Pushing limits and when to stop

So this week has been crappy.  -20 to -27 plus windchill which usually makes it around -35 to -40 Celsius.  I don't go to the barn when its that cold!  Heck the ponies didn't even get out of the barn for 2 days.  Keeping them in the barn kept them out of the cold, and kept most of the water lines, and buckets from freezing solid.

On Friday we had a blizzard with an additional 20 cm of snow and -15 temps.  Today it warmed up to plus 1 (yippie!) because it is going to rain tomorrow (crappy!).... My dad and brother got up on the roof of our house and shoveled it off today.  A lot of the larger farms with indoors were doing the same today.  Any large indoor arena is at risk of collapse with the amount of snow that we've had, add the water weight from the rain we get tomorrow,,, and things could go bad very quickly.  Although I sometimes wish C & D's indoor was bigger, the small narrow shape means that the steep roof can hold a lot of weight.

So today I spent all of the morning at the barn and did too much.  I'm now sitting at home, on painkillers resting my bad ankle/foot.  I helped muck some stalls, broke the ice out of 14 water buckets and two stock tanks, swept, and helped move round bales around.  And then after all of that I went for a ride on Chilly.  We still only do 5 minute rides, shes so good to put up with me after only being ridden once a week.  I really shouldn't have ridden, but sometimes I cant say no to myself.

We also had a look into Chilly's mouth on the recommendation of our equine dentist.  Chilly had her wolf teeth out almost a full year ago, so we knew it wasn't that.  Turns out she's loosing her 'baby' teeth and popping caps.  So, we've backed off on the bit issue and will continue to ride her in the side pull for another month.  If we're still having issues the dentist might have to come out, but she said as long as we can see obvious signs of her growing and loosing teeth, not to be too concerned. 

Oscar's mom went back to school today so I'll start riding him again this week (depending on the weather). 

I'm on the fence on if I want to keep working Chilly, or to see if me and M can switch for a couple of weeks and have her ride Chilly and me ride Hottie for a bit.  She's lighter if less experienced, and can push her more than I can.  Meanwhile I could get Hottie a bit more broke for her.... something to think about for sure...