cold day, huge equine work-out

Yesterday the high was around 32 degrees here, and with winds gusting up to 35 mph it felt colder. I pulled out my trusty 18-year old Lands End knee-length squall parka and wore it over my pajamas to do morning chores. I was warm as toast.

I only need this level of warmth a few times a year if at all, but when needed, it is perfect. A couple of years ago the zipper broke and I contacted Lands End, who offered me either a new parka or paid shipping for the existing one so they could send it out to be repaired. I opted to send in my old trusty coat. A couple of weeks later it came back nicely repaired with November Hill hay remnants still in the pockets. 

Before I went out yesterday morning, I glimpsed flashes of color through the kitchen window. A closer look revealed Keil Bay and Cody in the arena, walking, trotting, and cantering, then galloping around. In emerald green and purple plaid. The Little Man was in the open gate watching, and the donkeys were right behind him.

Cody tends to go a bit wild in his arena work-outs, but Keil Bay, trained in dressage his entire life, offers circles of the usual size, shoulder-in, flying changes, and generally seems to be doing a shuffle of all the dressage tests he's ever learned. Cody arches his neck and tosses his head and Keil is perfectly "on the bit" - just in front of the vertical.

I had already determined it was going to be a day I did not ride, but this cemented that decision. They took care of their stretching and opening all by themselves!

Last night the predicted temp was 13 degrees. My barn thermometer said 0 just before sunrise this morning. Husband put out 3x the usual amount of hay and they had cleaned it up. They had also broken through the ice on the water trough and drank enough that the water level was visibly lower this morning. Every year when ice forms (usually less times than the fingers on both my hands during winter season) I consider whether to get water heaters for the troughs. And every year they keep drinking the cold water and I figure it's probably best to keep things as they are. They get salt in their feed tubs both morning and night, and if we have several of these extremely low temp nights in a row I warm up the troughs with hot water. 

Today we're entering a warm-up that will last until Monday, when the night's temp is predicted to be 11 degrees. We're on that crazy weather rollercoaster again.

Writing-wise: I continued working on exploring the minds of two characters, did some research on an old hotel in Paris - which reminds me - has anyone stayed in one you'd recommend? I am looking for something old and expensive, but most of all distinctive. I'll be traveling there via the internet only, so cost is no object. :)

I also returned to my chapter by chapter editing of Never Not Broken. The chapter I'm on right now is getting almost a total rewrite, so I'll be working on it again today.