This past month can mostly be summarized in two words: cows and snow.

But the photo of the month definitely goes to Mike who snapped this amazing shot on our way home from checking on baby Norman that first morning.

It's so cool having eagles on the mountain and we see them really regularly now! Hopefully they'll stay in the area.

 At the beginning of the month, I took pictures of the girls running around in the snow. Afterwards, Booger was pretty well warmed up. I had just taken her on that trail ride with Neighbor Friend™ and I was feeling brave that day. I decided to take her for a quick solo trail ride, just around PTF. 

 Just another media dump of riding in the snow. This week the temperatures have been all over the place. We've had ice, snow, sleet, and rain. The footing alternates between slushy and crusty. I have tried to ride Lucy twice, and both times have been a bust. We've just moseyed out to the ring and back. I have taught two lessons in three weeks. While I have quite enjoyed playing in the snow this winter, I am now ready for it to go away. While I don't want to deal with eight weeks of mud, I am ready to go back to work, and I  miss riding. Plus I can't turn Norman out until he's three weeks old or the weather improves, whatever happens first.

In the meantime, here's a throwback to the beginning of the month when we still had good snow, and Eryca and I got out on the trails for five miles.

It has been a rough week around here. One of the sheep, George, seemed fine on Tuesday. When I came to feed on Wednesday, he was dead in the pasture. Poor Mike took a half day to help me take care of the body. On Thursday, the oldest sheep, Janet, had a seizure during feeding time and I thought we were going to lose her too. I was worried I'd gotten the wrong kind of grain or there was contamination or something. The vet came out. By the time he arrived, Janet had stopped seizing and was up and eating like nothing had happened. She got a Vitamin B shot and some dex and seems to be doing well now. The sheep are really old and some degree of death/illness is to be expected at this point, but I was pretty sad and traumatized by the end of the week.

On Friday afternoon, as we were leaving the barn after feeding, Mike asked me, "Do we have to milk the cows?"

Without thinking much of it, I replied, "Nope. Cows only produce milk if they have babies."

Mike then pointed out that the red cow had a pretty full-looking udder. I did glance at her, and her teats were definitely looking puffy. However, both of the cows on the property are girls. Fran got them right around the beginning of the pandemic, so in my mind they'd been there for close to a year already. Plus they were practically calves themselves when they arrived. I hoped Steak, who is pretty much feral, wasn't developing mastitis and made a mental note to keep an eye on it. 

On Saturday, Mike and I went to the barn together to put a new round bale in the hay hut. When we left, Steak was laying comfortably in what remained of the old hay bale. On the way out of the driveway, we passed Alison and Sophia. I met them recently because they've been helping Fran in pre and post-op. Alison has been stopping by to take care of Fran since she discharged herself, and Sophia has bonded with Booger and enjoys spending time in the barn.

On a whim, I exchanged numbers with Alison in case she needed to contact me about anything to do with Fran or the farm.

That afternoon, Mike and I were chatting on Zoom with Bryce and Eryca. My phone was on the desk by the front door with the sound off. Randomly, in the middle of our chat, I got the sudden urgent need to go check my phone. It was honestly kind of rude of me. The moment I touched my phone, the screen lit up. Alison was calling me. Uh oh...

"Hey, Dom. I'm so sorry to bother you, but I just sent you a picture. Sophia says something is... um... coming out of one of the cows. The cow is in obvious pain, and we don't know what to do. She has been in distress for about half an hour now and there's blood."

"I'll be right over. Can you have Fran call her vet?"

"He's already on his way."

I checked my text messages, and saw this photo. I don't know a whole lot about cows, but I remember from my vet tech days that prolapse is pretty common in cattle. I wondered if that was what we were going to be dealing with. 

Mike and I put on our bibs and hopped in the car. I called Neighbor Friend™ for back up. 

"Feel free to say no to this, but we're dealing with some kind of cow emergency at the barn. Would you be interested in coming over there and helping with whatever it is...?"

"Sure. Let me put on some warm clothes. I'll be right behind you."

 I'm running out of post title idea. It's pretty much been Ride in the Snow, Snow Ride, Ride in the Snow Again, Still Riding in the Snow. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but it doesn't make for creative subject headings. 

On the fourth, Eryca and I met up for the first of many trail rides following the snowstorm. We headed next door to Pine Twig and did just shy of three miles with Lucy and Lilly.

 I don't talk about client horses in much detail any more, but this one happens to be owned by a photographer and I have media to share, so why not? Dee is an unraced six year old thoroughbred who came from New Vocations. He was in race training, but never got tattooed. He broke a splint bone and had it removed. Then, before he could resume serious work, he bowed a tendon. His connections threw in the towel and sent him to NV.

All photos in this post are by Christie Behot.

 I have completely gone off the deep end. I ordered a complete set of Taylored Tack for Booger. 

I barely trail ride her and it's not like she's going to be an endurance horse, but I got tired of having to switch holes on Lucy's bridle all the time. Plus I'm a tack hoarder. More legitimately, I recently added a running martingale to Boo's set up. I was really reluctant to do it, but it has definitely helped with her tendency to brace her jaw and go around like, well, an Arabian. While I got the quick attachment style from Distance Depot, having the rings jingling on Lucy's reins when I ride without the martingale was making me crazy. 

Of course, there's also the fact that I just love the variety of available beta biothane colors. At first, I was going to try to get some sort blush tone for Booger. I love the wine on Lucy. Eventually, I decided lavender would look lovely on Bug. I specifically dreamed up lavender beta with purple maze overlay. Unfortunately the lavender beta is discontinued so not everybody carries it. Taylored Tack does not offer lavender. I even emailed Amanda directly to find out if it was something I could pay extra for. When that wasn't an option, I looked at other tack vendors and polled the audience on FB. In the end, I decided the quality of the product was more important than the color. The places that had quality and lavender beta didn't have purple maze overlay. 

Eventually, I decided to stick with Taylored Tack and explore other color options. I debated just getting regular purple, but I really wanted something lighter/brighter against Boo's dark coat. I briefly contemplated teal, but I think finding matching items would be even harder than trying to match the wine set. 

My favorite color is blue, and most of Jen's endurance horses go in blue. I have no plans to do endurance for the foreseeable future *sob* but it would be nice to have a full set of gear of my own if I ever do go back to catch riding. So then it was just a matter of picking the right shade of blue. I won't bore you with how drawn out of a process that was. I really am coming apart at the seams, I think. 

In the end, I went with the ride and tie style bridle with a blue noseband on the rope halter. For the tack, I chose beta blue with meadow lands overlay. 

Unfortunately, Amanda wasn't willing to exchange the Conway buckle on the girth strap like she did for Lucy. There was also a delay in manufacturing due to some strapping being on back order, which was fine, but I had to reach out three weeks after my order to find out what was going on. I still recommend Taylored Tack for the quality of the product, but I have been really cranky about a lot of places and their customer service lately. Don't even get me started on CVS. And I have a whole other saga about a certain product that will have to wait for a separate entry. 

Booger's tack arrived on Saturday just as Eryca and I got back from our trail ride. Mike, being the Best Husband Ever, threw the tack and his camera in the car and came right over to the barn. All my concerns about color choice faded the second I put the tack on Booger. I'm biased, but I think it looks spectacular on her. I was like a little kid as I tacked her up for a quick photo shoot in the ring. 

❤❤❤

 But mostly Booger because Lucy did a courtesy lap around the ring and then jumped out and ran back to the barn. I guess she's taking these jumping sessions to heart. Oh my.

Deep snow is a good way to build those butt muscles.

Lining up the gate opening...

 Pop quiz!! How many animals is Dom currently caring for every day? If you guessed fifteen, you are correct!

2 dogs, 7 horses, 4 sheep, and 2 cows!

 Last Wednesday, the day after the blizzard, the driveway at Gunner's barn was still inaccessible so Jess had to cancel her lesson. Instead, I invited her to come for a trail ride with me instead. We ended up doing four and a half miles and I had an absolute blast. 

 You guys, I am so proud I could burst...

 Apparently it's winter.

Eryca took the day off on Friday to meet me for a trail ride before the blizzard hit. On Thursday night, as we were settling into bed, Mike asked me, "Did you see the forecast for tomorrow?"
"Yeah, it's gonna be like 24℉ and sunny."
"...and the wind?"
"What wind?"

I opened my weather app. Sure enough. Winds steady at 20-25mph, with gusts up to 40mph. Whoops. 

I texted Eryca with a heads up. As always, she was game for whatever I had in mind. I figured we'd bundle up and head next door into the woods. If it was really terrible, we'd just do a quick jaunt around the neighbor's and come right back. 

So with a real feel of six degrees, I put on my Windpro breeches, Woolrich socks, and Columbia down jacket (the kind with the metal heat shield lining). Then I grabbed a scarf and gloves, and dug through the front closet for my Rabbit Run completion hat, which is fleece and thin enough to fit under my helmet. Meanwhile, I heated some milk up on the stove before mixing in an extra packet of hot chocolate mix. I poured that into some awesome thermoses that my mom got us and grabbed my saddle bags out of the barn. 

I warmed my car up and threw on my muck boots as Mike kissed my goodbye with a skeptical, "Good luck..."

I met Eryca at Fran's ten minutes later and traded her a thermos of hot chocolate for hand and foot warmers. As the wind gusted hard enough to shake the barn, I glanced at Eryca and said, "We must be out of our freaking minds."
She grinned and replied, "I love it."

The horses were happily munching hay under the overhang when we arrived, but they came right over when I opened the barn door. I love that these mares always seem to be up for whatever adventure we have in mind. They mostly live out 24/7 so the weather wasn't news to them, and they're well adapted with their thick, fluffy winter coats. 

I had a client ask how they handle the wind, and my reply was basically that horses get good at riding in the elements by being ridden in the elements. 

Eryca and I tacked up quickly, giggling all the way, and then swung onto our trusty steeds and headed out  into the corn field, where there was no shelter from the January bluster. 

You know you're jealous.

 I'm slowly easing back into play dates with Eryca after my car accident in November. We've been riding on the days that the weather is nice, and I do three classes a week. With the multiple animal emergencies we had in January, plus the fact that I'm officially taking care of Lucy's entire barn right now, this will not be a media heavy post. However, progress continues despite my hiatus from inversions and the fact that I can't seem to stop gaining weight (not that I've tried very hard in that department).

My biggest progression photo from January came from one of Eryca's Zoom classes. We played with eight angle pose, which is a favorite of mine. I didn't realize how much I'd improved until I put it side by side with my first attempt back in June!

June 2020

January 2021

 Can we talk about what a year this month has been? As I was downloading these photos, I felt a mixture of "I can't believe it's February already" and "that happened in January?" I thought about making a separate post just for the memes from January 2021, but I changed my mind so they're mixed in here with everything else. 

It has been a while since I posted pictures of Tookie and Oreo, but they're still here and thriving. They're hunkered down in the barn with a pile of hay while the snow batters the farm.