Still Slopping it Out

This month is going to be devoted to saying heck to the weather, and doing things anyway. Spring is always muddy around here, and this year looks worse then ever. I have had enough of looking out at the slop, snow, mud, water, and whatnot. Now that we've regained an hour of daylight, I'm trying to make the most of it in all aspects of life, including my riding. So, we're slopping it out in the mud and making the best of the situation.

I've never linked to another blog before, but I think this is seriously good reading. The first 6 years of riding horses I had an indoor arena, and spent many a nasty weather day in those four walls. When I moved to my own farm and brought my horse home, I knew I would miss having an arena and the good footing, but I did not factor how much that would affect my riding conditions. My farm is on clay, so water drains slowly and usually in channels to storm drains, not through the layers of the ground. We're downhill from a ridge, so we get runoff off other farms and lands as gravity takes its course. I have only treelines around the pasture, no trees in the pasture or paddocks to speak of, so sun beams down when summer finally comes. We live right smack on a highway. Not simply adjacent to a hwy, but my actual driveway goes right on to the main road. My front paddock, where the pond is, shares the fence with semi trucks, emergency vehicles at speed with their lights and sirens, RVs and other towed vehicles, flapping tarps, motorcycles, muscle cars and so on and so forth. And if that wasn't enough, there's the wind. We're within riding distance of Lake Erie, and the winds that blow off the lake are often stiff enough to hold you upright. I've found the neighbor's trampoline in my pasture, along with other oddities.

But, the horses see this stuff every day. It becomes part of their norm. Its we humans who make a big fuss out of it. For a long time I work with this and incorporate it into making my horses good all arounders. But the effects of severe weather was always something I would finally give in to. Now, I'm trying harder not to let even that get to me.

Jonni Jewel and her well-travelled horse Hank have countless endurance miles under their belts. They've done Telvis, and more then once. In the endurance world, that's like saying they climbed Everest. In a recent blog, she talks about avoiding the outdoor world when riding conditions are less then favorable as a mental condition. I wholeheartedly agree. Its really good reading:

http://trotonhank.blogspot.com/2011/03/it-is-mental-condition.html

Okay, so moving on, here's how we've spend March so far!

Practicing our two point through the mud

Moving our body parts through the mud

Picking our way around the training track in the mud.
Be thought I was insane. This is much more slippery/greasy then it probably looks.
Remember, clay :(


And smiling for the camera through the mud.
Yup, smiling.

Hubby even got into the action on a good day. Here he is swinging up on one of the racehorses for a trot/canter around the training track on a decent day. The Moos look on.

Be takes a closer look at yet another mud puddle I asked her to step into

Blub blub!

And on a day when I was short of time, we lunged. Always good to brush up on that skill.
Notice the bull in the tree lines. He walked under the lunge line while we were going. So I lifted the rope higher and Be kept on, never missing a beat :)

Splashing through the mud and the muck

And what do I get for this besides a muddy horse and muddy tack? Well, how about this gorgeous sunset, framed between my favorite pair of redheaded ears? If I was inside lamenting over how the environment has once again stopped me from riding my horse, I would never have had this view. I think this is worth the mud.

The whole month hasn't been a total "wash" (pardon the pun). We did sneak away for CanAm again, and had a lovely time indoors checking out horsey things from around the region.

Check out the cool slow-feed hay cube for fatties

I got an updated picture with Moxy, the Herbs for Horses spokesmodel dobe. He's such a sweetie!

We saw one of the handsomest red dun stallions I've ever seen show his stuff in a reining demo

The Canadian Cowgirls brought their game to the arena in style

And we closed out the night across the road at Western Fair Raceway, handicaping the standardbreds and making our high roller $2 bets around a magnificent buffet. Good times, good times!