Thought you all might be interested in reading about our
snowy adventures that I posted to SWDRA.
Hi All!
I saw Deirdre’s post about all her snow, and I envy
anyone riding further south this weekend! I hope a great time is had by
all, and ride a few miles for me. We have two to three feet of snow, and
it will be weeks before I get my trailer out – especially since the good
Samaritan who dug us out Monday night with “borrowed” equipment
made sure to make a pass by my hay barn, where my truck and trailer is parked,
and left a lot of extra snow right in front of it! But the horses are
fine – although they may be wondering why they are only getting fed once
a day. That is a vast improvement anyway over the three days when they
got nothing at all! We went on a Christmas trip, barely getting out on
the heels of the last storm, and when we got back Friday we got stranded in
Raton for two days. That night we were some of the last over the pass,
and we talked our way past the trooper on our closed highway, for I knew that
my feeder couldn’t get in that day. It was dark and blowing and we
got three miles, and had to turn back. Couldn’t see a thing, except
the line on the road occasionally. It snowed all night and the next day,
and Sunday there was sun. We were determined to get home. I’d
heard the trooper was letting locals through, but he told us no – only 33
miles to home. So we went the back way and took a dirt cut though to the
highway past the roadblock. It was amazing that we got through –
lots of drifts and high snow banks. But we did, and the highway was fine,
although one lane in places. Our mile long dirt drive was another
story. We did get about 50 feet into the pasture, so off the highway, but
that was it. So we started to walk the mile long road in two feet and
more of snow – up hill – this was me, my husband, and my youngest
daughter, Catherine. Talk about aerobic exercise! I’d hate to
be measuring my heart rate! About halfway up we came across Vic, a local
cowboy, who had an extra horse with him, and he was trying to get to my horses
and cattle. So he gave me a ride to my hay barn where I fed my hungry
guys, and got water to some of them. Vic gave Cat a ride to the house,
and drug a hay bale to my horse that was in a further pen by himself. We
all got home – quite snowed in, but happy to be able to take care of the
critters.
So now my only riding is to feed my further away horses
– my younger endurance mare has been my carrier, and she allows me to
carry hay nets, shovels and muck buckets. So all is well there. But
the day I decided to ride her down to the car to get a few things was
interesting. I was putting a plastic bag with cokes in it on the saddle
horn for my addicted husband, and a plow went by, and between the two she got
spooked and took off. The snow didn’t slow her down a bit –
full gallop back to the barn! Well all of a sudden my perspective on life
was different, faced with walking back up the hill. I went a third of the
way and was quite exhausted. Time for Plan B! I called my daughter,
told her to put on all her clothes, walk to the barn, catch that naughty Fanny,
and ride her down to me. We rode back double – her first
time. At first she tried to bolt, but with both of our little tushes
crammed into the saddle, and both our hands on the reins, we just pulled back
and told her “no way – you aren’t leaving us here in the snow
again!” And so we got back to the barn and Cat helped me throw hay.
So we are all fine, but our ranch manager and cattle are all
stranded – getting little help from New Mexico. I
hired a helicopter yesterday to take two willing men to their caterpillars to
start digging out the nearest stranded ranchers. One couldn’t get
his cat started, but may try again today, and the other is hopefully giving
people nice surprises on his way back to our tiny town.
For the near future my only riding will be to feed –
taking no more chances on getting stranded out there! Amazing how well
horses move through this stuff!
