I am SO excited! Do you know what next week is?
Dec. 21 is the winter solstice...which means Dec. 22 will have one more minute of daylight than the previous day...and slowly but surely we'll see more and more sunlight every day until summer. More daylight! YAY!
That just makes me so happy. I'm so tired of feeding my horses in the dark in the morning and at night, never able to ride because it's either A) Dark or B) Muddy. As in really, really muddy. The mud has been absolutely ridiculous this year. One of my goals was to have lights up in the riding arena before the Dark Months this year, but that didn't happen. Of course, it probably wouldn't have mattered if I had lights this year any way, it's been so muddy riding in the arena would be a disaster. Add to the mud all the mole tunnels (the poison DID NOT work, by the way) and it's a broken leg waiting to happen. Ugh. Needless to say, I don't get much riding/training done during the winter.
I've put Gabe back on the long reins a few times, but the mud is so bad it's kind of unfair to ask him to do much in it and he just ends up slipping and sliding all over the place.
Sometimes I wonder why I keep my beasties at home instead of at a nice barn with an indoor arena somewhere where I can ride through these dark, cold months.
Then I look outside and see them playing or sleeping or running and remember how very happy they are in their little herd living on my little piece of heaven and I know why I have them at home.
I'd have it no other way.
Know what you mean...this time of year the horses tend to get a holiday with maybe a light hack thrown in, no -one wants to struggle, no-one has fun in those conditions!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn;t have horses if we couldn;t keep them at home. I see them in their little herd and everyone is so settled. I have had horses on livery yards and worked on them and the herd dynamic falls to peices, horses fed a diffrent times, removed from the herd randomly, new horses coming and going. Not many horses can do well like that.
All our horses where brought as "difficult" and now all 4 of them are as laid back as rastafarians on national laid back day ;)
Have a happy Solstice btw :D x
Hear, hear! December 21 is the best day of the year, IMO. It means we've lived through another long dark fall and there's nothing but more sun (and maybe snow and rain, but who's counting?) to look forward to!
ReplyDeleteYay! Can't wait for the solstice! I love it. And there is definitely a trade off to having your horses at home, but in my opinion nothing beats looking out your window and seeing those beautiful faces!
ReplyDeleteHooray for more daylight and yippee for less mud! I'm not fortunate enough to keep my horse at home, but he's in a field with an established herd who have been together for some years so I know he's in good company. Nor do we have the luxury of an indoor arena so riding is limited to weekend hacking. Roll on summer!
ReplyDeleteLet's have a dance! We need to bring that sun back! Just in case...
ReplyDeleteI'm new here and am looking forward to wandering around... I'm a writer too, in financial services and humor writer for our local paper.
interesting n informative post.
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