January 27

Well alas another day with no riding. I called Kittee this morning and asked if there was any chance of riding and she said "No, no chance" (sigh). There were monster snowflakes coming down, and none of our clubs had the indoor arena for the day. I told her I hoped to make it out to the barn some time today to visit Sinwaan so he didn't forget who I was.

I headed out there after a couple of hours and was surprised by how fast the snow had accumulated. I was doing 40 mph on the highway and thought I was doing pretty well until suddenly the truck started sliding sideways. That really got my heart going. I was able to get it straightened out and then not 10 seconds later it started sliding sideways again. I was so glad there was not anyone else driving too close to me because I was out of control. I crossed the state line shortly after that and decided it was not worth the risk to drive out just to feed Sinwaan a carrot (sorry boy). I turned around and put the truck in 4wd low but still had trouble, so I finally got smart and switched to 4wd high. The truck did much better then but still was goosey in parts, I think a lot of that has to do with the fact I have no weight in the back.

When I got home, I decided to do some shoveling. The snow was still coming down thick, giant snowflakes. I shoveled a large amount of snow into the back of the truck so we would be safe driving Levi to his Dr. Appt. tomorrow.

Maybe next weekend. (sigh)

I know this time off is not good for Sinwaan. Whenever I don't ride him for two weeks he starts up with bad habits. Chewing the barn, wind-sucking on the gates...I pray for good weather!

January 20 2008

Would have liked to have ridden today but looking out the window revealed some light snow coming down. I was still recovering from a bad virus that knocked me down enough to have to take an entire week off work. So I was not feeling very well, and Sinwaan got the day off. Forecast is calling for a lot of very cold weather so I am hoping to be able to get out and visit Sinwaan next weekend, and hopefully squeeze in a ride.

January 13 2008

Today I went out to the barn about 11 am. On the drive into Milton Freewater I could see the fog tiptoeing in on little cat feet. It was unreal, like I have never seen before. Hwy 11 had fog so thick I could barely see 1/4 mi ahead. Not good riding weather I mused, but pressed on since often the weather is completely different at the barn.

Sure enough, the weather was bright and the fog had stopped about 3 bluffs away from the ranch. Dale and Kittee were bringing down hay from their loft. Once they were done we groomed our horses and Kittee and I tacked up and took a ride up Cache Hollow. We went up to the 2 mi point and let the horses do a little munching. It was beautiful up there, sunny and bright. I had gotten warm enough to unzip my jacket and take off my gloves. We could see that the fog was moving in, however, so we decided to head back down.

As usual Sinwaan became a different horse headed for home. Full of himself and wanting to GO. We did a lot of very fast trotting and a little cantering but I tried to discourage that since the footing was a little wet. It was amazing the fast change in temperature, I put my gloves back on and fastened my coat. We rode into the fog and could see it settled in the valley. The really interesting and beautiful thing was that the bluff behind the barn was illuminated.

I fed Sinwaan his grain and let him graze a little on the grass around the hitching post and finally put him back in the pasture. He went over and rolled and rolled.