Saturday, March 29, 2008

wind and rain

The wind is blowing in cooler temps and what looks like a couple days of rain. The rain hasn't arrived yet, but we've got total cloud cover and temps 30 degrees cooler than yesterday.

We went out this morning geared up to get all the barn chores done early, right after breakfast. I had to call them in, which is rare, but everyone ate and then went back out while we cleaned water troughs, mucked, scrubbed feed and water buckets/tubs, and got things set up for them in case they need to be brought in early today.

Rafer Johnson got a sudden and very wild hair. He was running circles in the back field at top speed, getting the geldings riled up and Salina brought herself to the safety of the paddock. He ran and bucked and leaped and jumped and doubled back. It was hilarious. Once he'd gotten that wild hair out he helped himself to a nice long drink and then went to the salt lick.

The fun was NOT over however.

Once Rafer settled down the geldings started up. Running, bucking, rearing, striking. They tried to run their usual races in the paddock but one look from Salina sent them back out to the field. We watched until they settled down. As usual, Keil Bay stopped first, then Apache. Cody kept going, trying to get any one of them to rev back up with him, but he was out of luck.

I'm glad they all got some exercise before it gets wet and muddy and slippery. There will be no riding today!

We got the shavings pile covered, checked the hinges on all the stall doors to make sure they're secure, and came in to enjoy some more Saturday morning.

4 comments:

Grey Horse Matters said...

We've got the same weather here, it was so windy today it made it feel very cold. We got the barn done early too. Our guys are a pretty lazy bunch, so no one was running around today. It does sound like Rafer, the little stinker set them all off. I like that Salina takes no guff from any of them and they know better than to disturb her, she must be something.

billie said...

Arlene, even Keil Bay will still get going on a cool day, but Rafer certainly did fire things up. It's hard not to get fired up, watching him. If I had a video camera and had managed to capture that I'd take the trouble to learn how to post it here, that's for sure. What a show!

Rising Rainbow said...

The weather sucks here. It's still snowing and I'm frozen. It's supposed to be in the 50s, that's our normal weather.

I hope the wind and rain doesn't stay long for you. I think we're all ready for better weather.

Sounds like the horses had a great time. I love to watch horses play. Seems like there always has to be that last horse that doesn't want to quit but can't get anyone to join back in. lol

billie said...

I've noticed too - there's always one who doesn't want to stop. Cody is mostly the one here who takes that role. Yesterday he was getting quite cheeky to the higher herd members, who tolerate it in the name of play.