Winter or Spring?

Is it January?  Nope.  This was looking across our road this last Monday.  Easter afternoon it started snowing and blowing and drifting and it didn't stop until Tuesday morning.  Just nuts, I say!  Old Man Winter is making it really hard to play the April games!

I have rode twice this week.  Once on Wednesday and then today.  My husband has been my choice of riding partner this week, which tends to be an infrequent thing, but I take it when I can get it.  His horse on Wednesday was giving him a hard time, but we made it through without incident.  Today he wanted to ride down the road into a new trail where they logged this winter.  The wind was blowing about 15 miles an hour and I was just leary of putting the horses on the road in the wind for the first time this year.  I'm not very experienced and he's even less experienced and with his unpredictable horse, I just wasn't happy about it, but I finally said yes.  While saddling, his horse was being very impatient and I suggested that we ride the quarter mile loop and see how she was doing before we gave her a new experience.  He agreed.  About 1/8 mile in he said we  could just ride our trails.  Whew!

Kirk, my trail partner this week!

Corky was the steady-eddy that I've come to know him as, but Kayla was a handful.  Kirk wanted her to lead, which was a good exercise for her.  She's used to following.  She was unsure of herself at first, but got the hang of it, but she's been known to kick so I had to keep on Corky to stay farther back than he's used to.  A couple of times my stirrups would hit branches and that spooked Kayla and off she would go, with Corky trying to follow fast too!  So that was good for her too.  At the end she had gotten used to my stirrups hitting branches.

After we went around the trails once, Kirk was done and I knew Kayla was done too.  She was breathing hard and shaking.  She's usually not a fearful horse, but we had tested her out of her comfort zone today, so that was an accomplishment!  I asked Kirk to let Chance and Ruby (Denise's dog) out so they could go for a walk with Corky.  As Denise mentioned she's in Utah visiting her kids and new granddaughter, so we've got Ruby and her Rocky this week.  Ruby and Chance both love to go and just have fits when I get the horses out and they're not allowed to go, so once the gate is open they're in fast mode and off we go! 

Corky is kind of funny with the dogs.  When they're along he tries to act like the dogs and keep up with them, so we work on keeping it slow and whoaing and taking pictures.  If the dogs get out of sight, he wants to hurry and catch up with them.  The first couple times I rode with Chance, if Chance went to pass Corky, he would put his ears back like he would with a horse and get upset if she passed him and it was like it was a race then!  Every once in awhile I let him race her, but the snow isn't reliable right now so everything is at a walk right now, just in case he falls through.

After I got done "walking" the dogs, I told Kirk I'm going again just with me and Corky so I can enjoy this without worrying about Kayla kicking or bucking or going too fast or the dogs wanting Corky to go fast.  So off we went.

The sun was bright today and as you can see we have lots of snow left.  They're predicting another 4 to 8 inches tomorrow for our area, so I knew I better take advantage of the spring weather today, because winter will be back tomorrow, it sounds like.  We just walked along and enjoyed the quiet and the sounds.  The wind had finally died down by now, so it was peaceful.  The sky was sooooo blue today!

And before I forget, we did get some ground work in with the horses today.  I got the tarp out.  Tarps are an old hat with Rocky, but it's been awhile, so might as well try it.  I let Kirk work with Rocky because Rocky really doesn't count toward the game because he knows it.  Nothing bothers Rocky that I have found yet.

Rocky and his dad

I don't know if Corky had ever had worked with a tarp before, but I took it over and started rubbing him with it and then put it on him and started pulling it up towards his head.  He let me do all that without any noticeable concern, but as we got towards his head, he wasn't so sure, so I let him decide when we were done.  We didn't have either of the horses on lead or haltered, which I guess was a little dumb, but it all worked out.

Corky and I

Hope everyone has a good weekend!  Janeen and Kirk with Rocky and Corky!