Shocking assault to their systems

I am not kidding when I tell you that we have had a hell of an ice storm since last nite and it is not over yet. In all the years I have had horses, I have never seen icicles hang off of so many of them like this.
This is what the babies' first ice storm is doing to them---look at that poor butt! That is not snow just lying on her, that is iced on and is hanging on for dear life.

This is baby Shiloh's back--she is completely covered in ice pellets.
She does not look very amused--look at all the ice chunks in her mane
She is still cute though.
This is the only smart one of the broodmares--Melody--she was at least standing in the barn to get out of the sleet. Evidently she had not been there all day, as she too had icicles hanging off of her.
Nita seems to have the most ice on her, but it is no wonder with all that area of her back hanging so low. There is plenty of room to catch ice on there!
This is Nita too--she has ice balls hanging from her tail and a chunk of tail hair was stuck to her butt.
Squeak appears to be pretty smart--she had a lot less ice on her. She has her own pen and turnout since she is blind, but there are some days when I swear she is faking it. In this pic, she is trying to get into the bucket of feed even though she was the only one that had already eaten. After this, while I was trying to take other pics, she went around the corner, and stuck her head under the fence and into a feed bucket that Lucky and Ammo were sharing--she took a few bites, and then she stole the bucket right under the fence. That would not be so odd for any other horse, but for one who supposedly cannot see the broad side of a barn, it is kind of interesting. She is also the most pleasant easy-going enjoyable horse I have ever known, so for her to pull a stunt like that cracked me up. Hell, I even let her keep it!

Xanadu was caked in ice. She was also not very amused by this whole deal. Not at all. She has 6 weeks until she is due to foal, as does Mel, Cash and someone else I cannot currently think of. Surprise crappy weather like this is why we do not breed for early babies--you never can tell what is going to happen--and can you imagine how miserable it would be to accidentally foal in this mess?

Miss Foxy is due in April I think. She needs to put on a little weight, I think, but she is doing okay for one who always struggles with her weight when in foal. She has the singularly most annoying habit I think--when she thinks she should be fed, she runs her teeth along something metal--like the corral panel that separates her pasture from Squeak's pen. I swear it makes my hair stand on end--she goes back and forth back and forth scraping her teeth on the metal. Creeps me right out. It is a good alarm though to tip me off to when she has not been fed her dinner, as I thought she had--she will not let me forget something like that.



This pic of Hotrod cracks me up--she is as pissed as I am about the weather.

If this keeps up, it will be a work at home day tomorrow-- I got stuck in my own driveway coming home tonight, and that is before the other 3-6 inches of snow arrive.

The snow did not last

But at least some of the animals really enjoyed themselves. Tequila in particular played like a wild woman, non-stop. Thor indulged her for a bit but was ready for bed pretty quick--he is not a cold weather man at all. He gave it an hour or two today, but it was almost 40 degrees. The only thing noteworthy about this photo is it shows him in some serious action--he has been losing weight again for no apparent reason, but his back hs not been hurting lately. He looks like he is laughing in this picture.





Boce was NOT AMUSED in any way. After all, his belly dragged the ground. He desperately wants to drink water out of that white thing behind him, but it was all covered in show--he was shocked to get a snootful!







I was most looking forward to taking horse in snow pics, some of my favorites from the past were snow pics. Unfortunately, the color came out all wrong on them--I guess the snow was too bright. I will have to ask Robin what to do about that.

In any event, this is Ding, the dun yearling on the right. She better get used to snow, as she is moving to Canada.

This is the Midget on the left--she has appointed herself the spokesperson for her herd of babies, and I cannot get a photo without her being in the foreground of it.



I found Twister laying down in the snow today--I guess he has enough hair and padding to nto feel it, but it still seemed goofy to me. Of course by the time I got to the right spot to take the photo, he had gotten up. That is when I saw that Sly and Fonzie were lying down as well, but at least they are kind of under a tree, on some old hay and pine needles and not directly on the snow.

Snow in southern Illinois?

This does not happen very much in this area, and it makes people act like damn fools. For instance, my bank drive thru closed early yesterday due to snow. How much had it snowed, you ask? Oh, about an inch. Honest to God.

The pool closed yesterday as well--I suspected they would, so I drove by after finding out that the stupid bank was closed, about 4:45 and the lights were on, cars were there, etc. I went to get Rita, came back at 5:15 and the damn place was locked up tight as a drum. No note, nothing, just dark. Still no more than an inch of snow on the ground and at that time, it had stopped snowing. This after a thunderstorm shut them down on Tuesday, as well.

After work today, I ran to tan, changed into my suit there and rushed to the pool--guess what? CLOSED! At least there was a sign, but for Petes sake, it quit snowing this morning, and the schools were in session in town. How am I supposed to get over being fat with these forces working against me?

I did get some photos of the snow--Holly will be so proud of me. This was the scene that greeted me at the farm..note the tractor still in the front yard, as it has no steering and Barry has not had time to do anything about it. I guess we can write off him
laying under it this weekend to work on it huh?

This photo at the bottom was taken at lunchtime, from INSIDE the barn. I was probably standing close to the middle, and all this snow was inside---covering blankets, a bag of senior feed, some chaff haye, etc. What a mess that is going to be as it melts.

It snowed!

This is probably not that noteworthy in most places, especially since it has been snowing in Illinois for weeks, but it rarely snows here in the southern part. If it does, it does not last very long. Evidently it started snowing the nite we left, so this was the condition of the car when our plane landed. Those roping gloves we got from Falcon Seaboard Ranch came in handy for getting the snow off the windshield, as we certainly were not otherwise prepared for this.

The snow is still here, and everything is a sloppy nasty mess.