Winter on the Plains

Horses get frisky in the winter. Here's Bailey just starting to buck while Rosa gets out of the way! Winter brings out other qualities in people. Sean the Brave! Sean Of Great Fortitude! Sean the Adventurer! OK, Sean the Tolerant. When cold weather hits the plains where we live, usually it is BLOWN in by some pretty darn cold north or northwest winds. Sean allows us to help him get all bundled up in extra socks, winter boots, sweatshirt, down-filled coat and gloves, all of which are necessary to brave the winter chill even if he is only going to be outside for a short time. The one thing Sean will NOT allow is any sort of head gear. No hat. Ever since he was little, Sean has never allowed anything on his head, not even a riding helmet when riding horseback. There is only one time that Sean has actually allowed a knit hat to stay on his head and that was Oct 10, 2005 when we had 21 inches of snow dumped right on our little part of Colorado!

Mick got stuck trying to get home from work. I took Sean out in our trusty truck to rescue Mick. It took exactly 4 minutes for me to run the truck (I was only going 3 mph!!) into the ditch. Since we were so close to home, Sean and I had to hoof it back to the house, leaving the truck in the dtich. Not even our neighbor's tractor got our truck out. Not because I had gone very far into the ditch, but because his tractor engine quit. Our little dirt road was starting to collect vehicles. Our truck was in the ditch, the tractor was out in the road, and another neighbor's 18-wheeler had gotten stuck alongside the road a couple of hundred feet away from us! The wind howled, the snow was coming down in huge flakes, the drifts were a couple of feet high. To exit the truck, I had to climb into the passenger seat and get out that way. When I opened the back door for Sean, he just hunkered down in the back seat, not wanting anything to do with that north wind! Eventually when it was made clear to him (by gesture) that he was going to have to leave the truck, he gave in. Once out in the wind, I took my knit hat off and pulled it down onto Sean's head. He allowed it to stay on his head as we trudged through the knee-high snow on the road, back to the house. We were nearly at the front door before he took the hat off and handed it to me! What a triumph! He finally realized that a hat could actually be a good thing! But that's how extreme it had to get for Sean to wear anything on his head. That was an especially tolerant exhibition on Sean's part.

It hasn't happened since.

Oh and Mick eventually made it home - 7 hours after leaving work. It's usually a 45 minute trip.