Five years ago I was in Virginia meeting Carmen for the first time. My friend Karen shared a FB memory post from Feb 14, 2015:
I love to see people smile. And some smiles are so much more meaningful than others, when the smiler hasn't been able to smile for a while. Today I saw just such a wonderful smile that lit up a happy face, and it made me very happy.
I honestly don't know how it's been five years already. I was a mess back then and if I hadn't had Karen with me and Ed cheering me on back home.
All I know that I was broken hearted but when I sat on Carmen for the first time I felt my heart start to heal a bit.
boy she has changed
And here we are five years later, still together.
Me: Carmen do you know you have a strand of hay on your face? Carmen: I hear that vertical stripes are slimming
Both of us have grown together.
standing ground tied while I clean her stall and refill her hay bag
And, because it's valentine's day Irish also wants recommendation. After all he's the sweetest horse around.
Let me start by saying that Ed and I are not really into Valentine's. While I am a fan of celebrating love, I am a believer that what happens on one day a year does not define whether someone loves you or not.
Sometimes though there are exceptions. Like today.
Yesterday we were hammered with a blizzard. Three times we cleared a path to the barn only to find it completely obliterated the next time I went out. Mostly we cleared it for d'Arcy- with his hind end these days he can't really deal with deep snow anymore.
I remember when he could bomb through the snow.
This morning I had to carve a path to the barn again-the snow was up to my thighs. I never even questioned what I was doing. While this is the weather that makes me long for an indoor I am happy to have them home rather than worrying about them at a boarding facility and feeling guilty that I can't help the BO.
you can see that the wind has made deep drifts and then nothing.
The path I carved is deep- the ground slopes towards the house which
makes the photo deceptive
After feeding the horses I went back into the house to load up on caffiene. Ed used the tractor to clear the paddock so I could let the horses out. A strand of my fence had come undone as well and I had to trudge through the snow to fix it. When Ed had the small paddock cleared I let them out. They moved around the small area snorting and trotting. I then started to work on clearing a rough path to the bigger field. It took a while while Irish supervised watched closely 'hurry up!'
not sure if you can see the path but for perspective the fence posts are over 4 feet
After a quick inspection Irish ran out to the field. Carmen decided to carve her own path through the drift.
I think that Carmen might be learning to enjoy snow:
She was pretty adorable prancing up to me and then stopping to look at me wide eyed with snow on her nose (sorry no photo or video).
Wow, this is a lot of snow. And it's kinda fun!
As Ed continues to plow out the driveway and I am getting ready to go back out and shovel I am struck by what we're willing to do for the creatures we love. I am not alone. My FB feed is full of updates shovelling snow and getting the horses out.
If it's not love then it might just mean that we're crazy. And that couldn't be it.
I am sure that Irish and Carmen appreciate it. Right? Right?
