storm warning

Not gonna lie, I'm super grateful that our last two weekends of pony adventures are behind us. Both clinic days were super cold and super windy, but somehow the weather has turned even worse since then...

first round bale of the season -- out in january

We've had inches and inches of rain, and this whole week will be a bit of an arctic blast. Super cold --- but somehow, still not quite cold enough to fully freeze the full depth of mud yet either. 

one of my favorite things about this horse --- she never misses a meal!

So Doozy is getting a few days to just sorta rest on her laurels before we inevitably return to the indoor for more boring flat rides lol. 

and then there's sad charles... unclear who is walking whom here

Charlie, meanwhile, is having a tough go of it. We kept him stalled during the heavy rain days to try to protect his heel wound.... but the ground is just beyond saturated now and his whole paddock was literally under water. 

ring inspector inspecting the ring

The bandages don't stand a chance in those conditions, and spending 8hrs a day with a wet bandage was starting to stall out the wound's recovery. It started to seem a little tender and like it was getting rubbed raw. 

hand grazing in wintry weather

So unfortunately he's back in his stall again, much to his extreme dismay. At least we're able to leave him unwrapped for now. So the wound is developing a bit of a scab, which could be maybe the last phase in recovery? I dunno.

omg the shetlands were going nuts hahahaha

My hope is that after another 24 or 36hrs of below-freezing temperatures, his paddock will be fully frozen through the full depth of the mud, and he can maybe go back out. 

srsly look at these silly fluffy critters!

Bc having him in the stall is pretty far from ideal, not gonna lie. He's miserable and literally no amount of hand walking can satisfy him. Yesterday I turned him out in the indoor for an hour and ran around and played with him.... Then hand grazed him in the snow storm for another hour....

recovery stalled after too many days in wet muddy paddock

Which is legitimately the height of boring for me. But barely a drop in the bucket for him. There's just no good place to turn him out right now that isn't either a) way too muddy; or b) not neighboring other horses he's likely to get in trouble with.

current state: unwrapped but stalled. new stage of healing i guess

We'll see, I guess. He's so close to being fully healed up. And I'm so eager for him to return to his herd. They moved to a new field for the winter that actually still has a little grass, and a lot less mud. It'll be such a relief for EVERYBODY when he's out again haha.

artsy fartsy bc y'all know i can't help myself
i was testing out apps to turn photos into stylized graphics to make a memorial gift for a friend who just said goodbye to her senior mare. any recommendations?

In the meantime, we'll be in a bit of a holding pattern around here. Gross weather, other things going on outside my horsey life, and not much in the way of upcoming plans or activities. Not a bad time for a lull, LOL. 

Hope you aren't getting blasted with too much winter this week!