A Soggy Sunday

What better to do on yet another rainy day than to grab your rain boots and splash in the puddles?

By Sunday afternoon I was dead sick of the rain. It started Friday morning and had yet to let up. The ground down here doesn't freeze in the winter like in the north, so when it rains like this it just becomes a big sloppy and slick mess. Gem is blanket free and I was a little concerned about her being soaked to the core and really wanted to get to say hello. Riding was off the menu. Not only because I am a self proclaimed fair weather rider (I'll go in cold, cloudy, sunny, hot but no active rain) but the trail conditions are just down right dangerous at any pace other than a crawl and at this point in Gem's life I view countless miles of slick walking as more detrimental than beneficial.

The three of us pulled on our rain boots and climbed into our rain coats to go visit the horses. The other mares out with Gem were all looking pretty darn cranky under the shelter (of course all crammed under the one while the other was just a few feet away and perfectly empty) while Gem was happily picking at remaining strands of hay and tiny shoots of winter grass. Her mane was a dred locked mess, but I was happy to see that she was only wet on the very surface. Even after 3 solid days of non stop rain, her under coat, skin and areas under the mane were 100% dry. She was warm and content. In fact the only part of her that was way wet were her hooves as you can see by the very white coronary band, but there just isn't much I can do about that other than bringing her inside which I won't do unless she becomes sore or has an abscess.

While I was loving up on the mare Wyatt was having his own adventure along the riding track beside the mare pasture. I had been tempted at the thought of just hopping on her and going around the tracks a bit, but once I saw how wet they were I thought no way. Not only was it not worth it, but I really think it is rude to ride on the trails when they are this sloppy. All it does it create ruts and erosion and wear down the trail faster.

You can see how the tracks have become a mini river of white water rapids. Wyatt had a blast running and stomping and splashing along. I guess the boots don't help much when you go above the knees though :)

I gave Gem a last pat and told her not to get too comfy with her down time. It is supposed to dry out this week and be dry through next weekend. There are 3 good weekends between now and the Pow Wow 50 and I would be much happier if I could get a 20 mile ride in on two of those. Hopefully the weather holds out for me!

After the trip to the barn we stopped at home to pick up the dogs and head to the park. We figured it would be pretty empty, but didn't expect it to be completely underwater.

Flooded river

This isn't our first go around with a flooded trail and our dogs love the water, so we (illegally) let them off leash and splashed along with Wyatt.

I seem to only capture Einstein looking like an idiot

We made it a fair distance until the river itself took out the trail and made it impossible to pass without Einstein and Wyatt having to actually swim. Since it was only 60F with very cold water and we weren't in complete dry suits, we just turned around and went home.

When the day was done I think we had changed Wyatt 3 times from playing in the rain. Earlier that morning he had been playing outside at his Grandmas house then took a bath to warm up and got changed, then played at the barn and got changed and last at the park.

I think it was a pretty great way to spend a soaking wet Sunday.