Sunday, January 24, 2010

No New Snow

It continues to melt here. The trails and sleigh tracks are all hard, lumpy, icy paths now. No fun for sleighing. The snow on the road softened up enough one day for me to ride, so I took Peter for a jaunt. I rode him with a bareback pad that I recently bought from The Horse Ranch (see The Horse Ranch link) and I was amazed at how comfy it was. It's suede, and well padded, so it was soft and warm and I stuck to the suede like glue. Here are some photos of some (anonymous) riders toodling around the pastures the other day. Which gave Kasper an excuse to dash about.





The bunny got out for a jaunt, too.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Snow Comes, Snow Goes, Snow Comes Back...

For a full week, it's been melting and raining. It was up to plus 9 Celsius one day this week. We've lost about 75% of our snow on the field. There are even bare patches showing. I've kept CJ off duty because, in that kind of soft wet snow, the sleigh runners will cut right to the ground and he'll be stuck.(Sleighs like mine with narrow runners are called cutters for a reason.)

The five day forecast this morning was for ongoing melting and raining...but then the rain turned to these beautiful big snowflakes. So maybe we'll be sleighing again sooner than I thought!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

CJ - Day Twenty!


This was only the fifth time CJ has pulled the sleigh and I'm so pleased with how well he's doing. He just headed out on the trail and pulled, no problems. Of course, there is only one way for him to go, now that the snow is deep. He has to follow the track so there's very little steering involved. But he is whoaing well without kicking and when he has to pull a little harder through a snow drift or uphill, he just leans into the collar and pulls.

My dad is still leading him off the first hundred yards or so...so I have to try starting him myself from the driver's seat.

I've found the perfect spot to park the sleigh: under the camper overhang in the front of the hayshed. It's the last bit of cover available, but seems to be enough. The seats flip up to keep blowing snow (and the cat) off.

I'm also pleased with the fact that CJ isn't sweating at all on these outings. The route is about 45 minutes long. I thought that sweating would be a limiting factor in the sleighing because I don't have an indoor stall for him to dry off in. But, no sweat, no problem!