Why Is It Still Winter?

I no longer have any use for winter.  The holidays are over, the decorations packed up and stored away until next year.  The snow and cold air can go with them!

I have started to feel somewhat normal so I headed out to the barn yesterday.  I was sunny, slightly warm and very windy.  Rosie seemed pretty glad to see me.  This barn doesn't turn out when the weather has been nasty or if there is ice on the ground so who knows how long it has been since she was turned out.  She was eager to get out and I think would have haltered herself if she could.  I cross tied her and brushed her quickly just to get the shavings off of her back.  While I was doing that I noticed the darn goat had been chewing on the end of the breakaway strap for her halter.  Grrrr.  While there isn't damage that affects the use of the halter it still annoys me.  I just generally don't like goats.  This one lives in the stall next door with the barn owner's son's pony.  Occasionally the goat is let out to wander.  She doesn't go anywhere but she does chew on things and she can reach the halters because they are hung up outside each horses stall.  One day she came out to lick the salt off my truck.  That didn't bother me but I was afraid of what she might do next.  I had visions of her standing on the roof.    Now I know why my mom wouldn't let us have goats when we were kids.

Anyways, after cussing the goat and picking out Rosie's feet we headed to the indoor arena.  I figured I was in for a show when Rosie got all looky-louey and snorty at a girl carrying a harness.  She didn't disappoint!  She trotted around for a good five minutes doing her best Arab impression with her tail flagged and alternately arching her neck and then flinging her head up high.  After about 10 minutes she decided anything more than the usual slow trot was too much work and settled down nicely.  I made her change directions a few times and trot and canter for another five minutes or so for a total of about 15 minutes of lunging.  I quit there because I didn't want her to get too warm as we had hit our high temp at 8 a.m. and it was steadily getting colder.  She was a bit warm so we walked around for a bit before I put her away and gave her some treats.  I think she would have liked to stay out more but there was no way I was riding that fresh of a horse with the arena banging around in the wind like it was.  We had gusts up in the 50 mph range here!  I thought I was back in Wyoming.  I am hoping to get out and ride tomorrow, the temp is supposed to be 37 degrees for the high.  Plus, I told my daughter that if it was warm enough this weekend I would take her out to ride Rosie in the new saddle she got for her birthday a couple of weeks ago and there is no way I would let her ride a horse that fresh.  She will hound me mercilessly until she gets to ride so that is my motivation.

I hope everyone else is having a better winter than I am but I see even Arizona is pretty cold so I don't know where the warm air has gone.  Hopefully it comes back from where ever it is hiding soon!  I guess I also have to say "Go Steelers!" for the Super Bowl this weekend.  It doesn't matter to me one way or the other but the people in this area tend to get a little grumpy if their team doesn't do well.  My daughter has Steeler fever and decided to get the dog in on it too.  Poor dog, honestly.... :-)

I Wish I Could Say...

that my lack of blogging is due to copious amounts of time spent riding and fussing over my horse but that is most certainly NOT the case.  We have been sick.  My daughter and I have been to Urgent Care numerous times over the last three weeks.  It started with pink eye for here then moved into very sore throats for the both of us and an ear infection for her.  Then she had an allergic reaction to her eye drops.  By the next weekend of course I had pink eye.  After mostly getting the pink eye beat back I developed a sinus infection.  Then we both came down with another head cold.  Today my poor baby was on the couch, unable to keep anything in her stomach.  And her eyes are getting red again.  I'm not sure yet if she is getting another case of pink eye or if her eyes are just red because she is tired.  It is common for her eyes to be red when she is tired so I am just crossing my fingers that that is the case.

Before all off this illness descended upon our household I did manage to get in a couple of rides.  The second one was the best, starting out in the indoor just fiddling around and then moving outside.  In the indoor I was working a little on turns on the forehand.  Rosie knows how to do them but always tries to walk out of them.  At first she acted like she had no idea what I wanted from her so I got down and moved her haunches around her forelegs by putting my fingers into her side and removing them when she crossed her hind feet over.  She did this quite well and without hesitation.  So I hopped back into the saddle and asked her again.  At first she still acted like she didn't know what I wanted so I asked again and this time she did it.  We practiced that for a bit along with some sidepassing and working on going past the scary arena corners with out cutting them completely.  I'm not much for arena work so we headed outside to go cruise the open field behind the barn.  I wanted to do this partly because I like riding up there and partly because there was snow on the ground and I hadn't yet ridden Rosie in the snow.  Not that she hadn't seen snow, she had many times in Colorado and a little bit here but we hadn't had a chance to ride in it yet.  It was pretty chilly up on that hill but we still had a good time.  Later I figured out with the wind chill it was about 6 degrees out.  Brrrr.  We went out to dinner with some friends of ours later that evening and I just could not get warm and of course they sat us near the door.  It was the only table they had that was big enough for seven of us but boy was I chilly!  I'm still glad I went riding though.  I love riding in the snow!  I just wish it didn't have to be so darn cold to do so!  I wish I had some pictures but I was the only one crazy enough to be out that day so there aren't any.

Year in Review, Continued

Lets see if I can bust out a few more months on this year gone by.

March:  I don't remember anything in particular about March and I don't have many pictures from that month.  If I don't have any pictures, then not much happened.  I take at least a small camera everywhere.  So I guess we will just say that the snow melted and spring spring.

Some lovely crocuses from my front yard.

April:  By this time we are all getting a little spring feverish.  Outside we go.

We even made it to opening day of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  They even won!  I don't think I would attend opening day again though.  It was basically a drunk fest for the college kids and my daughter got to hear some very colorful language.  I guess that is a part of life but I still didn't enjoy it.  We have attended at other times of the season and had a very nice time.

My beautiful old dog getting some fresh air.

We also went to Phoenix for my husband's grandmother's 90th birthday.  I handed my daughter the camera while we were having dinner at P.F. Chang's to keep her entertained.  I have a lot of pictures that look like this.

She actually got some nice pictures of the other family members but since I have no idea if they want to be splashed all over this blog this is the only picture I feel comfortable posting.  I also managed to get in another state on my "I Want to Ride a Horse In All 50 States" quest.  Apparently we found some tequila while wandering around in the desert because that is the only way I can explain the position of that helmet.  Next time I will try and fit my own helmet in my suitcase.

Drifter and I in what is left of the desert in Scottsdale.

Phoenix was warm and beautiful as usual.

Unfortunately Pittsburgh experienced some wild weather while we were gone and we came home to this little mess on our roof.  We got it fixed quickly though and nothing else was damaged thankfully.

To be continued...