Play time with the ponies

The horses didn't go outside today because of the weather. I actually missed the worst of it because we had gone to Boston for a hockey game. Apparently it rained here in the morning, and then right about the time we were heading back north, the rain turned over to snow. Now the forecasters are calling for anywhere from 13 to 30 inches! (This is a bit hard to take because it was 60 degrees in Boston!)

After we got home I went to the barn to check on the horses. No one was around, which was great because the indoor arena was empty and I could let them (one at a time) drop and roll and walk around.

I always find it kind of funny to watch them with this opportunity. Dude's routine is to roll first thing, then get up all full of himself and prance around for a bit. Next he'll try to get me to play with him by trotting up and sort of tossing his head around and looking at me expectantly. What he thinks I'll do, I don't know. He doesn't really recognize personal space too well, so I always shoo him away, telling him, "You're way too big to play with." After about 15 minutes of wandering about and sniffing things in the arena he gets bored and goes to stand by the door to wait for me to put his halter on and take him back to the barn.

Bestie wanders around sniffing the ground, looking for the perfect spot to roll. She's a much more leisurely roller than Dude is, and when she's done she stands up and looks at me for the next step. A lot of times if I start walking, she'll walk right alongside me like she's on a lead rope. It's hard to get her to romp around like Dude does.

The short walk from the side barn door to the indoor arena was pretty soupy with about 6 inches of snow and water running underneath the snow. With temperatures in the 40s earlier in the weekend and the rain, there's some flooding going on in the area. I'll be surprised if the horses go out tomorrow - things need to firm up a bit. Can't really complain though; they've only missed two days of turnout this winter - that's got to be some sort of record.