Mustang Saga

Today was a good day. Why? Because I hooked up the hoses and turned the water on and it came out the other end! Oh lovely day.

We also made a quick dash up to Spokane to get the kids from my mom's. Glad we made it back during daylight. The roads were fine most of the way, but would have been icy if we got back too late. The only bad roads were within about 20 miles of Spokane, and they were really bad in Browne's Addition and downtown. I felt bad for all the pedestrians trying to make their way on frozen ground, most of them obviously unable to afford warm snow boots with good traction, and the sidewalks were blocked so a lot of people were walking right next to traffic. I couldn't help imagining someone falling under my tires. I was very careful though. I think it would be great if someone would donate a bunch of those traction cleat/chain things for shoes to a the elderly and homeless. And warm socks. Downtown Spokane makes me sad sometimes.

On the way back we saw a wheat field full of snowballs that the wind had rolled up. (You can see some pictures on Lea's blog that she took of these kind of snowballs at her house.) I pointed them out to the kids and Liam said, "That's where they grow snowballs!" I'm not sure if he was making a joke, making up a story, or being serious. But it was funny! So from then on we kept pointing out the snowball farms when we saw them.

Hmm. I know I should write something interesting about the horses... I did a very brief trim on Bella's front feet tonight. She didn't want to cooperate. Hoof work still makes her very nervous, but even more so than usual tonight. But I got a bit done, then realized it was really hard to check my work in the dark on uneven ice, so I picked up and checked her back feet and called it good. As I waited for the second trough to fill I checked Cisco's back feet. They are beautifully concave. Heels a bit long. He's a little kicky back there, which is why I haven't trimmed his hind feet yet. I'd like John to hold him but we never have time when the weather is decent. In the mean time I need to make more of an effort to get him used to having his feet picked up. It would only take a couple minutes at each feeding. With all Tonka's needs I've been lazy about doing anything else at feeding time.

I'm getting antsy to start working with my horses again! And I'm not sure I even want to take them out, the driveway is so scary icy. Last year I fell down right in front of Tonka while I was leading him. He looked very surprised. If I did that to Bella it would probably scare her. I could probably take them out in the pasture and have decent footing. Just not real handy for tacking up. A little naked groundwork never hurt anyone though. (Naked horse, that is.) But no... They're calling for more insane winds and a few inches of snow tomorrow. I doubt I'll be out playing in that. Wish I'd been able to stay home and play today, the weather was actually pretty nice. Oh well. My day will come.