Testing Convictions

We're expecting a serious cold snap.  Tomorrow will be a high of 50 degrees at the barn (at 5 in the morning).  By 7am Tuesday morning, the temperature will be 2.

Yes, 2 with a windchill of -18.

During the day Tuesday it will not get above 11 degrees with the warmest windchill at -4.

This probably doesn't matter much to the average person unless you have livestock.

Peanut is fluffy, fat, and relatively young.  I'm really not worried about him.

Gene is a different matter.  He is fluffy, but neither fat nor young.

We are currently battling the war on his weight, as in keeping it on.  He is getting a full ration of Equidae for his ideal weight, and is now also receiving as much oats as he did the winter he was solely on them.  The oats are as of last week, with the amount upped again on Saturday, so they still probably need time to work.  When his next pack of SmartPaks arrive (ANY day now), they will include a weight gain.  We also have alfalfa cubes at the barn ready for him, but we don't want to throw them in right now since we have just introduced the oats.

Still... my goodness it is going to be cold.

He has not worn this blanket since the winter of '05-'06, when we were leasing and purchasing him.  The reason we even own one is that his last owners had a very small blanket on him that dug into his neck every time he bent down to graze.  Unhappy with this, we bought one of our own.  Upon buying him that February, we had to keep blanketing him because his coat never got the chance to grow in.

Since we are crunchy granola horse owners, he has not worn it since.  He has regulated his own temperature by raising and lowering his thick, lush coat and we never had an issue.  However, these temperatures are scaring both us and other people at the barn.

I can't take it.  He will be blanketed.  We have broken out his blanket already and will be putting it on him tomorrow night to be taken off Wednesday morning.  We are also planning to pick up a complementary neck wrap but most likely will not use it.  However, it will be good to have the one that matches our 8 year-old blanket before it's not available.

In all the research I have done, I have not been able to find anything about at what point you absolutely must blanket a horse.  I know there are wild horses in Alaska, so it can't be that bad for a healthy animal.

Ugh... horses are so nerve-wracking.  I feel more gray hairs coming in.

In other news, here's where Princess Charlotte stands:

For some reason this scan makes her face look horrid.  I'm actually happy with the subtleties I was able to capture with the difficult charcoal pencil.  Well, blogger is not helping, again deciding to do strange things with the image.  I'm also afraid that the skirt is getting muddied, but the whole thing seemed on the wrinkled side to begin with.  So much going on that didn't make sense with what was going on underneath.

Detail.  Still odd looking, but better.  In reality her head is probably an inch high, if that.