Equine Anniversary and Winter Begins

Hey Y'all! Guess what I woke up to at 7:27 a.m. this morning, yes snow. It was actually quite a surprise for me. (Seeing as how it has been raining for nearly 2 weeks straight!)  I really don't know how it was even cold enough to snow, the ground is not frozen at all!  All that is left of the two inches we got now is a trampled slush and broken tree branches.  And in addition to my regular morning chores, I found myself doing something a little more than strange; going around shaking trees!  ;-)   There were several large tree limbs that had cracked from the weight of the (very heavy) snow. So I had to go around our property scraping all the icy snow off of the plants to avoid any more 'blizzard clean up'.   (I can assure you there are a lot of saplings seeing as how we live in the Allegan Forest!)  But enough of this Michigan weather report- on to the pictures!   :-)

 The walnut tree outside our bedroom window still has a lot of black (Even though they're green.  :p) walnuts on it!   It was not time for it to snow yet! We have an abundance of these nuts and harvest them almost every fall to dry in our attic, then we crack them open in the winter and enjoy!
                                                 (Much better than store-bought!)

      As you can see, the leaves have barely started falling, adding to the weight of the branches. :-(

                   Our Saint Bernard/Great Dane (Harvey) snuffling around in the fresh snow.

                       Our goat pen does look positively enchanting in the winter though!  ;-)

Now, on to the next subject- our Hackney pony, Havah. Last year a friend of ours (Who owns a boarding facility) was moving and had to get rid of a few of her own horses. Havah was one that she had recently accepted from a family that got her for their daughter after her horse passed away, thinking it would comfort her. The daughter was too sad to care for her though and gave her to our friend. (Havah's first owners were an Amish family that used her for their buggy horse.)  We have wanted a horse our whole life but Mom thought we should start out with something smaller, so Havah was the perfect fit! (She is only around 12 hands high)  As I said, our friend owned a small boarding stable with several other horses. So Havah, being the smallest, got picked on a lot. :(
When we got her she had lost a lot of weight and been bitten/ kicked by a large gelding there, as seen in the picture below.

                         (Note: this is with her full winter coat that you can see her ribs.)

                       Nevertheless, she was a cute little pony and soon warmed up to us!

          (Sorry, these pictures were taken with an old camera and have the wrong date on them!)

                                              Showing off her high-stepping nature!

                                                                     (Curly hair)

       [It makes me so sad to look at these old photos and see how skinny her neck was!:(  ]

    So, now that you've seen what she did look like, time for the "new horse" she is now that we've had her a full year!   ;-)   (October fifth 2012 is when we brought her home!)

                                                   (Thanks to God and a lot of hay!)

                                                     Munching grass in the backyard...

                                                                 All ready for a ride!

                                                        Look at that beautiful shiny coat!!!

                                     Nice and plump! (Maybe a little too plump!)

                        Having a little extra grain after standing still to get her mane braided!

                                                                        A roll in her favorite hole!

                                                                                      Messing around...

                           I like this one because you can see me taking the picture... :-)

                                                                               Simply gorgeous.

                In this one you can see her fat little stomach she acquired over last winter.  ;)

                                                          (Her cute white stocking.)

                                                 Havah's favorite treat- a bite of bark...

 One of Havah's best friends! ;)

And a few more photos...

 She loves being wet- too bad every time we give her a bath she rolls around in the dirt.   ;p

                                                                    She enjoys a good scrub!

Havah and I.

Well, I hope this post has not been too boring for those of you who are not equine lovers! 

I was going to add an outfit post at the end but it is far too cold outside-

let alone it's pouring rain!

Ahh, Michigan weather.

We will try to get another post up this week, probably Saturday but maybe before. ;-)

Hope you enjoyed Havah's Story!

                                                                            ~Rebekah