Will it ever be Spring?

I finally went to the barn this past Sunday. Between the snow and spending time with Jim, I have been neglecting the Snipes. I think I’ve ridden a total whopping 4 times since Christmas because of the snow, or the cold, or the wind, or a combination of all three. It’s driving me crazy!

It was so nice outside when I got to the barn – sunny and a warm 45 degrees! Although it doesn’t seem so, 45 in the sun when one is used to 20-30 degrees, IS warm. I ended up shedding my jacket in favor of only a windbreaker.

I groomed Snipes, threw the saddle on him, and proceeded to go to the arena. After getting on him and walking into the arena further, he threw his normal half-hearted “but I don’t wanna” fit. After discussing life with him, we continued to walk in the 8-12 inches of crusty snow in the arena for a bit. One of the other borders was taking her three mares back to their pasture and Snipes, of course, wanted to go with them (like any male, he loves the girls). We discussed who was in charge once again.

Now, just a little bit of background here. Sniper is a lovely boy. However, he’s opinionated and stubborn to a fault (like I’m pointing any fingers there!). And he totally loves to cross that naughty line. It used to be that he would win most of the arguments -this is very bad for any animal-human relationship! After my instructor beat some sense into me (figuratively, not literally), I’ve been progressively winning arguments and now I pretty much win all the arguments. He still tries though, every chance he gets - on rare occasions, he wins.

After I was sure he finally understood my world once again, we left the arena. Snipes LOVES to go on trail. You can tell because his attitude changes and he gets a hop to his step. It’s cute. I didn’t want to go back into the woods by myself, so I decided to go down the unplowed section of road on the farm. We went down the road and came back up; I figured that was enough riding time and headed for the tack shed. Snipes pretty much stated HE was not finished, so I decided what the heck and let him go where he wanted. We went partly back down the road again, then partly down another, and when he still wasn’t done, we went down the plowed road to the front of the farm. Now, most people think horse people are crazy. Maybe we are. Horse people communicate with our horses by feeling and with body language in addition to verbal language. As I was riding Sniper it seemed as if he were more than ecstatic to get out of the pasture (where the snow is still 8-12” deep in places) and onto the plowed road where he could stretch his legs a little. As we were walking down the road, he looked around almost like he was tallying all the horses on the property. Only once he saw all the horses was he content being done with the ride.

Ah, so maybe I am in the crazy category, talking to my horse. However, he was content, I was content, and after untacking, some yummy cookies for him, and some snuggling from me, we both were quite the happy campers!