Having missed out on our latest dressage competition due to the snow and ice on the steep hill from our yard making it too dangerous to drive on I was determined that it wasn’t going to stop me schooling at home aswell! I arrived at the yard on Thursday to find the menage full of even more lovely fluffy snow! The ground underneath wasn’t frozen so if I could clear the snow enough it would be fit to ride on. I car jacked my mother’s 4×4, attached the rake, attached a pallet to that for extra weight and got driving. After 20mins of some very promising flat work from the Nissan the menage was cleared, and ready to ride in later that day…
…but later that day the weather had other plans, and the heavens opened so all my effort had been in vain. The next day twice as determined not to have my plans foiled by the weather AGAIN and expecting to be able to use a freshly raked menage I arrived to find ICE! All the festive white stuff had been rained on, walked on, compacted and frozen turning the whole yard into a huge ice rink! All the horses had to stay in, and everyone was tentatively mucking out shuffling back and forth to the muck heap trying not to fall over! Soap and Jack’s stables are just feet from the menage gate so I set about chopping at the ice with a shovel to clear them a little path so that I could get them into the school to work them. Once cleared and gritted they could safely get to the menage to stretch their legs, and I could finally ride!
