Photo courtesy of Karen Wegehenkel Photography
This week in Seattle we have gotten a taste of the weather many of you, from Florida to the Yukon Territories, have been experiencing. Although we do not have a bunch of snow here in the lowlands, it has been bitterly cold and windy. For us coastal weenies, it has been quite the shock.
For our wooly horses it seems to be a minor inconvenience and a reason to spend more time eating hay. Thank god for the sunny days though, as the horses are soaking up the radiant heat as they lounge in the sunshine.
Of course, we all look like Mr. Stay Puft from Ghostbusters with our down jackets, three layers, mukluks and mittens. It is quite the sight seeing us work with our horses. We are pretty limited in what we can do as we do not want to get the horses sweaty and want to help them conserve energy, but we are getting some training done, as best we can.
For those of you trying to get your entry videos completed for the American Horsewoman’s Challenge, we want the welfare of your horse to come first. If you do not have the luxury of a heated space, do not push too hard. If everything is not going perfectly, do not worry about it. We all know horses. And those mittens make our rope and rein handling technique a bit sloppy. Keep in mind, in your entry video, we want to see the connection with your horse and your abilities, not perfection. We certainly do not want your horse to suffer.
Take your time, accomplish what you can and do not worry t0o much about running a few minutes over on your video or what you look like. Good luck!
Hutch