Winter is Here

This morning as the day started to dawn, we saw that overnight had brought what was the beginning of our first major snowfall of the new year. In the first pictures is my brother, Bob. The second picture is Rosie. Pictured in the third is the most beautiful mare in the world, Blue Ridge Mountain Girl. And standing behind her is Once a Hobo. Mt Girl is looking very pregnant these days with her Venture's Black Fury foal.

Just two months more and we will have three new foals. We recently moved the three mares to a smaller field to feed them separately. Rosie is not in foal but we have another mare that is not pictured that is. Rosie is there because she is the most timid mare in the herd and we are hoping she will do much better in a smaller herd.

Rosie is a very shy little mare. She does not like strange noises around her. She does not get close to other horses. In fact, although she is probably the lowest in the pecking order, she does not have a bite mark on her. She just does not let any of the others get close to her to get bitten.

She doesn't like dogs for sure. We have one on the farm that likes to chase around behind all the horses and Rosie hates the dogs at her heals. I love my Rosie Girl.

Mt Girl is really a nice size horse these days even aside from her pregnant condition. She has certainly grown in the last year or so since she was last in the show ring. She is still very gentle and Annie has ridden her. She did really well and was very calm. It is too late in her pregnancy to ride her now. Mt Girl really has the bloom that some pregnant women get. You know the ones. They get more beautiful when pregnant and they have a special glow about them. She has always been a beautiful horse but now she is something special to see.

Yesterday, Annie and I went to buy hay for the pregnant mares. I needed to have hay that didn't have fescue in it and I found some really beautiful hay that was off of a field that was sowed in orchard grass last spring. It is really a nice color and the horses are really going after it. It was getting really dark and cold when we got home and we unhooked the trailer and headed to the house.

The house was warm then as it is now. I remember writing last January just a year ago when I first started blogging that the furnace was running and the dogs were snoring. Well, as I sit here writing tonight, the dogs are snoring and I thank God the furnace is running. It is really cold outside but tonight it is toasty warm inside. Last January brought a terrible ice storm and I was without power for 9 days. So to hear the furnace run is pretty nice.

Annie took Blaze out for a good run today. She put him in the round pen and he started running and jumping and rearing up. He was running and kicking up his heals. He was really overjoyed to be outside. He laid down and rolled and then got up and went down and rolled again. He was estastic. My brother Bob thinks that horses must get cabin fever too. I had not thought about that but I bet he's right. Yesterday when Celine was out in the round pen, Ann was beside herself. She was running back and forth really having a fit to get out of the barn and play outside too.

I had an email from Vera today and they are getting a snow storm there too. I think they get more than we do. They have already had a pretty big snow fall before Christmas. I know we can expect some really good pictures from Vera now. She may be too busy redoing her basement to take very many but hopefully we will be treated to some really good ones. I wonder if there will be any horses in those pictures. Humn

Our road work was done just in time to be done before the snow. We got our hay home in time. I have new gates up in the barn. The horses are trimmed and wormed. The mares in foal are separated from the herd where they will get extra TLC. I have found a good 3 horse trailer I wanted for a reasonable price. Much has been accomplished in this new year already. God is good and merciful. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

May God bless you and keep you in His loving care.

Regards,

Mary

The old mare watched the tractor work

a thing of rubber and steel

ready to follow the slightest wish

of the man who held the wheel.

She said to herself as it passed by,

you gave me an awful jolt,

but there's still one thing you can't do,

you cannot raise a colt.

George Rupp

from "Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover's Soul"