January 26, 2011 - A quiet week

I haven't done much with Rory in the last week. We had a very cold snap over the weekend.  Sunday night went down to -34C with very little wind.  The lack of wind meant the horses spent the night in the clouds of their own breath, much of which frosted the tips of their hair all around their heads and necks.  I tried to take a photo of Rory, but he wouldn't stand still far enough away from me to get all the frost in nicely.  Once the sun came up the frost melted away quite quickly.

Rory was quite warm enough in his blanket, and was a bit annoyed that I had to check before he could have his breakfast.  I'm not thrilled with these blankets.  The lining seems to be a very poor quality nylon.  Rory wore through one side of the shoulder lining in his rainsheet in less than two weeks.  Another horse at the barn has the same winter blanket and the lining has several very long rips in it.  I looked at it closely and could see that the material was pulling apart along the stitch lines too.  Rory's lost one of the chest buckles on his winter blanket - it must have broken badly as there was no sign of it.  These blankets have two cross bars - one for the tongue, the other for the nylon strap attaching it to the blanket - and the strap bar breaks leaving the buckle still on the billet.  The nylon loop for the buckle was still intact so I just attached the snap to the loop with a quick link for chains.  I'll be glad when he's finished growing and I can get him the same type of blanket that my other horse wears.