General Discussion

Re: Dealing with Winter

golliegosh — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:07:52 GMT

I live in S. England which gets its fair share of weather. My cob has a thick coat which I clipped minimally about a month ago. If she gets sweaty on the thick hair I never hose in winter - I use a really good cleaning spray called winterwash for horses - from ebay uk. You rub it in and leave it and it absorbs sweat and you can put the rug straight back on and brush her out next time. She comes up lovely and shiny with no sweat stains. Its saved me hours. xx

Re: Dealing with Winter

HorseBizGirl — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:57:55 GMT

I recently found out about a great product for riding during these cold winter months - the "Bit Blanket!" If you're horse was like mine, he started getting very fussy whenever I tried to bridle him in the winter. I tried warming up the bit inside my jacket or by rubbing it, but it was time consuming and wasn't all that helpful - plus MY hands got cold! The Bit Blanket was the perfect answer - just plug it in and wrap the bit (just leave it attached to the bridle) and soon you'll have a nice, comfy bit. Just found out that they now also have an adapter so you can plug it in your car and arrive at the barn with a toasty bit. You can get them at: http://www.bitblanket.com

Definitely worth it to keep your horse happy during the winter!

Re: Dealing with Winter

Icelander — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:12:03 GMT

We here in Iceland deal with winter by shooing our horses with shoes that have ice-spikes in them - similar to winter tires on cars. We then use warm overalls, thick gloves and hat and then we are good to go!

Today there was 10 degrees frost and small wind. An hours ride was very refreshing for both men and horses :-)

Re: Dealing with Winter

BlueRoanMustang — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 11:16:24 GMT

I love winter riding too! The horses I ride all go barefoot in the winter, we don't do any special shoes, we just pay more attention to how they move on pavement and gravel and take it from there. Where I live we've had a great year without to much ice. I never ride when it's icy, but otherwise if it's frozen, snowy, or even muddy- we just go for it. I just guage speed depending on the conditions. I agree with Horselover127, even if it's for 10-20 minutes, it is so worth it!

Re: Dealing with Winter

squidge — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:16:36 GMT

I have to admit that my mare and I are quite fond of winter riding. In upstate NY we get mud, snow, mud, and bugs as our seasons. Snow is cold but you don't get as wet riding as when it rains. We don't have the luxury of an indoor so we have fun with it. If the shoulder of the quiet back roads have snow on them then we stay in the pasture and ride with the goats romping after us. If the roadsides are nice we dress up and have a good time. She wears her Santa hat and we hang a jingle-bell from the bottom of her halter. She loves to bob her head to make her bell ring. There are lots of people around us that come out to visit as well...particularly older people that remember more horses on the roads in the area.

Silver has bad feet so she wears the snow-ball pads under her shoes. Luckily we only need front shoes. Snow never stops us from having fun. We also have a special bad weather halter. Her storm halter is hot pink and has an ID tag on it with her name, my name and my cell number. The goats have fluorescent orange collars with similar tags. That way if anyone goes off the road and through the fence the animals still have ID so I know they will find their way back. They have had the chance to escape once before though and they chose to just stay home.

Re: Dealing with Winter

Major — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:01:54 GMT

Yes! I am looking forward to December 22 and longer days. So far here it hasn't been that cold but we haven't hit January yet. For winter I make sure the shoes are pulled unless they are non-slip shoes and have the proper padding so the snow/ice will fall out. Avoid deep mud and ride when the weather cooperates. I got 50 degrees the other day and managed to ride for about 10 minutes -- and have plenty of Bailey's on hand....sounds wonderful! And also since my horse is a senior, I keep him blanketed during bouts of cold temps and wet weather.

Re: Dealing with Winter

walkinthewalk — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:12:02 GMT

To give everyone something to look forward to:

December 21st is the Winter Solstice. That means, effective December 22nd, the days will start getting longer

Re: Dealing with Winter

Horselover127 — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:41:26 GMT

Aren't we all excited for winter? :) haha

Well, where I ride we do have an indoor, so I am very fortunate, I used to ride at a barn where there wasn't one so I had every winter off. I don't currently own a horse of my own, but I ride lesson horses and all of them are full body clipped and blanketed in the winter. The boarder horses and some lesson horses are big "A" show competitors and are kept in best conditions. Usually the horses go out in the fields for only a little bit if it is soggy wet ground, and are groomed well afterwards to keep their coats shiny. We use coolers to keep them warm before getting on and then take them off to begin riding. then we cool out and put their coolers on. If the outdoor ring is nice then we will ride outside but the indoor is definitely more convenient.

My advice to those without access to indoors:

Always be ready with your horse to ride! - If you get an opportunity where the ring is not hard and the weather is cooperating go! Even if it is a 15 minute ride you and your horse will appreciate it!

Bring your horse out for walks on the grass, if it isn't too soggy. Just to stretch his muscles is a good thing!

That's all I can think of right now, but that's all you can really do without an indoor.

What I did without an indoor was pamper the horses, give them nice long groomings to maintain their shiny coats.

Give them treats and TLC.

Clean tack, keep things nice!

Do some early spring cleaning.

I hate those long winters! Riding outside is always pleasurable!

Re: Dealing with Winter

walkinthewalk — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 06:10:04 GMT

Solaris:
(1) Select your favourite beverage receptacle.
(2) Add a few tablespoons of hot chocolate.
(3) Fill the rest of the (preferably large) receptacle with Bailey's or alcoholic thing of choice.
(4) Close eyes and drink rapidly.
(5) Repeat until March.

Ahhhh!!!!! The best solution of them all:)

Re: Dealing with Winter

Jayne-Admin — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:59:01 GMT

Mmmm now that's advice I can follow! I love Bailey's - hmm, haven't had any in a while - I think we need to pick some up.

Re: Dealing with Winter

Solaris — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 08:43:32 GMT

(1) Select your favourite beverage receptacle.

(2) Add a few tablespoons of hot chocolate.

(3) Fill the rest of the (preferably large) receptacle with Bailey's or alcoholic thing of choice.

(4) Close eyes and drink rapidly.

(5) Repeat until March.

Re: Dealing with Winter

walkinthewalk — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:39:18 GMT

How to you handle winter with your horse? Do you keep riding through winter, or does your horse get the winter off? When I was younger, I lived on the OH/PA border and rode all year long. My horses were barefoot all winter.

What do you do to get around the problem muddy and/or frozen ground, both for turnout and riding? We have 22 acres of nothing but hills. The one acre "hospital pasture", that's attached to the barn is flat. They stay in there until the serious ice melts. Lst year the ice was so thick (in Middle TN) the horses couldn't break thru it. They stayed in the front pasture four days waiting for the ice to melt down. They were happy --- NOT - lol lol lol

I am not being sassy but we have such excellent drainage that we don't have mud. Two inches of mud for more than three days means the rest of the county is probably under water.

What suggestions do you have for people without access to indoor I don't have an answer, unless their horses is kept on a fairly quiet road to where it can be road-ridden. Sometimes hand-walking out and riding back will keep a horse from getting the jitters if they're not used to traffic.

If there's a tractor lane, take advantage of that.

Re: Dealing with Winter

Gailforce — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:54:21 GMT

i too am in the pacific northwest, farther north in bc. we've been so lucky this year (knock on wood). it has been great for the past couple weeks. we had one brief snowfall mid november.

my horse doesn't wear shoes, and when it snowed, i felt so sorry for all the other horses balancing on giant snowballs. of course, with no shoes, mine didn't have that problem. we've always had our horses shoeless in the winter even when i lived in alberta. we still rode, but, the snow was softer to walk on and the horses were fine.

my biggest problem is blanketing. the raincoat rubs the hair off his shoulders and the winter blanket is too warm most days (and not waterproof, which is needed here). and i'm not always sure whether he needs a blanket when it's not raining. he has fine hair, so, i feel he needs some help, but, it's a pain.

as for riding; i'm a fair weather rider. i don't ride in the rain or super cold.

we have lights in the outdoor arena, but i haven't used them since october. it's too cold after dark for me.

basically, winter is a semi-holiday for the horse. i excercise him enough to keep him fit and get his ya-ya's out and that's about it.

Re: Dealing with Winter

schoolhorserider — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:35:58 GMT

In NY, several horses had those rubber pads 48 mentioned. Otherwise the ice would freeze - and there was no way to get it out!

Some tips for riding from my time up there - layers, layers, and more layers. Take one or 2 off before mounting, and be able to shed another couple as the ride progresses. I even wore yoga pants and/or silky long undies under my breeches.

Toastie Toes are your friends. But don't wear 2 pairs of socks, lol.

Irish knit coolers are THE BEST for wicking off sweat from a hard ride before blanketing. My fav was actually Irish knit on the inside and fleece on the outside. It had the little browband that held it up on the horse's neck. I said it ade him look like a sheik. lol

I was lucky up there in that we had an indoor arena - and the new one actually kept it ~10 degrees warmer than outside (when the sun was out). Unfortunately, 10 degrees warmer than 12 is still really, really cold. lol.

This is on my mind because last night I wore clothing more suitable to NY than TX (usually). It wasn't below freezing while we rode, but it got there before dawn. I had a turtleneck, sweatshirt, and puffy vest. Plus my big "winter" barn coat that I took off just before mounting. I never even unzipped the vest.

I would only be able to ride weekends if I didn't have access to a lighted arena. It's only "covered" (a roof on supports) not indoor, so we can get some biting winds. There haven't been too many issues w/ mud here in a while. We have a few spots (near gates of course) that get churned up, but some of them can be avoided.

Re: Dealing with Winter

lovmyhorses — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 06:39:58 GMT

When I was in high school I used to do a lot of trail riding in the winter, and then had high school equestrian team practice, and 2 riding lessons all at indoors that we trucked to. Now I'm in college so I don't get to ride much until winter or summer break and don't have the access to indoors that I used to have. I still do a lot of trail riding and I ride in my outdoor as long as it's not icey. If it's icey I don't ride. Sometimes I get lucky and I can volunteer myself and my horse for some things and I get the use of an indoor for an hour or so before or after (or sometimes both).

When it comes to dealing with muddy ground (usually in the spring for me) I just make sure that my horse's shoes are pulled every winter and go back on after the worst of the mud. I've found this also helps with ice in the winter as well even for just turnout. I'm lucky enough to have 2 very surefooted horses who live outside year round and they go out every day and have never hurt themselves on ice, though in their main pen I will put sand down on different pathways, I've found that it also seems to work as a bit of a heads up for my horses as they are more cautious when the sand comes out than if I don't put it out.