We had an Arctic front sweep in late yesterday, delivering a blizzard overnight and then sub-zero temperatures today — with snowdrifts everywhere. Sub-zero for us is fairly routine and our horses are used to it, but we continued to have wind throughout the day … and that’s a problem for the horses when it’s this cold. Some of our horses are blanketed all winter long, but others aren’t unless the weather turns like this. Alayne took the photo of me putting a blanket on blind Guadalupe today.
As I write this at 8 p.m., it’s 5 below zero and the wind is blowing 10 miles an hour. Brrr.
Who we blanket and when depends on a lot of variables: Body condition, age, quality of winter coat, type of shelter (run-in vs. barn stall), individual tolerance for cold, and of course, the weather itself.
And we’re in for a sustained cold spell. Here’s the National Weather Service forecast this evening for our location for the next few days:
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Tonight: A 40 percent chance of snow, mainly before 11pm. Mostly
cloudy, with a low around -11. East northeast wind between 11 and 15
mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Little or no snow accumulation
expected.
M.L.King Day: Mostly sunny and cold, with a
high near 6. East northeast wind between 10 and 13 mph becoming light.
Winds could gust as high as 20 mph.
Monday Night: Patchy freezing fog. Mostly clear, with a low around -19. Northeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Tuesday: Patchy freezing fog. Mostly sunny and cold, with a high near 1. Calm wind becoming west between 4 and 7 mph.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around -16. West wind between 4 and 7 mph becoming calm.
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As you can imagine, getting the dogs to stay outside long enough in this kind of weather to do their business is always a challenge! At least we don’t have that problem with the horses!
In the background of the photo above is Beauty’s Barn on the left and our new hay barn on the right. If that building looks big, it’s because it is a whopper — 100 feet long and 32 feet wide with 20-foot high walls. Just what you need to store more than 100 tons of hay! Having that hay barn has saved us an immense amount of time and effort this winter. Before we built it, we stored our hay in a neighbor’s barn almost a mile away, which meant we had to load at least 2 tons of hay on our flatbed trailer every week, drive it back to the ranch, unload and stack it at the various horse barns. Honestly, we didn’t need the exercise!
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Update on Snowball and Popeye: Dr. Jennifer Rockwell at Montana Veterinary Specialists called this weekend to say that although she drained more fluid from Snowball’s chest, he is perking up and has begun eating again … and that is great news. Popeye continues to make progress with his eye, and Dr. Brenda Culver plans to do a follow-up procedure to close his eye socket again this week.
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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