Frosted Horses

Today was farrier day.

Well, it was supposed to be. I'd postponed twice: once because of a work conflict, and once because I was running a low-grade fever and felt like poopie. So, today was the day.

Copper requires pre-medication before the farrier just to make him more comfortable. I had planned on getting an apple yesterday and hiding his partial pill in his apple piece, but I forgot. However, we have freeze-dried apples from our last road trip, so I soaked them in water overnight to attempt to reconstitute them. I shoved his pill in a piece and walked out to treat the horses (and hopefully trick Copper into taking his pill).

I gave him his piece of reconstituted apple, loaded with the pill, first. He spit it out. By that time, the girls had joined us at the fence and were quickly gobbling up their apple pieces. I picked up his pill, shoved it deep into another slice of apple and shoved it in his mouth. He wasn't thrilled with the fake apple, but he ate it because the others were eating theirs. In the few minutes it took me to treat the horses, my hands were freezing. It was 20*, but the humidity is 90% or higher. There's dry cold, and there's wet cold. I hate wet cold, but it does make for some beautiful hoar frost on the horses.

The farrier wasn't due for a few more hours, so I assumed the weather would warm up. Mom and Bill offered to come over and help catch the buggers since we haven't been working them and the cool air tends to make horses feel pretty good.

The girls were a breeze to catch - as always. Copper was less so - as always. Mom and I each caught one of the mares, while Bill walked down Copper. What Copper hasn't realized yet is that he's a complete amateur when it comes to evading humans. Old Man Ranger has a Ph.D. (Piled higher and Deeper) in human evasion. It took Bill about two and a half minutes to catch Cops.

We keep our halters on the fence to make it easy for us, which usually works well. Today, though, they were as frozen as the horses, so they made funny creaking noises as we tied them on. The Mustangeers were pretty good about the funny sounds coming from their halters and behaved even though we couldn't get them near tight enough.

We had all anticipated that it would take much longer to catch the horses and we were ready 45 minutes before farrier time. But it was freaking cold out and we weren't going to stand around for 45 minutes. Mom asked if I was sure the farrier was coming in this weather, so I shot him a quick text during which time my fingers about froze off my hands.

There was just a slight breeze, just enough to make us miserable, so Bill suggested we take the horses into the shed until we heard back from the farrier. Copper and Pearl stood so nicely while tied in the shed. Skeeter, well, she doesn't stand tied very nicely any more. She's become a bit of a pull back. Jessica suggested that it might be because of the trailer battle we had over the summer.

The farrier and I decided to postpone yet again, so the horses got a photo shoot instead. I do wish I was a better photographer, because they look so amazing in their frosty coats.

"Hi Grandma, are we going to play today?"

Poor Skeets has the worst bed-head.

But she looks pretty in this picture, so we'll forgive the bed-head.

I love their frosty tails!

Copper's ear frost is gorgeous.

So is Pearl's. The frost on the ear hair doesn't seem to bother them at all.

Even covered in hoar frost, Pearl looks like a Disney horse.

Once the farrier and I decided to reschedule (again), we turned the horses loose to play and went inside to thaw out. Just the few minutes we were out there was too long.