Our weather pattern changed dramatically this week. After a pretty nice spring, we started getting rain ... and lots of it. It was good to get the rain initially as it has been pretty dry, but we're now way too soggy. After heavy rain from storms caused flooding in Burlington on Wednesday, the storms concentrated on our area on Thursday night. Our driveway washed out from the torrents of water coming down the road, but the effect on our driveway was nothing in comparison to the end of our neighbors' driveway, where a four-foot trench developed. The town road crew was really busy taking care of road repairs; there were a lot of washouts. The temperatures dropped into the 40s, so it has been a pretty raw weekend.
Needless to say, with the heavy rains and winds, the horses have been in since Thursday. Once our road opened back up, I headed to the barn early Saturday morning to let them romp for a bit in the indoor. Whenever I do this, I'm always struck by their different responses to this, um, opportunity.
Dude was totally charged up, and just opening the barn door to the great outdoors was cause for much excitement. Adding to the excitement was a visual change since the last turnout day - some long drainage pipes had been left along the walkway, which led to a long, drawn-out "something's new in my world" snort and some sideways eye-balling of the pipes. In the indoor, he dropped, rolled, bucked, then trotted around snorting and tossing his head, periodically running up to me to jump around in front of me and give me a nudge. Sorry Dude, not going to play with you. A) You outweigh me and B) You are not known for your respect for personal space. He ran around for a bit, then settled down to a walk and investigated the corner where the jumps are stored, the lunge whips hanging on the wall, and his own handsome self reflected in the wall mirror. Once the indoor experience's novelty wore off, he strolled over to me, and I reclipped him and we went in.
Bestie strolled out calmly and didn't even look at the drainage pipes. Once we were in the indoor arena, she moseyed around for a bit, dropped for a leisurely roll, then walked over to me like "OK, what's next?" Since the rain had let up a bit, I hand grazed her for a few minutes.
I cleaned up their stalls and added more shavings prior to leaving. Barn manager Larry reminded me that they'd pick out the stalls again later in the afternoon - very nice. It rained all day yesterday and is still coming down today so I don't anticipate they'll be heading outdoors any time soon.
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