Shaking Off Winter

By Terry Golson


It hasn’t been the coldest or the snowiest of winters, but it has been miserable. We’ve had just enough slushy snow to make the footing either icy or muddy. There haven’t been many days that Tonka and I were able to get out of the indoor arena and walk the trails. It’s been cloudy, so we haven’t had those sparkly and bracingly clear days that make me well up with joy. April is finally here, yet two days ago four fat, wet inches of snow fell.

We humans are tired of complaining about the weather. I think that we need to take a page from D’Artagnan’s playbook and shake it off. Literally.

D’Artagnan has both separation anxiety and won’t step onto the trailer. We’ve been working on relaxation outside of the barn and near the thing he fears. It’s going rather well! Here he’s walking with his owner. Note that we’re still confined to plowed paths. Doing work in the trailer will have to wait until we can access it. Sigh.

 

The training isn’t physically demanding for this big guy, but it does make him think and exert self-control. After our session, this is what he did:

 

 

 

Shake it off, D!

Have you been able to shake off winter where you are? Tell me what’s blooming and growing, and most importantly, have your animals finally shed their winter coats?


5 thoughts on “Shaking Off Winter

  • Gin

    There are Daffodils, Bluebells, Spring beauties, and Redbud trees and other early flowers blooming. We had a very mild winter, no snow or rain, drought conditions, now it’s started raining and we had 3 inches yesterday, forecasting more today, so now it’s flooding. Horses haven’t entirely lost their winter coats. One of them is slick, but not the other two.

    • Terry Golson Post author

      Ah, thank you! I’d thought that Tonka had finished shedding, but yesterday lots more was coming off of his quarters. After yesterday’s rain, most of the snow in the yard is gone. I will go looking for crocus!

  • Gin

    While you are on the subject of shedding, just a reminder; don’t ever put on chap stick and then go and brush your hairy, shedding horse. I KNOW better than this, but I guess my brain wasn’t engaged this morning and I did just that. Very hard to get the hair off of your lips!

  • Jan

    Great pics and blog as usual. Spring has finally sprung here, rain has stopped at last and we have had some dry sunny days. Have moved my girls onto their summer pasture ( sounds grand ) but is other half of garden which has a large area of fresh grass and beds full of shrubs that they can hide under from the sun. All our spring flowing shrubs are in full bloom, I have got my onions and seed potatoes ready to put in, but have not had time to dig the beds yet !! Hope your weather breaks soon, I am amazed how much you are able to grow in the short time frame you have. All the best from UK 🙂

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