Saturday, February 12, 2011

Too Windy To Ride

Something's in the air!
Kate's all worked up!
Seems like every winter we have to have one of these "airs-above-the-ground" sessions.
Pat and I had made a quick trip to town for the 4H tack sale. Not finding anything to spend our money on, we decided that, since the forecasted rain had not made an appearance, we would load up and try to get her new youngster, Chief, out for his first ride in the open. She's been hauling him to the local indoor to leg him up, and has been really pleased with his laid-back acceptance of life as a saddle horse. But she was waiting for a decent day to get him out and about.
At first she was going to bring him down and we would add Kate to her trailer and head for the John Wayne trail. But as we came home from town, up the hill to my house, in the car, I realized we had a great training spot right here in Hank's empty cattle pasture (his cows are down the road for calving.) She ran home to grab a little lunch and then loaded Chief.
I had a quick sandwich, and then wandered out to catch Kate.
Leading her in from the pasture with a piece of baling twine was no problem, but just as we walked in to the barn a gust of wind came through that rattled the rafters! And out of the blue a windstorm was born.
[This is a roll-back to change directions!]
She finally quieted down, though still on high alert,...
...just about the time her visitor arrived. I had called and talked to Pat's husband when the wind started, but she had already taken off towards our place. When she pulled in she said the wind started just about half-way down the road.
Who's in the trailer, Mommy?
A settled Kate mooched cookies from Pat. But both of us decided that it was not a good day for an outing for a young, very green horse. So Pat declared the trip to be "trailering practice" and headed home.
I took Kate back in and we did a little hoof rasping, and post-winter mane and tail untangling and conditioning, before turning her back out.
We'll have to see if tomorrow's weather is any better.

7 comments:

  1. good for you hanging on like that .....what awesome shots ....although its not the desired behaviour it looks good captured on camera. I hope the wind settles and you get some good horse time spent

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  2. Nice photos - they all have days like that and I'm sure the wind didn't help. But sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.

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  3. wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

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  4. Our wind is picking up too. Today will be the last nice day - high in the 60s and just 10 mph winds. Tomorrow will be warm but 20 mph winds with gusts of 55. Then it's supposed to stay windy and turn off colder with a snowstorm moving in on Wednesday.

    It's nice to know the forecast, even if it sucks - I am about to go on a long ride, because it's my last chance this week. I am not hardcore enough to ride through 55 mph gusts if I could get it done today instead! And I sure wouldn't ride a green horse in super winds - good call there.

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  5. I think you both made a really smart decision to not ride today. Very impressive airs above ground and rollbacks though. Glad you weren't on for that rodeo ride. What a beautiful horse though.

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  6. Great pictures! They all have days like that from time to time, at least you weren't having to ride through it!

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  7. Ha! Kate mare!
    W ind is always so inspiring for the leaping and above ground antics! Great shots...loved your smile when she went up in that shot.

    Good call on having it be a trailering day too~

    My Wa had that day today...I decided to not get on..her head could barely wrap around the ground work!

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