Friday, January 03, 2014

fun on a rainy day

Yesterday we had a huge rain front moving in so daughter and I decided to do ground work with all instead of riding two. 

Keil Bay did walk, trot, canter free lunge work, Cody went on the lunge line for his walk/trot/canter and then some focused ground work, and the pony and donka boys went into the arena together and had a bit of a wild time when the discarded lunge whip got picked up by two playful kit-meows and dragged all over the arena.

This finished up just as the rain moved in, so the horses and donkeys went into the barn for the afternoon with fresh shavings, good hay, and full water buckets. As the rain moved through the temperatures began to drop - from mid-forties down to 25 last night. Today's high is 32 with 35 mph wind and I doubt I'll be riding - the arena is likely frozen due to all the rain we got yesterday.

Tonight's low is predicted for 13 - I'm not fond of the teen temperatures but compared to those who have teens and snow and loss of power on top of that, I won't complain.

Writing-wise yesterday I did a lot of foundation writing and exploration (thinking about it now, it's actually sort of like free lunging vs riding) of character and place and motivation. I'm working this month on a short for the Claire Quartet, which is going to end up being a free bonus for readers. While doing this early work on that, I'm re-reading the first two novels in my Quartet, claire-obscure and Signs That Might Be Omens, as a way to get solidly back into Claire's world. When I'm done with the short I'll be working on the new Claire novel, claire-voyant, and am excited to be getting into that one this new year.

Everyone stay safe, stay warm, and keep your horses hydrated!

2 comments:

Grey Horse Matters said...

Sounds like a fun lunging session. We are -9 right now and getting hammered with snow. Wish it were rain like you had.

Have fun working on your new projects this year.

billie said...

Stay warm and safe, A - I love seeing the snow as it falls and for the time it can remain pristine - but once it gets all tracked up and messy and then muddy as it melts - ugh. The rain has been heavy here the past month or so and very regular - we are still drying out from the last one. Top of the front field is totally ugh right now!!