COLD

Oh the joys of winter horsekeeping.

Does anyone else get that warm snuggie feeling when they hear the ring of poop-sicles falling into the wheelbarrow? Or remember fondly the joy of chiseling frozen poop? How about the deep mud holes that have now turned into moguls for horses and humans to navigate. What joy.

It's mornings like this that make me really enjoy my horses. I have to really enjoy them, don't I, or would I continue to do this year after year. The tough part is this is just a very early view of things to come in this year of the 2010 La Nina.

Well, off to hauling down jugs of hot water to even out the ice crusted water buckets. I know that bucket heaters would help but we don't have enough power in the barn to run them. At least all this heavy trudging is good exercise. Good prep for the Thanksgiving feast.

BTW, this will be an especially joyous Thanksgiving because we will have all our kids with us. Now that is joy. And yes, even when I'm flinging frozen poo, I am happy because that means that I do have a horse of my own.

Now that is JOY.

That's our Hummer

I was just reading thru the current Guideposts Magazine. "the up side" on page 14 had a quote by Actress Jane Seymour, from her new book Among Angels. She said that some people believe in blessings instead of luck. In the same way, she doesn't believe things are coincidences but miracles. I usually call those types of things God-incidences.
This brought to mind an event from last night.

Dennis and I went to beginning sorting at Silver Buckle. We are working on setting a plan of bringing our granddaughter, Emily, with us. She recently had a spinal cord surgery and her scoliosis is getting much worse so we have been bringing her in a wagon, padded and arranged for her comfort. I park the wagon in the corner just outside the sorting pen and she has been our timer - everyone having a good time. I put a barrel next to the wagon to sit on as I keep her company and as a barrier between Emily and whatever is happening in the arena.

Dennis and Hummer had completed a couple of goes and Dennis wanted to get some coffee so Emily and I held Hummer while Dennis went to the refreshment table. We were enjoying visiting with Hummer and he was nicely bending down so Emily could pet him. Emily was keeping time and we were visiting when I felt the barrel bump. I looked up and saw a horse bounce off Hummer while he just stood there quietly. What Emily and I saw was a horse that had somehow pulled off his headset with the bit still in his mouth. He was jumping around while the owner tried to get everything put back correctly.

A friend was watching and said that this horse came toward Hummer and he just stood there and puffed up while the other horse bounced into him. What is natural for a horse is to watch out for himself and get out of the way. What actually happened is that instead of moving away, Hummer just quietly stood right next to me and Emily and protected us from the other horse.

When Dennis came back with him coffee, I told him what happened and I got tears in my eyes. Hummer has walked into me many other times with much less provocation. This time Hummer was protecting Emily. I don't think it was a coincidence that Hummer was standing with us right then. God put him there to protect us. A miracle.