Can We Just Have a Little Sun, Please?

Yesterday morning we woke up to a very, very dark sky. It's been light enough in the mornings for Darling to easily find her way to the end of the driveway and wait for the bus, but the clouds were so black that she had to ask if perhaps we had the wrong time? Before she made it to the end of the driveway it began to snow. Big, fluffy, two inch flakes came down in a flurry, circling our heads, driving into our faces and making us completely miserable; Darling while she waited for the bus and me while I carried hay to horses. And although it stuck to the ground and had me convinced I was in for a blizzard, half an hour later it was gone.

Sandy and I worked on his weak area yesterday; that is, reaching out at him with a foreign object. I started with the rake, but it was too short. I just couldn't quite reach him, and my goal was to set it on his rump and scratch his shedding hair so that he'd relax. But as it never made it all the way to his body, I gave up. All I was doing was sending him around, creating more mud beneath his feet and frustrating him. I looked around for my long stick, but it had managed to find itself drug out into the mud by one of the horses (Jet and her curious mouth?) where it was abandoned and stomped on...and broken.

Then I spotted something on top of the sheep shed. An old mop! I know...don't even ask how it got there. I don't mop the sheep shed, but that's where it was and it was what I needed, so I tried not to dwell on why it was there. It had a six foot handle and it was one of those spongie ones, not the kind with the long tails you make dolls out of . Are those the technical terms for mops? Spongie mops and doll head mops? It doesn't really matter. What matters is that it was long enough to reach out and sit on Sandy's hiney.


Sandy was none to pleased with this new, long reach of mine, but rather than spend his energy escaping it (which he seemed to be doing with the short handled rake), he gave up once he realized he couldn't out run it. In the meantime, however, we managed to splatter mud on just about every surface there was, including the outside of the barn. Don't even ask how that happened...maybe I should mop it?

Sandy wasn't the only one who got a workout yesterday. Firecracker found herself back in training as well. She took her first walk outside of the pasture and got to graze on some green grass. She also practiced standing tied patiently while I cleaned the paddock around her feet. She let me brush her entire body without problem. After I was done cleaning and brushing I came inside and sent Darling out to play with her horse. Firecracker, it was reported back, allowed Darling to hug her, and that made for one happy teenager. She even put a few braids in FC's mane. Too bad I didn't take a picture for you, eh?