It’s amazing how fast six months can go past!  But that seems like the perfect time frame for working at Windchase until you hit a point where you think you might internally combust and you really just need to get out of the bubble and breathe for a while!  And so, here I am in formerly-sunny Colorado.  (It was near 70 last week… now it’s -2 outside as I write this!  I apologize for bringing the cold weather with me!)

   Besides taking a break and physically recuperating from the hard life on the farm, I am also hoping to try and consolidate plans for when I eventually return here for good, with horses in tow!  It’s a strange feeling to know I’ll be coming home unemployed, with two horses and a lot of bills to pay!  So while I’m here I want to try and sort something out.  I am hoping to find somewhere in the Pueblo/Colorado Springs area where I can start teaching and training and sharing some of the amazing things I have learned during my time at Windchase!

   It has been so bitter cold that my horses have hardly had any serious work leading up until my vacation, and now of course they will have time off while I am gone!  Oh well though, it seems like a good time to give them a break.  I don’t know about them but I feel pretty miserable trying to ride when it’s below 20 degrees, so we might as well all stay happy and stay bundled up in blankets and jackets!  When I get back to Virginia, however, it will be time to kick into full gear because the beginning of show season will be just around the corner!  I’m excited at getting a nice head start on the season and want to make the most of my remaining time out in Virginia with my two boys!

An east coast winter has been an interesting experience for me. It is cold – bitter cold. Not as cold as back in Colorado, but definitely a different kind of cold.  However, the one dilemma is that it has not snowed!  We have had a few random flurries, but never that beautiful snow falling and covering the landscape in crystal white.  I guess I never realized how much I liked snow!

  Anyway, this week has brought on bitter cold temperatures (we are looking at a low of 10 overnight, which, I admit, is nothing for you Colorado folks back home, but here in ocean-side Virginia, 10 degrees is just bone chilling!)  This morning I woke up to the best thing though – finally a little bit of snow!  Granted it was barely half an inch and hardly covered the long grass in the fields, but still, it made it feel a little more like winter and a little more like home!

  We’ve had an easy few days – with the bitter cold nobody wants to ride or teach and freeze so we have had light days and have spent more time running into the house or tack room to stay warm!  But all is well, the year is off to a good start, and in no time at all things will start to warm up and show season will be upon us!  I am excited and I know Gemini is more than ready to head back out and tackle some cross country!  He is already bored of doing gridwork in the indoor!!