First snow

Have I mentioned I am really not a winter person. I like warmth, swimming, riding with a tank top on, bonfires, swimming at the beach with my horse and lying around in shorts and sandals etc.

However the winter has a kind of cleansing effect on the earth. Everything goes dormant and when the snow falls it is white and crisp and pure.
I opened my blinds this morning just as the sun was coming up and I see snow falling in huge flakes but not really sticking to the ground much.

This is the first year in a long time I can remember it not being muddy. Everything is relatively flat because we haven't got a lot of rain. Hopefully this means more winter riding for me because the ground will be fit.
See theres snow, just not much to stick. GO BACK TO ALASKA!! (after you snow a lot once or twice so I can drive my new old sleigh and go tobogganing aka: busting my ass on a piece of plastic just to get the thrill of whizzing down a hill at speed)
Although I hate the snow I love tobogganing and wheeling snowballs at my friends and making snow jumps and jumping them with my horse, going for sleigh rides and going as we have named "neighboganing" which is really me riding a horse pulling around kids/adults on a sled with a rope. The only rule is if your headed for the side of the barn BAIL!!!

Today I ducked around the side of the machine shed as the snow blew by. Sheba and Indigo were huddled here, smart horses out of the wind.
Heres what it looks like across the field.
Of course there were little snowflakes. I wish I had my other lens on my camera they were hard to get in focus(downfall of 55-200mm lens) being mobbed by Indigo who was licking the back of my jacket and Sheba fogging up my lens by snorting at it.
They didn't seem to mind the snow though with those thick winter coats. They just don't like the wind. I don't blame them.

On the weekend I participated in our small towns christmas parade which usually consists of five or so floats, a marching band or two, our big carriage with santa in it and me riding. Indigo had her humiliating hat on and a BIIIIIIG red bow in her tail.Indigo had red polo wraps on her front legs too and my green saddle pad had mistletoe, holly and this red rope garland around it and a bunch of bells.

At one point in the parade she had a bit of a temper tantrum when she did not want to stand. I forgot to bring baling twine or zip ties to tie the hat on to her bridle. In her frustration she swung her head around and the hat came twirling off her ears and wheeled right in front of her face. It got caught on the back of the carriage before falling to the ground. The guy in the ambulance behind us (sans sirens thank goodness) came running out to pass it to Santa in our carriage.

The thing about Santa was that he had been in the "Harrow hotel" as it has been affectionately nicknamed, but really a bar called shooters. You can see it in the background of the picture with Indigo and I it has the bunch of peaks and trucks parked in front of it. The sad thing is I can name every person who drives those trucks.
We picked Santa up at the door. Apparently he went for a few pre-present giving/parade drinks. Of course everyone inside would think an enebreated santa is hilarious so they all start buying him rounds. In the end he nearly fell backwards out of the carriage getting in and he was wearing john deer work gloves that were black thankfully.

Only in this small town.