Coping with snow and ice

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Permalink Reply by leslie645 on January 7, 2010 at 5:43pm

Were having some bitterly cold weather here in the US this week.Talking below zero farenheit
I am throwing hay at them ~ basically giving free choice. Heated water, which they seem to love cuz boy are they going through it!
My Irishh Draught is eating constantly. Slowly but constantly . She knows she has a hind gut heater that needs fuel. When this cold snap ends I will need to check her weight as the hay is Alf/Orchard grass miix. My leased paint is a cribber so~ he eats real fast and then goes back to cribbing~ not too smart. Actually he is way too smart for his own good. and tidy too....he likes to stack his buckets togther for some reason...? I guess to get them out of his way...LOL every morning I go out there and the buckets are stacked neatly in a corner.
I dont have them in shoes so I dont have to worry tooo much about snowball feet. I use WD40 for gate hardwear..to keep from freezing too badly.

I hope everyone in Ireland is doing ok...what with the floods and now this cold snap...
Best Wishes and stay warm:)
Leslie

Permalink Reply by Eileen Lippert on January 8, 2010 at 2:29pm

Hi Leslie. I can't believe how cold you guys must be! We're bad here in Ireland (about -8C at the moment), but not as bad as you. Is is that cold every year? Do you clip your horses, or leave them upclipped? You must need some serious rugs too. It's the first time i can remember that the water buckets have frozen in the stables...we're just not set up for it or used to it! Oh for heated water in the stables right now - have to bring water to the yard from the house in the jeep,..it's all frozen there!
Would love to see your paint stack his buckets! don't suppose you have a video of that? would be classic funny :)
if you don't have shoes do you just ride in fields? i have to do a lot of roadwork as there are no fields to ride in where i am...will have to try to win the lottery so we can buy 500 acres! lol
floods were bad too...i thnk we must have been naughty in ireland or something!!
Here's to warmer weather!
Karen

Permalink Reply by Denise Colebrooke on January 9, 2010 at 7:00am

Here in Galway have been without water for around ten days - inside the house and outside so we are literally camping! I have two mares and foals and two jumpers in stables and another boy being schooled that we cannot get to bring home! We spend HOURS every day filling containers at a neighbours house around a mile away to keep the horses watered. We are leading them all out in hand for a leg stretch and we have not been able to muck out properly since Christmas so doing the best we can. As for training shows and plans, completely off the agenda it is survival mode at the moment!!! We are not used to these conditions in the west.

Permalink Reply by Jenny Doran on January 9, 2010 at 12:53pm

Definitely not used to them in Dublin either! Where we are there's not actually that much snow - just about an inch, but the ground is frozen solid and roads way to icy to ride on. Arena is solid, so they're getting a bit upset with lack of exercise. What I've done is made a 'pen' about 15m square with electric fencing and i move that each day around the field. so at least they get out for a bit of fresh air, but they're still confined so can't gather speed! My young horse loves to gallop when she's turned out and I'm really afraid she'll injure herself galloping on frozen ground! Roll on the big thaw...I'm dying to get going - competitions were supposed to start for us next week :(

Permalink Reply by leslie645 on January 9, 2010 at 2:41pm

Sorry to hear you guys are having to haul water...ugggh.
One thing I do when it snows* and gets this cold is keep mine turned out. (with access to barn 24/7) The reason I do this is so they dont have an "explosive mad dash" when they get a chance. . Since they dont have all that pent up energy they usually take it slow and meander around. Ive never once had any problems with this.

* Now, if Im dealing with a true Ice Storm. I keep them in and wait for the thaw. and ofcourse the minute I turn them out they run a hundred mile per hour slipping and sliding in the mud..

Karen, I have fields. But I usually dont ride in January or Feb. .I live in Lexington Ky. Its usually around 25 degrees (F) during those months.
My water trough heater is great. It cost around 30 dollars and fits into a 60 gallon rubbermaid water tank. My hubby is going to hang me an infrared heater in one of my stalls so I can dink around out there, grooming or whatnot.
I have a friend who lives in county Cork and today she was lall: "yay, its snowing!" 5 minutes later "boo-hoo, it already quit snowing" LOL silly girl.

Take care
Leslie

Permalink Reply by Jenny Doran on January 13, 2010 at 9:39am

Yes, snow now definitely over! had a day of horrible slush on ice and now it's just wet and miserable...we're due to get flooding this week with snow melting and rain and yet there are water shortages everywhere - crazy!! At least the arena has just about un-frozen so can start to ride again :)
My young horse is a real runner in the field - no matter what the ground, weather or her 'hyperness' state...she just loves to run, so i have to limit her access to a much smaller area. My older horse has kissing spine and it's not good for her to run around too much so unfortuantely my pen option seems to be the only thing i can do. at least they get out in the fresh air, but don't have the space to go nuts. Lucky i work from home though and can go out a few times a day to move it slightly ! What we do for our horses...! They're worth it though :)