3 Blanket Weekend

I was reminded this weekend why Grace has so many blankets She has at least 10 of them, all with different weights of denier and fill. That doesn’t include coolers or her magnetic sheet or the two blankets I sold last month. This weekend in the Pacific Northwest we experienced one of our “100 year” rainstorms,which was similar to the last 100 year storm we had only 2 years ago. In 48 hours we received almost 6 inches of rain with temperatures in the 50’s. Was it really only 3 weeks ago that we had snow and temperatures in the teens?

Blanket #1

Grace started the weekend off in her pink and black Duratech turnout blanket. She had been wearing her heavier purple Duratech until I switched it out Friday morning in preparation for the warmer weather. The rain started out light on Saturday morning. We hauled up to Diamond Hill Ranch for arena sorting. I was the only haul in for the session, which allowed us to have a lot of one on one time with the herd. The rain started to pick up during the few hours that we were at the barn. I left the trailer hooked up since there was a good chance we would be hauling out to ride again on Sunday.

Cows!

By the time I fed Grace on Saturday night, it was in the 50’s and the rain was at a steady down pour. Instead of standing in her nice dry, clean, freshly bedded shelter, Grace chose to stand out in the rain. Her pink medium weight blanket was saturated. She was still dry underneath, but the blanket was heavy with rain. I pulled it off and put on her purple plaid turnout sheet. I then watched as the grabbed mouthfuls of hay and pulled it outside her shelter and dropped it into the mud. I dragged the hay back inside and threatened to stand there while she ate her dinner. Once she had her grain in front of her, she stayed put.

Blanket #2

We headed back up to the barn on Sunday morning after breakfast. Grace’s head and neck were soaked, but from the shavings in her tail it looked like she had slept inside her shelter. I had planned to do some ground work in the arena before tacking up. Since we had the place to ourselves I promised Grace she could roll once we got inside. My plan was to get her into the middle of the arena where the dirt was dry and it would be safe to roll. We were not two feet inside the gate before Grace was already down in the dirt! I made her get up and moved her to the center of the arena to let her finish her dirt bath. After a great ride and extra grooming time inside the dry barn, we headed back out in the rain to head for home.

Grace wondering why we are not working the cows on Sunday

By the time I pulled the trailer into the driveway, the rain had slowed down to a drizzle. It was still in the high 50’s. Grace’s mane and tail were full of arena dirt from her roll. I couldn’t take it anymore; I pulled out the hose while Grace grazed and started washing her tail. Since it wasn’t fairly warm out for December, I went ahead and washed her mane as well. The only problem was that she was still wearing her turnout sheet. When Grace lifted her head all the water went down her shoulder, underneath the blanket. Time for another blanket change. That was when I realized just how many blankets she has. I had to dig though a stack of hanging turnouts to get to the one I wanted. I’m almost disappointed that the rain has stopped.

We have at least another 3 days of blanket changes ready to go.

Blanket #3