I’ve spent the last few years complaining about the drought because droughts are terrible and have horrible consequences for the environment and economy and our ability to, you know, use water, but the actual experience of the drought was rather nice. We were able to get out and ride all winter and keep up with lessons and conditioning.
This winter, on the other hand, has been a series of epic rainfalls. I’m fortunate in that my barn hasn’t been flooded like Fig’s and I haven’t had to flee my house to avoid a potential dam collapse. But I am very concerned. There are lots of mudslides in the area near my barn, the pond at our park has flooded, and our arena has formed a spring/sinkhole.
There’s not normally a stream here
We can’t ride since everything is either mud or flooded or it’s pouring rain. And I’m sorry if I’m complaining a lot, but I’m already very, very over this and the rain is supposed to get worse this week.
On the positive side, Britt from House on a Hill sent me this amazing palomino mule Breyer. It’s perfect and has earned a place on my mantle with my other Nilla paraphernalia.
If you’re in California, stay safe this winter.
The sinkhole is worrisome! I hope it starts to dry out soon.
I’m trying to pretend it’s not happening.
Droughts are no fun, but floods are worse. Stay safe!
Yeah, I’d really rather go back to the drought.
as grateful as we should all be always for water (ya know, it’s whole “sustaining” powers and whatnot), it’s one hell of a powerful force. stay safe!
You are not whining at all. I AM COMPLETELY OVER THIS TOO.
It would be different if we were prepared for weather like this, with drainage in place and covered arenas that didn’t let the wind and rain in from all goddamn sides. But we AREN’T. And the weather has been so utterly psychotic that half of the time when I do muster up the gumption to ride I CAN’T because there’s a sudden shift in the weather that makes it suddenly less of a good idea (with a groaning, creaking covered over my head and rain coming in sideways… yeah no thanks). Or I’ll take a morning off (like today) to get work done in predicted pouring rain and gale force winds and it’s quiet.
I AM SO OVER IT.
Ha ha. You sound about at my level of frustration. I thought you had an indoor though?
We do, but there’s a roofing sheet that has a hole and the rain has been coming in sideways through our one open side in every storm, so a solid half of our arena is drenched at all times. But my horse isn’t stranded, so that’s something.
Sorry to hear you’re having such an awful go at it lately! Hopefully it will all get resolved quickly.
It’ll get resolved whenever it stops raining.
Wow! That’s crazy. We’ve had a lot of rain but we are fairly used to that.
I think the northwest is a bit more equipped to handle the rain than we are.
Ugh. Weather. Weather is the WORST! We’re having the opposite- freakishly warm beautiful weather, but only after a foot of snow fell. So same kind of frustration here: no where to ride, but it’s GORGEOUS and I WANNA!
Please stay safe, that sinkhole sounds concerning!
It’s not gorgeous here; just miserable.
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I’m so with you! There is no where for the water to go! Everything is sopping wet and muddy. I haven’t ridden since Dec. The Oroville dam is scary and driving over every bridge in Sac, you can see just how full the rivers are. I keep hoping each storm will be the last than another one arrives. I’m really looking forward to a hot dry summer! While it’s a bummer I can’t ride, there are people truly suffering. For the homeless there is no where dry for them to go. We don’t have adequate shelters or services. At least my horses have a roof over their head! Good luck in your area!
I’m certainly glad it’s not worse for me, but I think everyone would be happy if it would just stop raining.
Oh wow. That’s pretty insane, having a spring/sinkhole show up in your arena.
Yeah. It’s really bizarre and concerning.
I’ll join the club of being tired of this too. Just waiting it out. The trails that aren’t a sloppy mess are covered in fallen trees. My trailer is stuck too, giant holes and ruts in the road means I could trailer out, but probably not get back in! But I will say we were pretty prepared for this as our barn has been around quite a while and remembers previous bad winters, and am lucky it drains pretty well. I’m holding off being anxious becasue I don’t need to be conditioning seriously right now, though my horse is really crabby!
Our horses are really pent up. They’d like to get out as much as we would.
Reminds me of 2 summers ago here when we had rain for 37 straight days! Definitely gets old after awhile.
Nilla the famous breyer Mule! 😉
We’re getting a lot of rain too far less than you guys though, if you get sick of it come down for a visit 🙂
Oh jeez…that’s really awful, I hope it dries out for you. Sink holes sound very, very scary.
On the very small bright side, that patch of grass is brilliantly green.
I have been following all the rain on NPR and social media and it’s downright scary. Especially the sinkholes. Be careful!
It’s really scary here. There was a big to-do in a nearby town with a bunch of horses trapped in a flooded barn. The rain is really too much.