Snow Ponies

I went to bed last night wondering what would await me this morning.  The horses were being idiots, and I totally blame Donovan.  After the cow extravanganza when I went to check them they were all the way out in Timbuktu, in the driving wind and snow.  I caught Donovan and he led all of them down to the barns, where I fixed his blanket and generally reminded them all that we did have barns now, that we worked very hard to obtain for them, so they should use them and love them and stay warm.  Then I let Donovan go and he immediately galloped back to Timbuktu, with everyone following on his heels, including Donker, although you could tell he resented it.  Ridiculous!  So I trudged back, caught D again, and closed him in the stall, with the goats who had smartly scampered in.  The others, loyal to the end, milled around outside, without going to the other barn even when I fed them treats, but at least they were out of the wind.  A few hours later I let D out, and away they went again.  Oh well, I tried.

Then this morning we woke up to this:

Yeah, snow!  It was mostly done coming down, but the wind was still blowing.

Blowing so strongly, in fact, that it had created convenient drifts right up against the barns.

Can you see the poor, aggrieved goatie faces?

Donker had obviously had enough of the ridiculous horse behavior and had joined the goats, although they were none so happy where they were either.

I shoveled them out, checked on Myma (very unimpressed), and started on the other barn.

Please take note of how the ground in front of the barn is blown completely bare--it's only actually in the barn that there is snow.  Obvious design flaw.

Since the goats and donkey had been freed, they went to get the others where ever they had spent the night, and they appeared from the whiteout, with Big D leading the way (obvies).

I don't know where D had decided it would be best to weather the snow, and I see his point about the barns, but still, evidently they had their own drifts to deal with.

Look at their poor snow faces!  It's most obvious on EZ, given his lustrous black coat (isn't he beautiful?), but they all were covered in snow and ice.  Poor things.

 

This is a snowy Donovan nostril, in case there was confusion.

I fed everybody and brushed everybody and removed their iceballs, then put on some cozy little neck covers since it's still windy and obviously they're not so into the barns.  I wanted the warmest one for Dutchie, because he is most elderly, but it wasn't the one that matched his coat, so they are all mismatching and clashing, but I figured they wouldn't really mind so much since you can't see for all the snow anyway.

Dad scraped out most of the drifts with the tractor and I shoveled out most of the rest of the snow, and all creatures were actually seen to be using the barns, so there's that.

I gave Myma some more hay and distracted her with half a loaf of stale bread and achieved this:

Which may or may not be the cutest thing ever (after Donker) (sorry Myma).  She didn't love it though, and when I went back to check a few hours later she had wriggled out of it. 

In conclusion, snowy days leave no one comfortable.  They're all ok though, and that's what matters most, and hopefully tomorrow we'll have less gale-force breezes.