Predicting the Weather

Moving from the east coast to the west has had it's on changes to handle, and one that is being a rather big pain is the weather.  When a storm is rolling through back home, you knew it was coming and coming fast.  If you heard thunder, you had a few minutes to pack up before the heavens opened and you got drenched.  Out here, its slightly different.  The thunder could be rolling but you could wait hours for the storm to come, or it could end up not coming by at all.  When the storms do come, they're usually fast and furious with a lot of rain all at once then quitting (although there are exceptions to this like last week's 36 hour deluge).  It makes predicting the weather, and ride planning very difficult.  Yesterday the farrier came out and while he was trimming we had heard thunder.  The sky was blue, but you could see some thunderclouds off to the north, yet nothing really to worry about.  Since it was blazing with heat, I planned on riding later on in the evening.  I was dressed to head out and BAM!  The rain just rolled in, pounding down.  This also effectively caused my riding areas to be way too slippery to ride in... sigh. 

Tonight is the first night with the new trailer!  We're going to head over to my friend's place who has an outdoor arena and jumps.  I'm hoping to string together a course tonight of 6 fences and see how we do, perhaps start with a gymnastic and move on to the course.  I know Koda's stamina is up and it was really interesting to hear the farrier's (let's call him K) opinion on him.  Koda's papers state that he's an arab-quarter horse cross, 50/50.  From K's point of view, Koda moves like an arabian, walks like an arabian, and seems more anglo-arab than quarter horse.  We surmised that his dam was most likely an appendix than pure quarter horse.  It's always nice to hear a professional horse person compliment your horse's way of going and confirmation.  Especially nice in this case since Koda is the first horse I have bought solely on my own judgement with a clear eye on what I wanted. 

Either way, I'm hoping that tonight goes well!  Will update with some photos and possibly video (SO is coming with me tonight).