Thursday, December 4, 2008

Motivation...

It sure is hard to get motivated to ride when today looks like it will be the nicest all week with a temperature sitting at about 38 degrees. John keeps telling me that I am tough enough to handle it. I don't think his memory serves him well. I am what you may call a 'fair weather friend'. I'm only friendly about the weather as long as it is 'fair' out. 38 and windy is not fair weather, if you ask me. I prefer weather between 50-100 degrees for riding. Really, that is a pretty generous offer. Oh, what I wouldn't give for sweaty days filled with flies buzzing and ice cold hose baths. But, there will be no improvement in the spring if I don't work all winter.

On another note, John got my x-mas present today. Well, I got my x-mas present from him for myself :)

It is from Schneider's. They have a great tack shop. I have been shopping from them at horse shows for years. Their web site is www.sstack.com and it is really great. Lots of options, high quality. Really good for Arabian and gaited horse owners.

It is going to get below freezing almost every night for the rest of the winter it looks like... Horses are most comfortable at about 40 degrees. They stay comfortable down to about 20 if they have been slowly acclimatizing to the weather change and have grown a nice winter coat. Under 20 and they will feel a little chilly. They are downright cold at anything below 5 degrees. Last night got down to about 21, so John and I took the horse a bale of hay and an old blanket I had for my old horse Stolen Fire. Fire was built like a saddlebred. Tall and long and lanky. His blanket was about a 74" and Boomer needs about a 68". So, I had to do a bit of adjusting but it fit OK except in the shoulders. This morning I went out to take off the blanket and found that the water troughs had about a quarter inch of ice over them. So, that chore starts sooner than I had anticipated. The blanket was still in one piece this morning although it had dtifted back over the withers and could potentially rub the hair off if it is used for an extended period of time. Which it won't be because it is just a stable blanket and isn't waterproof.

Ok, it is about 4 and John should be getting home soon. I need to get dressed to ride and find my motivation!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your motivation is that you GET to ride. And you GET to spend time with Boomer.

Are you sure that's not really a present from John to Boomer? Shouldn't John find something for you, just for you?

Heather said...

Getting to shop for anything horsey sure does seem like a present for me! I love horsey shopping and have had my eye on this blanket for a while! I also got a super primo blender for x-mas for my smoothie making :)