“Snowed in” horses
Well, we survived the big blizzard of 2016 pretty well here at Shayna Meadows. We are thankful we didn’t get the heavier snow falls that places in Virginia got, but 18 inches is still a lot to deal with. It’s interesting to watch how the horses deal with this extreme change to their environment. Snow falls of this amount actually seem to create a barrier to movement, it tends to confine them. Perhaps it’s because it’s harder to move in all that snow and that there is nothing motivating them to get out in it, so they just hang pretty close to the barn. There are consequences though..they sometimes get a little stir crazy, they get in each other’s space too much and get a little irritable. Horses have long legs and are certainly physically capable of venturing out, but they most often choose not to. Watching them poke around in the small area where they have beaten the snow down reminds me of how we sometimes confine ourselves in our lives, feeling safer to stay “close to the barn” rather than spread out and get some exercise. We could venture out, but sometimes we choose not to and then have to deal with the consequences. Sometimes the consequences are worth it and sometimes they are not. It’s important for us to be keenly aware of when it’s best for us to put our long legs out into the deep snow and gain space and perspective. Every now and then one of the horses plows through the snow to forge a new path and it looks brave and satisfying.