Winter Doldrums

I hate to be another California blogger complaining incessantly about the weather but OH MY GOD THE WEATHER HAS BEEN TERRIBLE THIS WINTER.

Okay okay okay I get it, we needed the rain 

I live in the south county, which is just inland from the coast over some mountains. I work on the other side of those mountains near the coast. And that has been terrible. There are three highways that lead over these mountains. One of them has a huge slide that has completely taken out one side of the highway, leading to both sides needing to go down to one lane and get around it. One of them is constantly battling mudslides and has had to go down to one lane that both ways share- they even brought in a light. The last one has been okay, but has a construction project that has been going on for a while, and has also had major flooding.

If I have to go over the first highway, I've been either sitting in traffic or trying to take back roads, but now those back roads are eroding. It's horrifying. To avoid the other two, I have to drive a very long while out of the way just to take this one back road that has some minor flooding, but has held it together for the most part.

Mudslide

Both my parents' place (where Rico is) and TC's barn have been okay. TC's future pasture is completely under water, so he's staying put for another couple of months I think. Rico, Riot, and Stretch are confined to their blue rock paddocks, which hold up beautifully in any weather. The only issue with them is that Rico loves to stand in the rain. Any rain. Anytime I see it I yell at him to get inside! He's sick, the idiot.

Other than some fallen trees and minor flooding on the way to the barn, TC's barn has been okay. His paddock is permanently muddy, but before the winter hit, the guys matted half of it, so he does have a little area to move around in. The arenas have stayed surprisingly okay- two of them have been closed all winter, but one has been open if it stays clear for more than 4 days (which it rarely does, it's been open like twice for a day or two this winter). Granted, it's the one I never ride in so I kind of don't care. But I have done some ground work in there.

The covered has been fine! It gets wet at one end but it's totally usable. Go barn! I'm sure there are barns where they may have a covered ring, but it's completely flooded and I'm so grateful that mine isn't one of them.

Last year during the winter... now this road leading to the ranch
has a major river running down it.

I've mostly felt the weather in the horse. TC is the best when ridden in 75 degree sunny weather. This has been rough with him. On the days it doesn't rain or get windy (which do happen on occasion, though are quite rare), I am able to ride him and usually have good rides. But the last few days have been negative days (on my calendar I categorize them as negative or positive to keep track of whether my attitude toward him is accurate) where he's just been out of his mind with energy and taking it out on me.

He's really not allowed to do that, and he knows it, so the moments where he goes to act up are getting less severe. I don't expect him to magically transform into this dead broke bombproof horse, that takes time and if I wanted that, I should have tripled my budget and bought something less talented and older. But I do appreciate that things are changing, however slowly, with him.

Obviously last winter I didn't HAVE my horse to ride and now
that I do, of course the weather is bad :/

He's gone to bolt a couple of times undersaddle, only to be stopped rather easily by me within one or two steps. It's like he's like "I don't think this will work but I'll try it." He's been a bit more successful on the ground, but tends to bolt sideways away from me. I always turn it into backing him up until he chews (and sometimes keep going- we've done a lot of full laps around the arena backing up), so by running sideways, he actually makes more work for himself.

Slowly it's getting better, but it's of course not linear- the weather really hinders that. But I've been pretty good about not pressuring myself to ride him and trying to use every day as a learning opportunity. All we have to do is get through this awful rain, let the pasture dry a bit, and then he'll be happy in his new home. The horse just needs some room to get all this energy out on his own. I don't even think he'll be galloping around that much, I think it's just having the room that will help him settle mentally.

Fingers crossed my commute isn't HORRIBLE today, I'm back to work after the long weekend.