Still not a horse

 

But still endlessly entertaining. 

Scamp is having a hard time with winter--a little bit of cabin fever.  I throw him out in the snow sometimes to counter the incessant meowing in my face when I would rather be sleeping.  All day and night long he's looking for any entertainment, whether it be from the window that I am trying to work at or the pen I am trying to use.

  

All of these things become of utmost importance when they are trying to be put into use.

 

Very subtle.

Annoying?  Who, me??

These things all also have to be tested for edibility.  Folder?  Reconstruction essay?  At least now we can be sure.

And I wonder why I never get any work done.

15º with a chance of Sleds

It was 15º when I got out of the car to ride today.  I think that's technically the coldest temperature I have ridden in so far, but weirdly it didn't feel as bad as other days have--it's all in the wind I think.

Now that we are approximately three snowstorms into the winter, it is increasingly difficult to get through the drifts in the fields to make it down the street to the indoor arena.  As a result I have ridden on the road the last few times, and maybe this is counter-intuitive, but because I'd rather not spend all that much time on the road, I have been trying to trit-trot as much as possible.  Maybe more things can go wrong at the trot, but it greatly decreases my time on the road, and the plows clear enough room so that I can be on the shoulder and EZ just loves mailboxes.

We made it off the road into the field up to the indoor, and the nice cushion of snow meant that we could have a little canter up the hill, which I have been dying to do since we've been making the trip.  This is our view from the top:

We had to make our own trail, but EZ didn't mind.  You can tell by the way his hair is sticking up like that.

On our way home the mailboxes were pretty well established as non-threatening, but we did not foresee the presence of screaming children on sleds, careening towards us at high speeds and did not take to them too EZily.  When the poor guy is nervous I can feel his little body quiver and his heartbeat against my legs.  He probably would've been sweating too, if it hadn't been 15º.  Anyway, we stood and watched the festivities until we were convinced nothing would eat us, and made it home in one piece, where we took another quick jaunt up the lake road hill.

 

 There is a lot of snow.

Good thing there are those trustworthy ears to lead the way!

This is the view though when a hound dog sneaks up behind us and we jump while holding the camera.  Sort of impressionist, no?


And, while we're talking about degrees here, driving home after dorm duty my car helpfully indicated that it is now -1º.  Winter does not kid around. 

Good thing the herd is all nice and bundled!

Special Guest Appearance

Kathleen came to visit Indian Pond farm!  After bounding out and hugging her I dragged her up to the menagerie, where she and Donovan fell immediately in love and I was totally ignored for the rest of her time here.  Just kidding!
Since our time together at the Bitterroot, where she left in October, Kathleen has sorely been missing pony time.  And I have been missing her, so this was a perfect opportunity to tempt her to my lair.  Or farm, whichever term you prefer. 

This is Kathleen's talking-to-animals face.  No one (thing?) has an immunity to it.

I had cleared going to the indoor, but it was real cold and mom was freaked out about snowplows on the road and killer drifts and whatnot, so we just went on a little jaunt down to the lake.

So weird/natural to be riding.  So weird/natural to be chilling together outside of Dubois, Wyoming.

Aren't they both the cutest things you've ever seen?  This is in fact all we could say the entire time all this was taking place.  "This is the cutest thing ever."  And it really was.  Big D was a little bit spicy after going a few months without an outing, but Wrangler Kathleen was delighted with him.  Or so she said--I was too busy paying attention to what an angel EZhardcoldcash was to really pay to much attention to them.

Because EZ and I are supercute too.  Let's all give mad props to the O'Halloran designed quarter sheets!  We are so fancy.  And cozy.

Bitterroot baby Arabians have trained Kathleen to beware of every potentially scary/hazardous thing, which has weirdly in turn created a person who spooks like an Arabian would, but D and EZ eventually convinced her that the occasional flapping quarter sheet wouldn't kill anyone.

We are totally roaming our winter wonderland.

Fun with blurriness really starts to set in here.  So picturesque, yet unfocused...

Then clear, but apparently catching a moment that's not, actually, blissful?  

Liz tried to help us out once we got home, and took like a million pictures until her fingers froze, but again, there's a mixture of blurriness or bunk faces.

All in all though, it was a smashing success, and both Donovan and I will miss Kathleen until she visits again!  (Maybe when it's warm though?)

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.

Small Animals Being Cute

 I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but there are some cute small animals hanging around here.

How adorable is Donker in his coat?  Very, I know.

And then there are the goats.  They are everywhere.

In igloos....

 outside of igloos....

 in haybales....

that Donker's trying to eat from...

Before this evening's snowstorm mom and I put blankets on the goats too.  They were actually dog blankets and rather ill-fitting, and when I went up to check after it actually was snowing they had wriggled out of them, so they won't be as cute as Donker.  We also tried to put a blanket on Myma, but that REALLY wasn't happening, so they all will be cold.  And cute.

And this is also cute: an Interminable Donovan and Petey video.  It's so long, because their interaction went on so long.  I never did figure out what either of them wanted, but it's clear they are besties. (If you pay careful attention, you can hear a faint Donker hee-haw when Donovan turns to look, as well as Dukey's barking and prancing, as well of course as my brilliant narration.  Then you get a gold star.)

Cows out all over the place

It started really snowing a few hours ago, with really comfortable driving wind.  This was an appropriate time for the cows to let us know that they were out.

The trusty bouviers sounded the alert that these characters were out for a stroll.

Wait, so we're not supposed to be out here?

We better get out of here, here comes the wrangler!

And with that they happily trotted up to the barn, where I shut the gate behind them.  And then I counted, and joining the one that had obediently stayed where she was supposed to (agoraphobic?  Bouviephobic?), that meant that there were only four.  I went back to the house to check with dad that there were indeed supposed to be ten total and that he hadn't in fact put six up in the Hilton for the winter (should've known--Millerton does not have a Hilton).    I didn't really trust my counting skills in the low visibility, plus I hadn't had my contacts in, so Liz and I went back to check.  Yup, definitely only four.


We looked really hard, but  we couldn't find any hoofprints (or, you know, actual cows) indicating where the other six had absconded to.

Liz looking hard for cows

but the road seemed empty.

so I took a picture of us, in which it looks like I have no jaw.

Dad was patrolling in the truck and we heard honking from down the road.  He and mom followed the trail, where our neighbors had pushed the naughty six into a field behind the house.  I kept getting in the way because I wanted to take pictures.

You can't tell, but you'll have to trust me that those truck lights are shining over six up-to-no-good heifers.  

I really tried to document this momentous occasion, but I was late opening the gate and my camera was freezing.  Just trust me, it was big doings around here, but all are safe and sound, don't you worry.