Yesterdays run was VERY interesting. I had two pretty young, but experienced leaders up front (Odie was one of them June - the other his brother, Loki). We pass lots of horses, cows, etc on our runs and although those two get a little distracted by livestock, they always stay on the trail - until yesterday. We passed a field with 3 horses - and as is fairly common, the horses (2 of them draft horses) came over to say 'Hi'. Loki and Odie couldn't resist and snuck over. They were just under the fence sniffing and barking at the horses as I set the brake to go get them back on track. Very quickly things turned ugly when one of the draft horses spun and started kicking at the dogs. His buddy turned and joined him and my heart was in my throat as I ran up the line. Both dogs got kicked at least once, as I saw them get thrown back. Thank goodness both are fine. Odie bit his tongue and that caused a few minutes of panic as I searched for the source of the blood. I took Odie out of lead and replaced him with the incredibly reliable Camilla - who got everyone safely back on the road with the horses still hanging over the fence.
So then I'm about 3 more miles down the trail when I notice my leg is getting cold (remember it is -10F). Turns out the zipper on my Carhartt coveralls was acting up. I stopped to fix it and in the process tore a couple of the teeth out of the zipper - rendering the zipper useless. So now, there I am, 14 miles from home with an open leg on my coveralls from hip to ankle. There are a few snaps on the leg and I did those up - but that didn't do much to keep out the cold. I had a few heat packs and tucked them in my long underwear to try and stop my leg from freezing and stopped ever few miles to jog on the spot and keep the blood flowing.
Oh well - I always say it is important to have bad days running dogs so you can appreciate the good ones!
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