It's officially Winter...

Well Chief's fur is getting long and the days are getting shorter so in my little world its officially winter.  Chief is also starting to loose a little weight, you can tell around his withers and in his hindquarters.  My other favorite way to check weight is with the back strap, when we're on the second hole, he's lost some weight.  In the height of the summer, that back strap will barely fit the first hole!  Chief is a super easy keeper in the summer and by the end of the summer, he's down right pudgey.  However, when the nights start getting cold he starts dropping weight.  In the winter they get hay on top of the grass all day but it just isn't enough for my guy.  So starting next month, he'll go on grain.    And when the days stay cool, I'll start blanketing him.  I wait as long as I can to put the blanket on because I like for him to grow his own natural coat.  This is his best insulator, but since Chief lives on top of a mountain where the wind blows most of the time, he needs a little help to keep him warm.  So today I asked the barn to put him in the grain pasture next month.  Hopefully, this will keep him from loosing too much weight too quickly. 

After noticing my fat old boy was getting a little skinny, we saddled up and hit the trail.  You can also tell its winter because of the hunters.  My husband had given me an orange hunting vest to wear but of course I left that in the car so we just listened as the guns went off all around us.  None of them sounded that close and no one is allowed to hunt on that land, so I figured we'd be okay.  Today we took the Work Out trail named so because you go up and down quite a few hills.  This trail meets up with the pumpkin field (though there weren't pumkins on this field this year, its typically what is on that field) and then takes you down to the big pond and Big'ns cabin.  As I was rounding the pond, I heard a gun shot, CLOSE.  It made me jump.  I looked around and of course didn't see anything.  So I kept on my way.  But as I was approaching the cabin those gun shots got loud.  Since I couldn't see them, I stopped and started waving my arms above my head so if they saw me, I would hope they weren't shooting at me...  As I walked a little further, I could see the shooters, they were doing target practice.  Whooo!  Thank goodness.  I might add here that Chief was not at all bothered by the gunshots.  My husband said he wanted to try shooting off of him, I don't think this would be a problem for him.  Love, this horse...  After that, we continued on our way up the gravel road to the peach trees.  We then kept on the gravel road where I couldn't decide if I wanted to go left toward the Submarine trail or right back to the Creek trail.  I opted for the Submarine trail because its a little longer and we had time.  This trail goes by some great rock outcroppings then heads down a steep hill or two.. and then meets up with what is truly some old piece of equipment but really looks like a submarine.  So, its the Submarine trail.  Really looks like a submarine huh?

Once you get down to this part of the trail, it gets a solid 3 or 4 degrees cooler because it is next to the creek and it sits in a hollow and not much sunlight gets in during the day.  So we cantered our way through.  We then met up with the Creek trail as you can see is my favorite way to head back to the barn.  And today the creeks were super full because we had quite a bit of rain this week. 

We then headed back up to the barn.  We took the route that hits the gravel road before turning home.  I love this route because there is a nice flat spot to canter and Chief likes it because he knows he's nearly home so sometimes he gets a little carried away through here.  Not much gets him excited so I like this route too.  Today it was controlled chaos through this flat spot as we cantered toward home.  Other days its more pure chaos and I have to hold him back.  This is the best way I can think to explain this feeling and other riders will agree, sometimes you can just feel them about to explode and then they do.  Other times, they get a little excited and you know you can give them their head and they'll canter nicely on.  It's just a feeling.  All in all it was a great way to start winter.  I hope this nice weather holds!