Bruja here…..

With,….

Your Monday Morning Bru!

I am beginning to dislike winter. Well, not all of it. There are some good parts. We don’t have any bugs around these days and that is definitely good. We don’t get rain that makes mud ( even though it’s nice to roll in mud sometimes).

The cold is not a bother until it gets really cold. Last night was getting close to that. Moon got a blanket to wear last night and an extra this morning. Two insulated blankets make her feel kinda like it’s summer. I think They will take the blankets off during the ( relatively ) warm part of the day. We have clear skies now and we horses love sunbathing on days like this. Im the darkest colored horse of our little herd, i’m a pure dark bay. Some days when I’ve been sunbathing He will put his hand on my coat that’s been in the sun and be surprised that my coat hair is actually almost hot.

Moon is the oldest of us at 27 years old now. She still has a great body and mostly enjoys life and even kicks up her heels occasionally. We like to see that. It’s fun ( for us to do too! )

All four of us are lucky because we have the Hayhut. They keep the Hayhut loaded always so we have something to eat whenever we want to. This is really important in the winter. Even though we all love our grain and mash ( we don’t get very much of that ) it’s the hay, the roughage that keeps us warm. Having a belly full of hay is like having a fire in our body. It’s what keeps our metabolism going. Some humans think the high calorie grain is good for us but when the cold comes, a high quality hay is best. It’s how we evolved and are built.

The down side to winter is ice. Because of the ice we havent gotten to do riding again this week. This makes me sad. In our paddock, the snow that has fallen has turned to ice too. The way this happens is by us walking on it. By waking on it constantly, it turns into ice kinda like a glacier. The snow gets compacted by our feet until it’s a hard sold surface. The only place that is completely ice free right now is under the barn roof area. Everywhere else is kinda slippery and we slide lots. We have to walk carefully. No exuberant crazies ( running, bucking, etc ) these days.

Today was another Him only days for breakfast. She has to leave early to do human work. Even though I love my breakfast food, just having Him be here with us is the best part. My world revolves around Him ( and food of course ). If I had my way, He would be with me all the time. Our spirits are meant to be together. It’s even better when the three of us are together, me, Luna and Him. It’s the best feeling ever.

So, one of the reasons the paddock snow is packed into ice is that They put out piles of hay around so we will look for them and move some. We wander all over the paddock. It is nice to wander around the paddock and discover food to eat. We just need to be careful how we walk. It’s actually good practice for proprioception and coordination. By looking in his head, I can see us someday going on trails that have funny or challenging places to put our feet. I look forward to that!

Even though we horses thrive on “same”, the routine and predictably, it’s fun to go do something different once in a while. Especially when we do it together. I want to do trails like we did when I was little with my mom. The desert and the forest had fun trails where we could look for food to eat and water to drink. We were a bigger herd then, us wild horses. I don’t think about that much anymore. I used to really miss my wild herd but now I have Him and our spirits are happy together and all four of us are comfortable in and as, our little herd.

We are going to get to go to the across today. ( I put that picture in His head ) We like it over there and it’s something different in our day. Luna and I will get to go today. This way Moon can enjoy the sun without Luna pushing her around. It also means that He will put treats on the hay piles around the paddock and in the across. We get to go look for those. I like that. Another good thing about the across is that there’s no ground snow / ice in the trees area there. ( the trees keep the snow off the ground ). That means He might do a little riding there. I think I’ll put some picture in His head and see what happens.

Right now there’s sunshine for us to bask in and enjoy. I like that. Sometimes lately when I sleep ( especially in the sunshine ) I dream of green grass coming back and yummy snacking on it.

I hope your winter is not boring and the ice isn’t too dangerous for you so you don’t fall down.

May you be happy and have good herd ( and food too of course)

🙏❤️🐎🐎🐎🐎🐕🐕‍🦺🐕