El Nino and Survival Mode

As some of you might be aware, it's an El Nino year. While that has meant tropical temps and late blooming flowers on the east coast, it has translated to an enormous amount of water here.

On the one hand, we need the water. On the other hand, this is the desert and we're not good at handling it.

ON THE THIRD HAND, NOW IT'S ALL FROZEN.

Snow. Ice. Cold. Grossness.

What that has translated to on a horsey front is not overly desirable. Turnout has been limited at best--we're at a busy facility with a lot of horses on not a lot of land, so in an effort to preserve grazing, the horses just don't go out when it's wet and gross.

Look, from a land management perspective, I get it. Even from a horse management perspective--I really don't need Courage soaking his feet in the mud.

But from a brain management perspective, it's been really, really difficult. My usually brave, level headed (if opinionated) horse has turned into a legit climbing-the-walls losing-his-marbles monster.

this is a thing now

So instead of working towards our riding goals and building a solid foundation, we've been tackling survival mode. Neither of us needs to get hurt or mad. We just have to figure out how to get through this until life becomes a little more normal.

I keep reminding myself that slowing down/taking time off really never hurt anyone. I have to repeat that about 8792 times a day, especially as I watch Courage do things like this:

WHEEEEEEEEE

WHEEEEEEEEE

WHEEE wait what he can do this on his own now????

Huh. It's obviously not all bad. I can't blame to guy for needing to move around, I'm really quite a big advocate for giving stiff/sore horses time off, and ummmmmmm did anyone else notice how my horse learned to stretch down on his own?

Yeah, he did. I mean. He can stretch under saddle just fine, but it's a new thing for him to offer big stretches in his free time. So that's cool.

And there's other things too. When we're spending non-riding time together, I see stuff like this:

redecorating

Mr Personality

I'm so used to the OPINIONS I HAZ THEM side of Courage under saddle and trust me, while entertaining, it's also a PITA. Watching them on the ground just cracks me up. This horse oozes ATTITUDE and I'm loving getting to appreciate it without riding through it.

Ok, loving is a slight exaggeration. I really miss riding and I REALLY want to work towards goals and all that, but until we're ready to get back in the swing of things, this isn't all bad.

he sure does look good in tack