I had no idea it would hit us so fast, but all of a sudden the wind was coming almost right at us (as we headed north, it was coming from the northwest). It began to feel like my face was being sandblasted by something--not sure if it was dust or sleet or what. Tim and his friend, on Cody and Strider, had gotten a bit ahead of me. We were all just doing what we had to, to get home. The horses were fantastic. They just put their heads down and kept going. At one point I tried to get Brego to speed up and catch up to the others. He did a little crow hoppy thing like he didn't want to go faster, and I decided "no problem--just get me home". A couple of times the wind gusts were so strong Brego seemed to have difficulty walking forward straight. I was afraid we'd go into the wire fence just downwind. It began to rain, and the rain was hitting us hard from the side. A couple of times it felt like Brego was shivering by my calves.
Brego did great. I was so proud of him (and me!). I really wasn't "freaked out", I was just uncomfortable and wanted to get home. There was nothing else we could do. As we got to the lane headed home, we all sped up, Cody trotting or cantering, the other horses gaiting, but none of them out of control. I kept my hand to my face just to keep from getting "sandblasted", which turned out to be rain, not sand. As soon as we got home and dismounted, we walked straight into the barn, and boy was that nice! We just stood there a couple of minutes to relax. The horses (and us) were much wetter than I'd imagined. It was so windy and visibility was so bad, it was hard to tell we were getting wet.
We survived. And I was very impressed with how well Brego did. He sure took care of me!
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