Noping out

It's terrible when your momentum is shut down due to things you genuinely can't control.  Yes, I'm whining about the weather.

We had a windstorm on Monday with some snow squalls mixed in for fun.  I did manage to drive to the barn all dressed to ride, but those 50mph wind gusts are hard to handle.  I had to dodge a lot of downed branches on the way in and the blowing snow took visibility down to 0 at times.  Theo needed a blanket swap so I didn't have an option.  I had to stop and visit him after work.  I fought the wind to get to his gate and called him.

He's a good boy.  He poked his head out of his shed, spotted me, and started heading up just like he always does.  He was about halfway up when a huge gust of wind hit, bad enough I had to hunker down and hide my face as I got pelted with snow and sand from the road.  My beloved jack ass turned his butt around and went right back in his shed.  I've never seen a horse so definitively nope out in my life.


It looked just like this.

I agreed with him, but he still needed his heavy with temps dropping through the night.  He wasn't coming out no matter how I called or waved his muffin treat at him.  I had to slog down the hill to his shed to get him.  We kind of huddled together on our walk up to the barn, trying to keep our faces out of the blowing snow.  I pulled off his medium, popped on his heavy with the insulated neck rug, and then sent him right back out.  Could I have ridden?  Probably, it was only 25* out and there is an indoor, but I didn't have the heart for it after fighting out to this field and down to his shed.  It was so miserable and with the breaking trees, I couldn't imagine that our ride would have gone well.  I don't need the kind of impulsion that comes with branches snapping loose and hitting the arena.

Today it's still windy and freaking cold.  That'll be a second day off.  This time it's too cold to safely breathe hard or risk sweating.  Stupid weather.

I really wanted to keep up the momentum, but I have to accept that it's February and the hands down worst month to ride in New Hampshire.  Five days a week of real work is actually very good for this time of year.  That doesn't change my grumbling or glaring at the weather reports.