Milestone and musings

I bought breeches today. Real, honest to goodness, knee-patch breeches. Polar fleece ones, too.

We decided to head to Bit of Britain's retail store to see what's-what, and found out that their outer wear is 30% off. That includes winter breeches. I tried a few on, feeling like a whale in spandex, and had to venture out into the store since there is no full-length mirror in the bathroom that doubles as a dressing room. Of course, I open the door to a group of people who had been blathering amongst themselves in the area, and somehow I avoided screaming, retreating, and slamming the door.

It took a lot of persuasion for me to get them, but I did. This means that I need to get my half-chaps back from Anne (it's awesome that none of the ones in the store fit me. Really. Makes me feel great.)

Enough of my whining.

It got into the negatives last night. I can't remember the last time it got so cold, unless I haven't paid attention since I didn't have a couple of critters standing outside. How low do I allow temps to fall before I feel that it's too cold for my horses not to be blanketed? Should I get Peanut a blanket (and neck blanket for both him and Gene) just in case it should ever get THAT cold?

On the way to BoB, we passed a farm with a herd of some variety of long-horned cattle. They aren't blanketed. Have I ever seen a blanketed bovine? I don't believe so. Why are horses considered to be different? Ungulate vs. ruminate, apples and oranges, but they fall into the general livestock category so there. I saw only one other farm with unblanketed horses, and we had to travel through a bit of horse country to get to BoB. In fact, our guys are currently the only naked horses at our barn.

I didn't ride today, partly because the Terror Woods were in full effect, and partly because I started wondering what riding does to their insulation. If I ride when he's in fluff-mode, the saddle and girth leave dents in his coat that last for days. What does that mean to him? Would they leave him colder where he can't maintain a uniform fluff? Damn horse won't tell me himself. I never thought of that before, and always rode him in the winter whenever I felt like it.

I always thought it was mean to keep a horse blanketed, then pull it off of him to ride/work him. Suddenly being stripped of the insulation that you've become dependent on and then being forced to work in the cold that your body isn't used to seems wrong. Am I doing the same by meddling with Peanut's ability to fluff? And mine lasts for days....

Stupid horse needs to start answering my questions.

Today's interesting observation:
While picking Peanut's foot, I found that he had a stone caught in his white line. It took a lot of work with the hoof pick to get it out (it was basically level with the rest of the hoof), and now he has a ditch in his sole, white line, and the inside of his wall. It's a perfect mold of the stone. His sole is incredibly hard right now, and I last picked them on Sunday. How long does it take a stone to embed itself into a horse's hoof to the point where the sole molds to it? Hmmmm.