I had made it out to the barn to play with Stitch on December 23rd. We had a bit of a blizzard on Christmas Eve, and another one on Boxing Day, with a bunch of wind on the 27th that blew all of that recent snow into big drifts everywhere. So I didn't get back out to the barn until the evening of the 28th. At which point my horse was no longer wearing the Bucas hood that he was turned out with when I had last seen him.
The big question was when did he lose said hood? Before the foot of snow had fallen, in which case I might not see it again until April, or - fingers crossed - within the last 24 hours or so?
It was well dark when I turned Stitch back out that night, so I wasn't going to be able to tromp around the whole field and see anything, but I figured I would at least check around the gate area. There was a slightly bigger than a pile of frozen poop dark spot in the snow about 20m from the gate, so I tried to head over to it to have a look.
Now, in the dark, with only a dying headlamp to light your path, it's really difficult to judge the depth of new snow.
I took about 5 steps out from the trodden area at the gate, got my feet stuck in knee deep snow, and fell forward onto my knees. And then I tried to push myself back up using my arms, which also sunk into the snow up past my elbows.
Yeah, this wasn't going to work.
I managed to fumble around and get myself upright again and exited the same way I went in. I decided that I would stick to the beaten path to the hay feeders on this night before heading back to the barn. That wasn't as easy as I had hoped as Stitch was also trying to stay on that beaten path and apparently I wasn't walking fast enough for him and he kept bumping me to the side.
There was, of course, no hood visible around the feeder. I knew it wasn't going to be that simple.
It was going to be a couple of days before I could get out in daylight to see what I could find. But how the hell would I manage to get around through the snow?
Skis? My brother might still have cross-country skis, but the boots would be a problem.
Snowshoes! My dad probably has some!
He did - old school wood ones. But hey, they'd be free to borrow.
Except the binding on one of them had been torn (or eaten by mice) and wouldn't be usable.
So I guess this was the excuse I needed to finally buy some snowshoes of my own. I've thought about it before, because this isn't the first time I've had to walk through deep drifts for horse-related reasons. And to be honest, I was surprised he had managed to keep his hood attached for as long as he had so far this season. Last winter he got them off pretty quickly sometimes. So I fully expect I'll be searching somewhat regularly.
I was hoping to keep my budget around $100 and probably would have been perfectly happy with the couple of options I found on sale at that price, but in the end I decided to upgrade a bit and get some that I would be somewhat easily able to replace the binding on myself. The rubber straps won't last forever.
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| I won't deny that the hunter green colour may have influenced my decision. |
Surprisingly, up here in the land of ice and snow for half of the year, there weren't too many options on where to buy snowshoes in my city and since I didn't want to wait for an online order to arrive, by the time I drove to the other end of the city and did whatever shopping that I wanted to do that is only available down there, by the time I got out to the barn with my new MSR Evo Trail Snowshoes it was already dark. But I was determined to try them!
It had warmed up above freezing the last couple of days so although the snow had compacted a bit and gotten crusty on top, there was still a lot of it.
I always go out at night with a headlamp on and Stitch thinks it's a beacon for his food lady. He often is walking towards the gate as I'm approaching the field when he sees the light. So it was no surprise that he left the feeder as I passed it and tentatively approached me, because although the light was shining, the snowshoes definitely did not make the same sound the food lady normally made. One of his pasturemates was also at the feeder, and the rest were over in another corner by the waterer.
My plan was to head across the field to the shelter, which is diagonally opposite to the gate. I was somewhat surprised that Stitch followed me the whole way across with the noise that the snowshoes made. The work that we've been doing on the TRT Method leading paid off here.
To my complete and utter surprise and joy, the missing hood was actually in the shelter! There was a little bit of poop on it, and the lining has a couple of new tears, but otherwise it was removed unscathed. It will just need a wash and be good to reattach again - for a short term, I'm sure.
On the return trip from the shelter Stitch, who was still following me, gave a couple of scoots. The other horses had noticed the weird-sounding light moving across their field, and were being dramatic over in the corner by the waterer. Stitch wasn't sure if he should also be dramatic or stay with his mom. He chose mom for most of the way, but returned to his friends when we got close to the gate.
The snowshoes made a huge difference in being able to walk across the field. My hip was just starting to get a bit sore just before I took them off, which normally would have happened much faster. I was smart and put my knee brace on before going for my walk as it's been a bit uncomfortable lately and felt no ill effects there. I'm quite happy that I finally bought myself snowshoes, and foresee that they will be used a few more times this winter. At this point they are living in the horse trailer as that's where I anticipate they'll get the most use.
Tromping through a field of snow was nothing compared to the stress of my drive home though! With the evening cooldown after a warmish day, there was crazy fog the whole way home, with some really sketchy visibility. That was stressful!
Happy New Year!
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