Mustang Saga

You know what I think is a beautiful thing? Pumping water into one end of a hose and having it come out the other end. I had a little trouble with that today. And coiling up frozen, stiff, slippery hoses is hard. Taking them in to the bathtub is a sloppy business. What really wears me out is all the trudging back and forth through deep snow wearing 20 pounds of extra clothing to get another hose, drag it out, trudge, try it, trudge, cuss it, trudge, try another, trudge, notice a kink, trudge, go back and hook that one up again, cuss that one too, trudge, unhook them all, trudge, drag them to where I can drain them so any that aren't frozen won't become frozen. Trudge, trudge, trudge. Coil them up, cuss them some more, take them in to the bathtub. Strip out of 30 pounds of thermal wear. Feel the liberation. Wait a while and go out and do it all again, but this time not so bad because the hoses are thawed. I'm sure most of you have been through this before. Joy. Next year I AM putting in water lines out to the horses.

This is what i was doing while the hoses thawed:

Those are my great-grandma Lena's gingersnaps.
I ate enough to make up for the extra energy expended today.

I saw this picture and thought, "Who was playing with my camera?"
Then I remembered it was me.

Here you can see ripples in the snow from the high winds the night before. (Waving vertically in the picture, not the messy snow in the foreground from the snowblower). Very pretty. But I hate wind in the winter time.
Here's Cisco moving Scout around:

Last night I thought I was going to die, it was so cold when I was out feeding and flushing Tonka's abscess. My gloves weren't cutting it, especially considering I had to take them off to do the flushing. It was about 7 below and the horses were white with frost. Tonight it seemed balmy and warm, I was out for about an hour messing around with the horses while the trough filled and I was totally comfortable, at about 15 degrees.

Oh, today I started Soxy and Cisco on a product called Remission. It's for foundered horses, to increase circulation in the hooves and speed up healing, but it also helps regulate insulin and blood glucose levels, and it may help break down fatty deposits in horses with metabolic problems. Maybe we can get rid of Cisco's crest and the fatty pads on Soxy's sides. And avoid a possible future founder episode. I'll take pictures of them tomorrow so I can keep a photo log of whether or not it seems to make a difference.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve to you!