Cold Hands, Warm Heart

The cold and snow have continued, but there are some breaks in sight and in a week or two we may be out of the teens for the most part. So hopefully this will be the last time I focus on coping with subzero temperatures.

I try to take care of my hands in winter. Here are my most important accessories.

25 degrees and up:

Notice one has gone AWOL even though I was watching them very carefully. I'm hoping it will turn up when the snow melts.

Below 25 degrees:

My first shearling product. Very warm even though worn. I'm going to patch these with an old fleece insole I've been saving.

Mittens from childhood. Used when the above get wet.

My second shearling product. Mended many times. Still very warm, nearly as warm as mittens. Used when both of the above get wet.

Any temperature, any time of year, the best barn footwear ever:

These are about 5 years old. They are so great though they could probably stand to be boiled clean. Good in mud, poop, rain, flooding, and snow. Attached to them here, for icy conditions, are YakTrax (c). This way I can move freely and safely around the barnyard. Frankly, sometimes I need these to navigate the premises at home.

Winter Wear

Crane Mountain Valley Horse Rescue is a reputable rescue that helped me greatly a few years ago. Their Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Crane-Mountain-Valley-Horse-Rescue-Inc/281343055215433 usually has news, about the owners and the residents. But their most recent post was about What They Wore:

"Chore gear: tank top, thermals (shirt & pants), wool turtleneck, hoodie, Carhart pants, Carhart and thinsulate lined jacket, wool socks, fleece neck warmer, wool cap, Carhart baseball hat (with fleece liner and ear flaps), fleece lined mittens, insulated muck boots, hand warmers, toe warmers. It's 50 extra pounds of clothes! Add to that, walking through 6 inches of snow pulling a sled with 65 pounds of hay on it, 30 pound water buckets, and about 15 pounds of grain. Now, that's a workout!
Anyone want to sign up at Crane Mountain Valley fitness farm? No gym fees and tons of fresh air.....and great rewards with happy horses."

I can relate. And illustrate. Here's my chore gear, arranged by outdoor temperature.

25 to 35 degrees:

Old fleece pants

Spouse's old running pants

Fleece zip top

Old formerly waterproof jacket

Newish Ariat socks

15 to 25 degrees:

Really old Damart thermals

Old insulated ski pants

Newish ALPACA socks

Fleece zip top

Down vest, gift from sister

Down jacket from mother and husband

5 to 15 degrees:

Fleece long johns

Old insulated ski pants

Blessed ALPACA socks

NEW fleece zip top

Down vest

Down jacket, supplemented by the down vest

Old jacket now functioning as windbreaker

 
After mucking out a couple of stalls, I do usually need to unzip a couple of layers. But all this stuff does help me get out to the car and up to the farm.

I had more fun than I expected putting this post together. Next time: Headgear, gloves, mittens, and boots.

Behavior

It has been very cold lately, and the grounds at the farm are covered with ice. We have not even been hand walking, let alone riding.

So I am surprised that Molly has been letting me pick up her feet. I've been doing this even though they are quite clean, to keep her mind ready for her next farrier visit.

One of my colleagues at work had looked up the term "muleskinner" and discovered it involves the ability to cope with mules' intelligence. She asked with some surprise if mules are really smart. I said that that was the general impression, but that opinions vary.

Molly in her former pasture at Duane's. He supplied the "Attack Mule" sign.

I should have added that equines vary, too. There's such a great range of personalities from horse to horse, but also a range of moods within one creature. I sometimes find Molly's behavior just awful, but I usually end up wondering if I've somehow contributed to it (see my earlier post called "Grass").

Her farrier and I have tried several methods of getting her to let her feet be held for longer periods. Our worst idea was to use treats, because she immediately focused on those and lurched around looking for more. So far our best idea is to wait until the farrier arrives to give her her morning hay.

Her farrier is always confident, patient, and consistent. I learn a lot just by watching her.

Economics

I read a commentary recently which expressed the view that owning a horse is not that expensive. Because I had recently been mulling over how costly it is to own an equine, this really caught my attention.

Reading more closely, it became apparent that the commentator was saying that horse owners do not need to spend as much money as advertising and various published instructions would indicate.

The commentator did assume an owner could afford a large pasture with suitable grass, health care, and thoughtful training. Beyond this, most supplements and many accoutrements would be unnecessary.

It was an incredible assumption and it demonstrates the income gap within the horse world. It almost made me cry, thinking of all the backyard horses that vanished during the recession, of the horses I knew who had to journey onward, of the horse-related businesses that I have seen fail, and of the stories we have all heard of horses abandoned at boarding facilities or in fields or along the roadside. An owner first postpones this farrier visit or that fee, and after that, unpaid bills can mount faster than it seems possible.

I will never forget how I once remarked that one reason I didn't own a horse was that I didn't have time to muck out and feed twice a day. An acquaintance responded with an eye roll and a laugh, "Well that is why you board them!" I could never decide if they were speaking from ignorance or arrogance.

Molly in September 2014

I learned what it cost to own an equine, and only purchased Molly when I was in a position to support her. Good fortune was largely responsible for that position. If my fortunes changed, would I be able to accept that in time to find her another home? How long would I wait, telling myself that things could improve in just a few days or weeks?

Owning a horse is a luxury, but the companionship of a beloved animal is not. My heart goes out to all who struggle to reconcile one with the other.

New Year's Day Ride

We had a lot of snow a few weeks ago, followed by a thaw and now more cold. I've been working Molly a little at a time so that we can get used to these conditions together.

As soon as we could get around at all, I just hand-walked her around the tack room building. As the snow packed down we walked farther afield, and last weekend we resumed riding in the upper field.

Some of the farm equipment has been moved around for winter. The rows of crops are sheltered with lots of straw and some snow over that. There's still a lot of snow cover elsewhere. So the landscape looks a lot different and I give her plenty of time to look around. There are lots of new tarps covering this and that so we make sure to check those out beforehand.

She has taken just about everything in stride but I still give her lots of time. She snorts a lot and I can feel that she is different. I suppose it could be the cold, or the footing, or the wind, or the way sights  and sounds are different in the snow. I try really hard to sit her well so that she gains confidence in herself and in me. She frequently starts trotting on her own, so I know she is not at all relaxed! Recalling my teachers, I stop her often and back up a few steps, then go forward, so that she has something else to think about.

She spooked at a parked truck and also at one of her reins. She rarely spooks and I'm not scared when she does it but it seemed this time to be a sign that she's not herself. So I dismounted right away and then she walked along just fine. Next time I think I'll stay mounted and walk her back and forth a short distance. If we are able to stay in tune now, then come spring, we can progress!

Piero della Francesca

My husband gave me a great book for Christmas - Horses and Horsemanship Through the Ages, by Luigi Gianoli. The author says that the Renaissance brought fundamental changes in horsemanship to Europe.

Piero della Francesca is known as an important Italian Renaissance painter. From his c. 1466 fresco cycle "The Legend of the True Cross", which includes this painting:




The Queen of Sheba in adoration of the Wood and the Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Gianoli has selected this detail:

The striking white horse must belong to the Queen of Sheba. And the black horse to the left is certainly communicating something to someone.

But the thing I find most charming is how the artist depicted the horse who is looking out at us over the white horse's saddle. I imagine this tells us something about della Francesca as a horseman as well as an artist.


 NB: Wikipedia notes of Piero della Francesca, "As testified by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists, to contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer."

Note: The book is: Horses and Horsemanship Through the Ages, by Luigi Gianoli, translated by Iris Brooks. First published in Italian as Il Cavallo e l'Uomo, 1967 by Longanesi and C. First published in the United States by Crown Publishers, Inc. 1969.

The deer

A few nights ago, my husband and I were coming home from a party. We saw that a number of cars had pulled over, so we did too.

There was a deer lying in the middle of the road, badly hurt. No one knew what to do.

My husband got out of the car and went over to the deer. He rested his had on her briefly to be sure she wouldn't panic. She raised her head and looked around. Then she let him pull her over to the side of the road, while someone else called the police.

Although no one could have alleviated her suffering, he made her safe from further injury. He will always be a hero to me.