Concerned

It is now impossible for my horse to go out to pasture. We cannot go down the hill, the snow is too deep and treacherous. And we cannot walk up the street and use our main gate to enter our pasture, because the snowplows have left a huge drift all along the road.

So I took Baasha for a walk, a scary slippery walk, and every once in a while he'd drop his nose onto the drifts and dig with his face, in distant memory of grass below. He did not reach any.

He is still exhibiting some troubling behavior; he's talking to me. Even on our walk, we stopped for a while, and he nickered to me and started nibbling on my flannel. Baby behavior. Is he reverting back to his childhood in this 6 week long white dream?

Then he actually grabbed the lead rope like a puppy would, and started flipping it around in circles. This is a horse who has never picked up anything in his mouth that wasn't food. What on earth is going on in his head?

A car came by and I pushed him as far as possible out of the way, and he playfully tried to grab the rope again. So that trick is only funny sometimes.

Like Kate said, perhaps too much high energy food is affecting his behavior. I hate to cut him back because he's finally round. But this nickering, nibbling, and pawing the air is worrisome. (Very very cute though.) As of today I am cutting back on the grain.

I measured 18 inches of snow, and when he tries to walk around the yard, he's in over his knees now.

Today another 8 inches is supposed to fall. I'm a little worried about trees knocking out our power, because this snow is so heavy, all the trees and bushes are struggling to stay upright. Our power flickered yesterday and I fruck out. I made two pots of hot water immediately, in case.

I wish I knew someone who had an indoor so Baasha could trot around a bit.

I cut up some carrots and did some clicker training today. If he wants to be mouthy, I will try to train it. I would love it if I could get him to pick things up, but he wasn't in the mood. He kept offering to shake hands whenever he didn't understand a new cue.

I did succeed in getting him to target 100% of the time, no matter where I placed it. He's got that really precise. He knows to touch the target at the end of the stick, touching the stick itself produces nothing.

I have blankets out in the stall on my stall chair so I can hang out. I brought the laptop out and read MiKael's Mania backlog posts for an hour, listening to Baasha chomp hay. I love having WiFi in the barn: )

My exercise program is my two-to-three times daily shovelling. I enjoy it, still, cuz it's such a rewarding job. But right now I'm looking out there, worried about the 8 inches more.

Maybe I'll go visit the terrier people today, and we can talk weather. Yesterday my man caught them shovelling snow into a wheelbarrow and he asked why, and they said, "Your wife wanted more snow."

HAHA.