Visiting the Horses

I went for another interesting snowshoe last week with a friend who lives northwest of here, in the next valley over, the valley of the Bighead River.  He took me across the river and over the fields to visit 3 horses who spend the winter on the pasture.

I've always been interested in horses, but it's always been at arm's length so to speak.  My father spoke enthusiastically about his job harnessing the horses as a youth; I think it was his favourite memory.  But I've just never had the chance to be around them much, so I really enjoyed this.

We snowshoed across the solidly frozen river, through a bit of woods, and up this hill.  I still couldn't see the horses, so I didn't realize where I was being led, nor what we would see; I was just going on a mystery walk in a new area.

Turning around we had a great view quite a distance to the west, over the Bighead Valley.  That's my friends house just showing as a bit of white in the woods near the centre of the picture.  He remembered the days when these fields were in a grain crop many years ago, but they've been just pasture for decades now.

Then we crested the hill, and there were the horses, pretty unexpected to see when you're out snowshoeing!  I think the wind blowing up this hill keeps the snow cover shallow, allowing them to paw down to the grass.  And they have shelter down among the cedars by the river when it's colder or windy.

Soon, with a little patience and quiet voices, they came to visit.  They knew my friend, but otherwise I don't think they've had human visitors close by for many weeks.  I don't know a thing about horses, but they did look healthy to me.  Tomorrow a few more pictures of the horses and the rest of our hike.

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