Do you like Winter?

First, I would like to thank Horse Filled Days for her encouragement, with a bit of knowledge of the horse's foot, right about anyone could do it! I read your blog every day... well, I at least look for new stuff! but on that note, I've seen A LOT of people pay big money to have the farrier trim their horses and the results were... hoof cracks, constant abcessing, lameness and these horses were all horses with healthy hooves and a potential to absolutely crush rocks with their bare feet. Unfortunately, most people believe so much in their farrier that they will not take advice from someone like me. I have been asked to trim many horses too, but I don't really have the time and my back is really bad too... usually, after 4 hooves, I'm sore for 4 days! So I do 1 horse per weekend and my sister helps with the harder stuff (like nipping Dandy's feet!).

On to my post. For a change of tone, I will post winter pictures... ok, ok... I don't like winter, I don't like the snow and I totally hate the cold. Unfortunately, I live in a part of the world where we get a lot of snow... and a lot of cold. I love taking pictures of scenery, fall leaves and pretty much anything that is worth immortalizing.

So here is my collection of winter pictures. Usually, the snow doesn't stay in the trees like this, but we'd had some freezing rain and then snow right after, so it stuck good and well to tree branches... sadly, this process, while absolutely stunning, makes it dangerous to go out in the woods and breaks many trees.

This is accross the road from my dad's place, there is a field and a little mountain (Believe me, it's big when you want to go on top!!!!).

Same shot looking left of the first picture.
This is basically taken from the driveway looking to the right... oh and the roads are always that bad in the winter... it hadn't snowed in a few days when I took the pics. There aren't much houses past my parents'.
This is a really cool shot... this is on the left side coming into our driveway. We built that fence like that because the whole land there is gravel and, consequently, very hard to dig into, so my dad had the ingenious idea to build it like that. It is very sturdy and unique!

This was taken a bit further, I was still in front of the house, which would be on my left. This trail leads to a sandy pit and more trails!
Further on my counter-clockwise walk around the house, I captured this. This is a trail that I often use with Dandy and ultimately leads to much much more trails...

I have now made my way behind the house and I was walking back to my car, which would be on the left, when I saw this... The barn is just outside the left side of this picture, this is the mountain at the very back of the house... yes, there is a mountain in front AND behind the house... You can see that there is a trail hugging the side of the mountain and right next to this trail is the horse enclosure... they have woodsey area to run around in and they LOVE it!

And, last but not least... and just because I want to rival Jayke's original butt picture... here's my take on it. That is Dandy's very large bum to the left, rivaled by the 8 month old colt's cheeky cheeks to the right. You can't see very well because it was starting to get dark outside and using the flash only makes it worse!

They look so much alike that it is hard to believe that Dandy is not his Dam... most people think they are related... they are not... not even a tiny bit. He's a purebred Canadien colt, papered and microchipped; and Dandy is a grade Percheron x Quarter horse (I think)... will never have any kind of papers, not a chance. They both have their flaws, but I have to say that for the price that I paid for Dandy, she is worth so much more than that physically and to my eyes (much more to my eyes!). Anyone could walk up and offer me any amount of money that I have ever dreamed about and the answer would still be NO, she is not for sale and if she ever is... that means that I will have eaten a whole lot of plain spaghetti and can no longer afford it!

Now let's all wish very hard... (Harder than that!!!) that we will not get another snowflake! I can't wait to get back on the trails... I can go out to ride, but it is limited and I don't canter in the winter. Horses have been loosing hair and it isn't so cold out!!! YAY!!!