Snow Storm or BUST

Last week meteorologists went crazy predicting snow. We were supposed to get a TON of it. Everyone hunkered down and battened their hatches.The power company warned about power outages; town officials advised putting together an "emergency kit" for the house and the car. A travel ban went into effect. I half expected Anderson Cooper to show up for live coverage.

And then....not very much at all happened in western Mass!!!! LETDOWN!! I guess Boston was hogging the storm.  But because of the travel ban, we got a snow day from work. YEAY!!!!

We did a fair amount of romping around. But none of it involved my brumby. That was Tuesday.

By Saturday I was at the farm.  It was dastardly cold. And the windchill was offensive. I mean, it was VERY OFFENSIVE. After having a debate in the barn with Bill over the integrity of snow plow drivers (or, one internet sensation of a snow plow driver anyway), I tacked up Lilly and we headed out.

In the woods, it was still supercold....but the windchill was better. Bundled up to the nines, I felt perfectly warm. It is always pretty easy to have a rollicking good time out on the short trail no matter what the season. I think Lilly agrees.

 On Saturday, the snowmobilers were all over. I haven't seen one all season and in one day we saw about ten of them. This picture was taken on the short trail and three guys were just shooting down from the direction of Quartz Corner. I tip my hat to them; every single one we saw that day slowed to a stop as soon as they saw my brumby and me and then waited for my signal to proceed with slowly. Lilly was perfectly calm around them, but honestly you never really know how a snowmobile-horse encounter might go. I appreciate their willingness to respectfully share the trail.

We had a great ride overall. To see my GoPro video of our gallop up the short trail, just click here! It is pretty awesome.

Sunday's temp was about 15, but the wind was tamer. I got to the farm earlier than usual: I had a superbowl party to go to and I still had gluten-free quinoa muffins to make. First Bill and I clowned around with the camera in the truck window.

And then we took off.

 The snowmobilers were out again. Bill wanted to cross the Thibault pasture and give the horses some more exposure to them. I was against it. Why invite disaster? An open field and a cluster of noisy snowmobilers did not seem like a great idea. But I did it anyway.

My brumby was perfect. Bill was on Ruby and she was not perfect. But I mean, who can compare to Lilly? Ruby was a hot potato. She just wanted to run.

Before leaving the snowmobiles and heading for the trail, Bill traded Ruby for Pokey.

 We ended up in the Big Pasture. It's empty now since all the horses are nearer to the house for the winter. Oh look, there's my GoPro in the shadow!

Pokey kept whinnying, thinking the herd was out there.

Lilly was great. I always feel better on the trail. A big open space is not my favorite place to be. But she was very well behaved. The good thing about all this snow is that if you do fall, you get a comfy landing spot.

 Then we decided to take the tack off and let Pokey and Lilly get some wild yahoos out by running wildly all over the BP. There are few things as beautiful as a horse in a full gallop.

For a supershort video of some of this horsing around , just click here.

Remember the snow-storm-that --wasn't from last week that I mentioned at the beginning of this post? Well, it finally decided to pay us a visit!! Today it was blizzardy all day long! Getty was not loving my snow day as much as I was.

Even though I did not make it to the farm, I did get to see my neighbor's horses having fun in the snow.  

Me= Happy horse owner, snow reveler and satisfied Patriots fan.