Miles of Plowing

 

The week before Christmas, we, as well as much of the country, had a cold snap that drove our wind chills down to about -50 degrees and true temperature to around -25 degrees. Even for us, that was a bit cold and harsh. Winter in Wyoming mostly means wind, even on mild days, with periodic storms. This year started late after a mild, beautiful fall, but we are currently in a cycle of storms with about a week break in between. That means that we spend most of our time either prepping for storms or cleaning up after the previous one. Mix in the holidays, and it has been challenging to do much beyond the basics, which, admittedly are quite extensive when one has a large number of horses. Our day to day involves cleaning, because horses mean a lot of cleaning whatever the circumstance, feeding, watering, draining hoses, fixing water heaters, and keeping up with their basic care like trims and changing bandages. A large number of horses also means someone is always in need of doctoring. This time of year, we fit training in between storms and holidays. The lighter training load isn't too bad for the horses because time off is probably what many of them need this time of year, as well as us before breeding and foaling season starts.

The range ponies have the same needs as the ones in small pens or stalls: food, shelter, and water. The issue with them is that they continue to refuse our help, which gets a bit frustrating. They are convinced that prairie grass and hills are adequate for food and shelter, despite what we think. Thankfully, they finally found the hay during that cold snap, but they picked at it. They ignored the shelter we put up for them years ago and chose a hill instead. They pointed their butts to the wind and stood there like any other day. We fretted, as did so many horse owners during that cold snap, but the horses didn't care. The Geriatrics even managed to gain weight during the cold.

Today, we're in another storm, which means more plowing once it stops snowing. Plowing this time of year seems like a Sisyphean task.

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