Tag: winter riding

Posted on

Trail Tails – Keeping Warm in Winter

Welcome to Trail Tails Tuesday!  Share your horse stories and adventures both high and low.  Offer your experiences with horses and along with tips and tricks to help keep chores to a minimum and time in the saddle or in the drivers seat at a maximum.

This week I’d like to share with you my tips of staying warm in the winter.  I’ve working on farms and owned horses for close to 20 years now and I have both over heated and froze myself on cold winter days.

I find there are 2 very important parts to your body that if they get cold you might as well pack it up and leave.  1) your feet and 2) your hands.

Cold Feet:  The key to keeping your feet warm is not letting them over heat, sweat and then catch a chill.  Your feet should not be crammed into your boots but should have room to wiggle and move around.

Boots Personally for barn chores and for riding in the winter I love my Classic Muck Boots. They are nice and tall for being used as a riding boot and they are water proof!  They might be expensive but my last pair held on for 10 years before I had to replace them. 

Socks Ok so I’m partial to alpaca because I happen to raise them but the truth is there isn’t a warmer natural fiber out there!  Invest in a nice pair of terry knit alpaca socks and you won’t be disappointed.  Not only are they warm but they help wick moisture away from your foot helping to keep it drier and warmer.

Cold Hands:  As with your feet you want to keep your hands dry as well as warm.  Most folks will buy the bulkiest gloves they can find and then constantly have to take them off to cinch up the saddle or put on a bridle.  Bulky might do the trick but taking them off all the time sure makes for cold hands. 

Layers! I found it best to layer your gloves.  My personal choice is to wear a thin glove under and then use deer skin gloves over. For the longest time my thin glove of choice were those $1 extra stretchy cotton gloves you can usually find at the checkout lines. I used those cheap gloves right up until this past year when I tried using a pair of alpaca gloves under the deer skin ones. WOW, what a difference.  I’ll hand it to alpaca, it is one warm fiber.

Core: The layers rule works great for the body and legs.  Usually I like to wear lined jeans or leggings and jeans.  If it’s really cold out I’ll wear leggings and ski pants.  For my body I find you can never have enough.  Undershirt + T-shirt + sweater/flannel + Jaket + topped off with your favorite scarf. 

Head: Ah yes headwear.  What you wear usually depends on what you’ll be doing?  Just running through chores and mucking?  A good head band or favorite hat works wonders.  But if you’re riding and need to wear a helmet hats are hard to use.  There are several nifty products out there to cover your entire helmet and others that are thin enough to fit under.  As for me, I hate having to go from barn working headwear (headband) to riding so I did the only logical thing I could think of. I bought a larger helmet! Yup, I have a helmet that is too big for my head typically but works great when I’m wearing my headband.  

Good luck and stay warm this winter!  Happy Trails!

Sharing Your Blog Link

Please use your FULL perma-link URL not just your blog domain name.

Example Bad:  http://www.RochesterTrailRiders.com 
Example Good: http://www.rochestertrailriders.com/2010/12/winter-fun-with-horses/

Pay it back!  All we ask is that you pay it back and place either a link back to RTR in your post or use the following button in your post. 

Please comment and remember to leave comments on other folks pages too!  Everyone loves feedback.

Rochester Trail Riders
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.RochesterTrailRiders.com" title="Rochester Trail Riders"><img src="http://www.rochestertrailriders.com/wp-content/uploads/RTR_100x100.jpg" alt="Rochester Trail Riders" style="border:none;" /></a></div>


 

 

Posted on

Winter Riding Tips – Post Ride Care

 Most of our horses here in WNY are built for the cold.  They are very fuzzy this time of year with thick winter coats to keep them warm in sub zero temperatures.  These winter coats are great for battling the cold but not so great for exercising under saddle.  Often just a light ride with friends out on the trail can work up a sweat for your horse.  Be sure to care for your equine friend the right way after your ride.

–       End you ride with a nice long walk on a road or packed snow if possible.  Just walking through deep snow is quite a workout. Your horse can get pretty warm even with a simple walking ride.

–       A sweaty horse after a ride is a cold horse.  Do your best to dry your horse off and use a fleece cooler to help draw the moisture away from their body while keeping them warm.  Do not turn your horse out until they are dry!  Because of the cold it will take longer than normal for a horse to dry off.  Be prepared to have your horse cooling off in a stall for 1-2 hours after your ride before they are dry enough for turn out.

–       Clipping your horse.  Depending on how much winter riding you do you might find it beneficial to clip your horse.  This will help them regulate their temperatures better during winter work so they aren’t prone to sweating.  Just be sure to follow proper blanket management for the type of clip chose for your horse.

–       Offer warm water.  Hot horse drinking cold water could cause colic.  Wait until your horse cools down and offer them heated water.  Either boil some in a teapot and add to a bucket or better yet use heated buckets! 

–       Dehydrated horse? Believe it or not most horses like Gatorade (mine like orange flavor).  The sweetness of a few scoops of Gatorade in their water bucket entices them to drink up and the added electrolytes help their system rebalance.

Winter riding is a blast and there is nothing more beautiful than enjoying a fresh snow on a crisp winter morning.  Ride Safe.

Posted on

Winter Riding Tips – Hoof Care

So you want to enjoy your horse during the winter months but every time you hit the trials your horse’s hooves fill up with hard snow making the bottom of their feet look like a snow cone.  Not the safest of situations.
There are several ways to keep the snow from packing up in your horse’s feet

Cooking or Silicone Spray – This offers a temporary solution and is really easy to apply. Just pick up the foot, brush it clean and spay. Usually this method will prevent the snow from packing up in the hoof for 5-10 minutes.

Full Hoof Snow Pad – Made of hard plastic
Pros – You will never have to worry about snow building up in the hoof, period!
Cons – You can’t see the hoof! What’s going on under there

Silicone Snow Pad – A ring of silicone that fits between the hoof and the shoe.

Pros – you can see the bottom of the hoof and clean under the pad
Cons – This pad still can allow snow to build up if it packs up under the pad and is horrendous to clean during mud season

Horse Hoof Boots – My personal favorite  Choose your style and manufacturer there’s tons of them out there. Your horse can still be turned out barefoot and strap the boots on when you need them. I personally like the Old Mac’s because of the hiking boot type tread that is on the bottom which gives better grip.