Snice

Gingham, I'm not sure Miss Pia would like it here after all.... 

Welcome to Texas! I hope you brought a bathing suit AND a jacket. You might get to wear both in the same week! 

I woke up this morning to find the world covered in a thick layer of snice. Beth coined the term for it, and it was spot on... not quite snow, not quite ice. Snice. It was snaining all night.... not quite rain, not quite snow. Not really sleet either, more like... large chunks of ice falling from the sky. You know, the kind that makes loud drumming noises when it hits your coat and feels a bit like stinging hail when it blasts you in the face. Did I mention my truck thermometer read only 22 degrees?

85 two days ago.... 22 today. That was the high. 

Texas is THE WORST place to have these winter storms. Up north, as soon as the flakes start flying the cities get their salt trucks and plows out and rolling. They are ON IT. The roads are cleared mid-storm and they stay clear. Even if there are a few slick spots here and there, most people have years and years of experience driving in that kind of weather, and they can adjust their speed accordingly. 

Texans? Texans totally forget the concept of inertia whenever ice or snow comes to town. They have no idea that you need extra intertia to get UP the hills, and that too much inertia will also send you spiraling out of control DOWN the hills. They either creep along going 15 miles an hour and get stuck on little inclines, or they fly along in their pickups doing 50, fishtailing all over the place (weight your beds, come ON people!) and tailgating. The worst problem is that the roads go completely untreated. I get it, we don't have snowplows or salt trucks written into the state budget (why would we need them most of the time?), but seriously, the occasional fumbling sand truck is just as useless as everything else because the drivers also don't know how to handle the weather! 

Therefore, all of the roads get reduced to this:

That's a three-lane skating rink, in case you were curious. 

The horses were not particularly amused by the weather either...

That's her "really?" face.

Oh no.... et tu, water trough??

That's a LOT of ice for Texas. 

I really wanted to get on O today, but everything was SO slick that I decided against it. Better safe than sorry, especially after everything we've dealt with this month!

I've been blogging a lot lately, which is great - this is probably the most I've regularly blogged since I was showing Gogo. The problem is that I am doing it partly because I have been stuck in the house so much! Well... I suppose a few more days of being a couch jockey aren't going to kill me. I hope the weather relents soon though, I'm not sure how many times I can go over my spring calendar and 2014 plans.

So far, I'm feeling a bit stuck in terms of planning. Priority goes to the business while it builds - if it comes down to it, money and time get directed to that first. Second priority (in terms of fun hobby-type things) goes to eventing, and whatever else is left goes to other horse endeavors (mainly endurance). I'm not happy to find that there are only 5 endurance rides within 4 hours of me (I decided 4 hours is the cutoff, and I'd REALLY rather not drive that far anyway for rides), and all of them finish up before the end of March. One of them is already over with (the one we had to miss because she fell out of the trailer). Two of them coincide with recognized events on the USEA calendar. One of them is really too far away to consider doing. That only leaves us with two rides, one in January and one in February. Both rides are between 3 and 4 hours away. That is making it sound less and less feasible. 

Basically, it boils down to this: I have a TON of recognized events to choose from in the area, and not many endurance rides. Two of the endurance rides also overlap with events, which isn't ideal either.

Endurance Rides To Choose From:

January 4th: High Roller I Endurance Ride (TX)

February 15th: Racing Stripes Endurance Ride (TX)

March 1st: Bootlegger Boogie Endurance Ride (TX)

March 15th: Heart of the Hills Endurance Ride (TX)

Recognized Events To Choose From:

March 1-2nd: MeadowCreek Spring Social HT (TX)

March 14-16th: Feather Creek HT (OK)

March 28-30th: Texas Rose Horse Park HT (TX)

April 13th: Pine Hill HT (TX)

April 19-21st: Holly Hill Social HT (LA)

May 3-5th: Greenwood HT (TX)

May 25-26th: Corona del Sol HT (TX)

June 8-9th: Texas Rose Horse Park Summer HT (TX)

August 31st: Corona del Sol HT (TX)

Sept 13-15th: Feather Creek HT (OK)

Sept 26-29th: American Eventing Championships (TX)

Oct 11-13th: Greenwood HT (TX)

Oct 25-27th: Holly Hill HT (LA)

Nov 2nd: Pine Hill HT (TX)

Nov 9-10th: Texas Rose HT (TX)

Nov 22-24th: MeadowCreek Park HT (TX)

While I would love to pour money into AERC and TERA fees and go to just one or two rides, I'm not really sure that's the best use of money. But, I WANT to keep doing endurance stuff with her... it's admittedly a bit frustrating. I'm a very goal-oriented person, and I use competitions/shows as motivation to push on and keep going. Without something rock-solid on O's calendar, I feel like I'm floundering a bit. What exactly are we going to be shooting for? Are we going to put conditioning miles on, when there is no real reason to aside from base fitness for everything else? Do we keep working on molding her as an eventer, when it looks like Tre is probably going to be the one I will be pointing at recognized stuff (she'll be ready sooner)? Do I work on other things, barrels/poles/driving/etc? 

She might not be the most outrageous talent, but I am hopelessly attached to her. I want to make sure I point her at something she's going to be successful at in the long run.

Lots of thinking and planning to be done before spring starts. Perfect for crappy, icy days.