Sun, snow, and mud

Just watching the weather forecast for tomorrow, and it isn't pretty.  Looks like wind and winter weather for the next week or so. Given that it's nearing the end of February and it's been an amazing "winter" thus far, I guess I can't really complain.  It does make me very happy that I got a ride in this afternoon, though, 'cause it looks to be the last one I'll have on Sunny for at least a few days.

Monday brought us 4.5" of heavy, wet snow - yesterday temps crept into the mid-30's, and the bright sun melted it off the sidewalk where I'd shoveled, but it was chillier than I wanted to ride in.  It would have been PERFECT snow for towing a sled behind a horse, but everyone I could have possibly convinced to give it a try was working :( 

Today it was supposed to be windy and rainy, but at 2 PM it was nearly 50', calm, and the only clouds in the sky were a bumpy white and grey line to the south.  It sure didn't look like rain, and I figured even with snow I could do something with Sunny.

Shedding season has started

Sunny, thankfully, wasn't terribly muddy - he must have found a drier spot to lie down, because Thunder was a mud ball - and I had him cleaned up and tacked up in fairly short order.

Before

 

 

Other than my tracks across the field from yesterday (G was clearing the driveway with the tractor when I got there, so I parked by the mailbox and cut cross country) our practice field was pristine.  See the dip?  It bisects the field in big L-shape.  When it's dry, I ride right on over it, but when it's wet and sloppy or snowy, I try to stay on the inside of the L to cut down on the slip & trip potential.

After

I only rode for about 30 minutes - it was sloppy on top, muddy underneath, and although I didn't notice while I was riding, the temp started to drop while I was out there - what I did notice was the snow/mud starting to ball up in Sunny's hooves.  I wasn't pushing things anyway, just some slow work on collection and leg yields, but I didn't want him to come down on a big clump of icy glop and strain something, so I figured we'd quite while we were ahead.  Sunny was listening well and staying nice and light for me, and even though it wasn't a long ride, I was happy with it.

"Stop taking my picture and undress me already - it's nap time!"

 

I really wanted to get some video of how beautifully he's collecting, but since I can't be in two places at once... here's one round of cute pony ears, saddle squeak and snow squelch, and absolutely no collection whatsoever.