The Ice Storm

The whole drive home from the barn today, all I could think about was the Ang Lee movie.

I am not cut out for winter weather, y'all.

I went out to the barn to ride with my barn owner, and I checked the hourly forecast a million times before I left. It wasn't supposed to start precipitating until 9pm. No problem, I'd be home by then. So I tacked Lex up and took her in the ring to lunge, and it started: the ice hitting the roof of the indoor. My ordinarily calm and confident girl turned into a nutcase, and I kept muttering "desensitization" to myself. It took me a long time to get her to calm down - I actually had to stop lunging her and hand-walk her for awhile, which typically soothes her. Then Barn Owner walked into the ring and told me that her boyfriend -- who works for the county and is primarily occupied with driving the salt trucks this time of year -- said the roads were getting really bad. Great.

I pulled the poor mare's tack off, stuffed a treat in her face, threw the blanket on, one more treat for good measure, and then I tossed my tack in the tack room and hightailed it out of there. I'm sure she was bewildered, but I hope the treats made up for it.

The whole drive home ordinarily takes me about 10 minutes, but it took closer to 30 today, and the whole way I was back and forth about whether I wanted to try to get to my house or just park in the Denison garage and walk home. It's only a ten minute walk, but in an ice storm, down two very steep hills, wearing all black and boots without a lot of tread on unlit roads... Still, this was less terrifying than the prospect of driving down the road I live on. If I skidded in either direction, I'd be off the road and down a hill into the woods. Not good. Denison is uphill from town, and that hill is very steep, but I made it up (barely) and parked my car. I made sure to have my phone in easy grabbing reach in case a car came and I had to turn on the flashlight so I could be seen, but because the roads were solid ice and no one else is crazy enough to try that balancing act either, I was fine. I've never felt such relief as when I got to my door. It's going to take a couple glasses of wine to let that go.

Since I don't have any pictures of the ridiculousness today, I'll have to show you the pictures my mom sent me from Rocket's 10 month birthday two days ago (hey, only two days late this time, but I think I skipped her 9th month). The vet came to give her some vaccines today, and sticked her at 14.1hh and said she weighs approximately 700lbs.

Let that sink in: My 10 month old is 14.1hh. She's already almost in a horse-size halter. We're gonna need a bigger trailer.

Serving FACE.

Hay belly realness.

Pro: her David Bowie mane lies on the correct side.

It's gonna be a pain in the ass to pull, though.

But at least she'll stand still for it?

Here's to riding tomorrow, I hope. We're supposed to have bad weather all night, but I'm thinking by the time I can get out of the office, the roads should be fine. Cross your fingers -- I need some saddle time! Gotta do our homework from the lesson!