4 Reasons Equestrians Don’t Need The Groundhog

Spring is coming, and we all know it already.

Flickr/Thowra_uk/CC

Look, Punxsutawney Phil (and all of your various alliterative cousins in towns all over the United States), we appreciate the effort and we don’t want to take anything away from you, but those of us in the horse world don’t really need you and your rodential prediction about when spring will arrive. Here are our top indicators that spring is already on its way:

There’s horse hair… everywhere. I mean, sure, this is pretty much a given in our cars, pockets and homes any time of the year, but in late winter when the days start getting longer? We can’t get rid of the stuff. You can go on and on about your amazing miracle tool that makes the spring shedding oh-so-bearable all you want, but no matter how good you are at removing the hair from the horse itself, you’re still going to go home looking roughly like Chewbacca with most of your horse’s former hair stuck to your clothes.

Those nice, expensive horse shoes that just got reset yesterday are mysteriously missing. They’ve been consumed by the black holes of mucky doom that are your turnout paddocks. Also missing somewhere out there are several halters, the assistant trainer’s left muck boot and possibly a few barn cats.

As the snow melts, you realize your farm looks like a train wreck. True story: in the same location where there was a snow drift last week, there’s now a half-eaten deer leg. Time to pick up the lawn, I think.

You’re grabbing mane. Because “spring” actually refers to your horse’s way of going this time of year. Birds flying overhead back north? Melting snow sliding off the indoor roof? A light spring breeze? Hang on tight, because it’s going to be a wild ride.

Embrace the early spring and go riding!