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Just another day up here in Minnesota yesterday as we got pummeled with 12 inches of snow and 25-30mph winds. On the plus side, at least its quite pretty here this morning.

Normally in the winter I would move the horses from their summer pasture to one of my farms that has box stalls so that on days like yesterday they could stay inside snuggled warm and dry. But this year I decided that I wanted to have them at my home farm that has a nice paddock and a considerable lean to about 150ft from my house. Everything has been fine with that arrangement so far even during our almost two week stretch of -15F to -30F daily highs.

Knowing that we had a blizzard coming I spent Sunday afternoon getting the horses' winter paddock "blizzardized". I completely shoveled out their lean to and put down some fresh straw and hung several large hay bags inside the lean to so they wouldn't have to venture out to the roundbale during the storm. Blankets were adjusted and double checked to make sure non one would get cold. Everything should be fine, right?

I went through all that work to make sure they could be warm and dry but did those stubborn beasts take advantage of it? Nope. I went out to check on them around noon thinking that I would find them tucked into their lean to eating hay. Instead I found them all standing outside looking like a bunch of horseicles. Their heads and necks are soaked with icicles all over their faces, and for the cherry on top the 2 yr old has Houdini'd her blanket half way off. So now I'm trying to fix the 2yr olds blanket while a wind gust lifts the dang thing up in the air spooking her and they all take off bucking around the paddock. It took me 20 mins of trudging through the snow (and I'll admit, a little bit of swearing) to catch them and get the dang blanket back on.

Blanket fiasco settled, I desperately tried to lead them into their lean to repeatedly. Its snowing and blowing so hard I can barely see them 10 feet away from me. After leading them in, only to have the following me back out about 5 times. I finally threw my hands up in the air and said "the heck with all of you!"

Alas, they survived and are frolicking around in their paddock enjoying the fresh snow as I type this. Lesson learned, you can lead a horse to shelter but you can't make it stay there!