Cookies and Cream

The horses are bundled in their blankets enjoying their hay despite the weather

Winter storm "Buck" (yep, that's right! One of our local TV stations is naming our snowstorms now, apparently) was petering out Sunday afternoon, and we just had to get outside and enjoy that expanse of fresh, clean snow.  The kids wanted a snowball fight and to build a snowman; we wanted to ride!  It's STILL deer season (the longest two weeks of the entire year if you ask me), so we were stuck with making patterns in the pristine snow of the outdoor arena.

His wind-knots always appear in this exact location and pattern - every time.  

Rhio was sporting his favorite dreadlock look, so had to unwillingly submit to having his mane detangled.  Rhio takes great pride in his appearance, keeping his dirt patterns fresh and new with frequent reapplication.  He resents being fussed over, primped, polished, washed, or generally gussied up.  So of course it is his long tresses that get routinely tangled, not Red's or Cricket's, both of whom enjoy a grooming session.

Ah - beautiful! 

Once we had the hair situation under control, we headed outside to meet the new lord of the outdoor arena - a very large, very squat snowman with tantalizing horse treats as eyes & nose.  The horses were mildly curious about him (or her - I'd say its rather gender-indeterminate), mostly in trying to assess the best angle at which to nab those tasty bits.

Giant snowman

Kaos & Rhio trying to figure out how to snatch the apple-eyes and/or carrot-nose

The three of us talked and laughed and joked while asking our horses to carry us around the outdoor arena, churning up the unbroken snow with hoof-sized chunks coated in the sandy dirt footing of the arena.  After a couple passes around, the snow-and-chunk mixture took on the exact appearance of cookies-n-cream ice cream!

Becca & Kaos and Christine & Tomas just enjoying the day

The footing was wonderful, and we all enjoyed cantering our horses through it; I really noticed how soft Rhio's footfalls were in the snow.  We played follow-the-leader a little bit, and just generally goofed off.  It's nice to know that we are all still kids at heart - enjoying a good romp in the fresh snow. Though now our hot cocoa is dressed with flavored liquor instead of marshmallows - yum!