunette .... but people do have a tendency to change hair color on occasion so maybe it's not just me. I took Panda out again, and she did wonderfully, only one little spook that was barely even a twitch, which makes me happy. She's a good horse, she just needs exposure and to realize that she doesn't have to run away from scary things. She just needs to learn to trust her rider's judgment. Give her a few more years and she'll be awesome.
Sunny on the other hand .... She just keeps confirming her half-brain-ed-ness and her absolute lack of focus. Her ability to concentrate on a task lasts little more than a few seconds before she is either distracted or bored and gets terribly off-balanced and generally isn't much fun to ride. The good thing about her is that she responds readily to all the cues, even if she can't maintain a train of thought. I'm quite grateful that Cinnamon Strudel has at least inherited half a brain from her father an a quarter from her mother's half-brain and has, at least three-quarters of a brain, and perhaps she was lucky and managed to get a whole one. I ground-drove Strudel on Tuesday and must say I much prefer working with her than her mother. Of course, Sunny is still fairly young and hasn't been worked nearly so much as she should be, but at eight or nine she should have a little more of a brain ... one would hope so at least.
Kevin came yesterday and trimmed our horses, trimmed and shod my in-law's and my parents, and I had about two hours of conversation with him. The man can talk ... a lot. When I finally broke away I dinked about inside a bit before going back out with the idea that I was going to groom up and take some descent conformation shots of all the horses. But ended up helping Kevin trim Rayo instead. Rayo is the colt that Mom purchased with her new Rocky Mountain Horse mare who replaced Rowdy. He's been trimmed once and he is eight months old ... which lead to an interesting experience of him running back and forth next to the fence and kicking out with his hind legs.
I did at least get Ruby cleaned up and photographed (pictures to come later). I SCRUBBED her lower legs quite thoroughly with shampoo. Feathering looks cool but it can be such a pain! I need to start scrubbing Ruby's at least once a week, especially once summer starts, to try and reduce the amount of build-up she gets on the pedal side of her back cannons. I should do the same with Panda, Jinjer, and Chewy, but Ruby's gets the worst.
So now that I've wasted a coupe hours I'm going to go out and work Panda. since the sun is finally up and it is slightly warmer and I think the frost just might be considering starting to melt.