Winter

It is still winter here by the calendar. It is raining and in the 30s. Rain on top of snow with temperatures that will drop below freezing tonight.

My winter horse time is peripheral. I feed the horses and while they eat, I chip away at ice and snow that threatens to block the various doors to the barn. Yesterday RNB and I worked to free up some fence gaits in preparation of moving the sheep and getting round bales to them. They are due to lamb soon. I love my horses and know then well enough to want to keep the vulnerable lambs away from the horses. Curiosity and hay protectiveness leave me cautious.

Meanwhile I spend a lot of time inside finishing up projects whose deadlines were vague and drew energy just by waiting in my office for my efforts to bring them to completion. My Past Do To Do list is getting smaller.

I miss riding my horses. I enjoy riding a therapy horse or two each week in my training/conditioning job during our break from providing therapeutic riding lessons. My intention and challenge has been to help one horse with wonderful temperament have a stronger, more balanced body. Our hopes are that he have a long, meaningful, and physically healthy life with the therapy program. So far, so good. Plus he's fun to handle and ride, and getting more athletic which sometimes means surprises in store for me!

I think my favorite thing with him is to untack him in the indoor and let him roll after our ride time. Considering his winter quarters are a medium sized paddock with run in, all of which is covered in some combination of snow and packed snow and maybe some ice. He loves the feeling of the footing in the indoor, both for moving and for rolling. Maybe we are both lucky for this time together.