Winter came by last night and seems to be hanging around. I don’t like it, but I’m not unprepared for it. First of all, Winter Eli finally showed up last night and I can’t blame him. We walked a little bit last night, but I could tell getting a decent trot wasn’t going to happen right away, so I burned off some of his energy by cantering around a few laps both ways. He was just a tad cold-backed haha. Even when he’s extra fresh, he doesn’t do anything too unreasonable any more, although he did also throw in a few leap-y spook moves. After we got some of his energy got a bit more focused, I did get some good trotting done. But jeez it was wet and kind of windy and generally unpleasant.
Which brings me to layering up Eli. I had a pretty good handle on when he’d want a sheet and when he’d want a blanket when he wasn’t clipped but now he’s clipped. I put a sheet on him last night and when I woke up this morning it was like 47F or something so I think I was right to do that. Honestly he may even have wanted a blanket, but I don’t want him to get too hot and start sweating under a blanket, of course.
Anyway, Eli has his own closet full of attire. He has two sheets (that I can swap out and clean periodically), a stable blanket, a turnout blanket, an Irish knit, a wool cooler, and a quarter sheet for when it’s absolutely miserable outside but I still insist on riding.
It’s also time for me to layer up. My office is damnably cold in the winter due to drafty windows (that are true to history so there’s only so much weatherizing that can happen). Like right now I am wearing two shirts, a wool cardigan and a puffy vest and I am NOT taking anything off or I will get too cold.
I am a total wuss at this point about the cold. When I was younger it didn’t bother me as much but not it’s just physically painful. The extra element of that this particular winter is that my job is about to get crazy, from now through May. That saying about laws and sausages is totally true, y’all. Just trust me on that. What that means for me, though, is that there will be some nights that I don’t leave work until very, very late, which means less riding overall. Hopefully there won’t be too many late nights and I will be able to keep Eli going at least 4 days a week. Something tells me he won’t mind.
Dreading winter over here…
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Least favorite season!
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It got cold here last night too. I’m officially grumpy. Will be till about May.
For your sake, I hope your late nights at work coincide with bad weather, so you won’t actually be missing riding time. Stay warm!
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Yup, until about May is about right lol
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I’m a wuss in the cold too. Today I was riding with long underwear on top and bottom!
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The cold is just so uncomfortable!
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first off you work there in Austin? I know that building LOL haahaha
second i am at my dad’s this am and it is 50 out this am Poor Mark is home doing horse duty and it was 27 at 8 o clock this am UGH. Also chance of snow on Monday for Memphis area (It wont amount to much but it is also supposed to rain and be low 20s that night and low 23 the next night). Wet sheets and cold weather do not mix.
I am sure Eli is fine in a sheet most nights in the barn when it is cold. Remus (Who is not clipped and has a whole lot of….umm…fur more than Eli HA) usually only wears a sheet. I have 2 100 grams for him and that is it. Of course i am wondering about sending my friend Steph over to change his sheet to 100 gram on monday after rain/snow…LOL I dont know if Mark could figure out how to put it on.
Stay warm. I hope Conrad is staying warm too. And can you believe Tgviing is so close. I hope you get decent weather when you are off!!
PS I never knew a horse to not be fresh right after clipping AND a cool drop in weather. Remus the one year I hunter trace clipped him was BOUNCING out of his skin the first ride. It was like a totally dif horse 🙂 HA HAHA
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Yep, I work in the big Sunset granite building. An office building … with tourists 🤨
Ughhhhhh poor Mark is right, that weather sounds awful. Snow is the dumbest thing ever.
Oh, I figured Eli would be jumping out of his skin! And he will probably keep doing that until April. It is in the low 40s so I did put his blanket on. This is the first time he’s been body clipped (probably ever) so he’s probably confused as to why he feels colder 😂
And I bundled up Conrad in a wool sweater for a walk this morning. He had a lot of energy too!
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Winter seemed to come in an awful hurry this year. It was like, summer until mid-September, then it rained for what felt like a month, and then it snowed. Literally we have snow on the ground. Thankfully it’s slowly melting away, but it barely got into the 30s this weekend. I’M NOT READY FOR IT. Neither is Duke. He’s half clipped (we got his neck and chest done before the clipper blades got really dull), and his medium weight blanket is still off at the cleaners so he got a secondhand one this weekend, which he has been wearing with his waterproof sheet over the top. And I’m deep in my rotation of fleece lined breeches.
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Oh god. I am not ready for snow. I’d take a snow day from work, though …
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Yeah. We might get 1 or 2 “snow days” a year (aka work from home days). And often that just means everyone comes to work and they tell us to leave early. If they do that, it means we probably are getting more than 8-12 inches within a couple of hours. Otherwise, we just deal with it and life goes on as normal. Thank goodness for 4-wheel drive.
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I guess the benefit of living in Central Texas is that it only takes about a half inch or so of snow or even less ice to have a snow day … we don’t have the equipment down here for it.
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I suppose it’s a trade-off. Our hottest summer days might hit the high 90s (or rarely into the low-100s), and our winters get pretty brutal. It was 17 degrees when I woke up this morning wahhh. Texas sounds lovely in the fall and winter!
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That is so freaking cold! But we do get weeks at a stretch of 100f days so definitely a trade off. It’s gotten up to 100 in February here before. 🙄
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I should just become a snowbird and move to TX during the winters haha
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I am dreading winter. Especially since it seems to be similar to last year: bitter cold or pouring rain. sigh.
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We are having what is a very early freeze for this area right now and I hate it.
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