February 12, 2007

Cold, cold, cold. Seems it's pay back for the warm holiday season. Nitro and I haven't spent much time together these dark, cold winter days. He has caked on mud all over. I generally don't groom him seems he likes a good mud on so I wait till we ride, which has been a few weeks now. I give him his food and water and play with him a bit but he's miserable too from winter. Today though as he was eating I entered his stall something no other human or animal can do. He as usual gave me his but and I as usual scolded him and he moved it over. I picked up his feet and picked out the frozen clumps of compressed snow then rubbed my gloved hand over his face to loosen the mud from his eyes. Thank god for small favors. In my glove were hundreds of little needles. Nitro was shedding. How is it nature knows even during this brutal cold snap that it's time for him to shed hair. Is it the longer days? Those hollow tubes that so insulated him from snow and Arctic wind were beginning to shed. Spring and our favorite time of year is about to happen. Soon the hoses will flow, the water buckets will have liquid, the trough's  will be un-surrounded by icebergs. Soon Nitro and I will be rounding barrels, threading poles, running the meadows. Can't wait for the days before the flies.