Finally Fit in a Ride

As of 2 January my office devotes the month to completing Inventory at the 13+ retail stores and a bunch more other establishments selling services or food in my company. Nothing new for me since they have always "borrowed" me during this month. What is new is that I have bigger part and that means more time involved. We get about 4 full days off in between some 12 hour days/nights with a bunch of half days. Needless to say my barn time has been cut drastically.
After my 4 hr day turned into a 6.5 hrs yesterday causing me to miss yet another chance to go to the barn, I was determined to ride today. The first day off since New Years. So I played catch up.
I did the morning chores while taking a hard line with my ponies. Larry had given them loose hay, but they said they wanted hay nets once I showed up. Nope, not until they cleaned up the loose hay. So, mean I know.
I filled hay nets, yellow and pink are morning nets and green and orange are evening. Love having the colored nets.
Then Larry received a delivery of gravel, which he then used the tractor to move around. So I decided that was a good time to trim Winston's feet. Turned out Winston was okay with it. No halter, in an open area with Larry working away, I got it done.
Bonus was watching Roscoe and Comrade get "loose" in the front field while Larry had the gates open. They always think they are being sneaky and cut loose like wild things. After all the rain we have had, running has not been possible. They made up for it today, including matching airs above ground.
And then because we have had teen temperatures causing water buckets to freeze, I dug out the heated water buckets. The heated 16 gal buckets have already been in place outside for a month or so.
By that point my ride time was dwindling. The Red Boys already got their exercise from the antics earlier. So I decided on Winston who has not worked in over a month. Winston made sure Mom and Peggy came down to the arena to sit and watch in the misty, chilly rain.
Surprisingly, he was ready to work if a bit stiff. Winston was pretty crooked though. I did some lateral work to get him straighter. Let me tell you, shoulder in on the circle worked well. Winston said it was tough too. We even cantered and I worked him over the poles. At that point I asked Mom to take pictures and she took a video (located down below) I could pull pictures from. This part of the ride Winston was more distracted, but I still had fun. Mom hopped on him after me and made him work more correctly. Such a cool horse and so happy to work. Of course I love the fact that I can do this much work with him.