Noble enjoys her grain while the snow swirls around her. I'll be bringing them in the barn in a little while so they can sleep on a nice dry bed of shavings, out of the weather.

Here's the scene this afternoon during the snowstorm. The horses are desperate to find something to graze on (even though I gave them hay about an hour before this).

Sailor Moon, my Appaloosa. She's 10, a very sweet girl, but needs to be more dependable for me to ride. She dumped me last July and I haven't gotten over it yet. I don't know how many good bounces I have left in me! She's had some good professional training, but is the kind of horse that needs constant work to keep her head and not get flustered. And that's hard to do in an area where winter lasts 6 months.

Noble getting a treat from niece Kristen, taken a couple of years ago. I loved this moment. Now Kristen is 13 going on 14, and WAY too cool for sweet moments like this.

Snowstorm

We're in the early stages of a snowstorm that could dump 14" of snow on us today. It's starting to get thicker, and the wind is whipping up. The horses are out, blanketed, but still getting covered with snow. They do have the option of going in the run-in shed, if it gets too bad. I was supposed to go to Glens Falls today for a haircut, but that got cancelled because my hairdresser (who lives in Saratoga) didn't want to make the drive either. So here I am, snowed in with not much to do. Yuck. And the stores are all having great sales. Tomorrow it's back to work.

Frozen solid

It was way too cold today. I didn't realize it was below zero when I went out to feed the horses this morning. I couldn't understand why my hands got cold so fast in my gloves, to the point of physical pain. So I fed them, cleaned up their stalls a bit, and ran back to the house. The farrier was supposed to come at 9 am, but he called about 8:45 to say that his truck wouldn't start because of the extreme cold. It runs on diesel fuel, which gels up in these temperatures. He finally got here about 12:30, and I just about froze to death just hanging out in the barn visiting with him while he trimmed the horses' feet. At one point, I excused myself and went back to the house so I could feel my toes again. After getting warm, I went back out while he finished the second horse, Sailor. The stalls were trashed from them spending so much time there today, so I cleaned until the pain in my hands and feet got to be too much, and then ran back inside. I have very warm boots and gloves, but I've come to the conclusion that they just don't make them insulated enough to keep me warm. How many months until spring?