December at the barn

I took this photo of the barn holiday decorations a few weeks ago and am just getting around to posting it. The decorations made the front entryway to the barn look very festive.

Each horse had a little stocking on the tree in the tack room with a candy cane tucked inside. So nice!

We experienced some crazy weather in December. Rain, sleet, snow ... and a combination of all three on the weekend prior to Christmas, followed by a deep freeze that made the paddocks into skating rinks. The horses were in for a week. They got turned out in the indoor arena if owners were unable to make it out. I would turn out Dude and Bestie in the evening when I got there if no one else was using the indoor. Luckily, most people seem to enjoy riding in the new indoor, so the old one was often vacant and perfect for a little roll and romp.







One late afternoon I happened to be there at the barn when the front right half of the roof shed its load of snow and ice. That's the front end of my car in the photo; luckily no damage. Even more exciting, when the roof shed, I had Dude on the crossties in the aisle. It was like an avalanche when it came down - the barn shook. All the horses started whinnying, and Dude was tap dancing and snorting while on the crossties but didn't freak out or break loose. Amazing. What a good boy.







Just before New Year's barn owner Larry took turnout matters into his own hands and drove the tractor out into each paddock and made endless loops, totally pulverizing the ice. It made me nervous to hear they were planning on turning the horses out, so I went out with a flashlight prior to heading home that night and took a look. The tractor circles had basically crushed the crusty snow and ice and the footing was like the consistency of sand. So the horses have been out for two days now; partial days, actually, because the temps are in the single digits. Dude and Bestie have a Baker sheet as their bottom layer, then an insulated blanket, and then their turnout sheets. On Friday it's likely they won't go out at all because it's not supposed to climb above zero. Gotta love Vermont winters.