Outdoor schools in winter

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Steorra

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Evening! Bit chilly out.

I have a question for those of you who have access to outdoor schools in winter. Are they usable in cold weather????

I went to the yard on Saturday morning to ride the bat (blonde Arab thing) and the arena surface was so cold it was balling in her feet like snow. Now it is supposed to be treated silica sand and be usable all year unless it rains then freezes (ie has frozen puddles), according to the bat's owner. But it seems this is not so.

Are your outdoor schools usable through the winter?

Any suggestions to prevent the balling? I find lots of Vaseline helps for snow but am wary of creating an icky greasy sandy mess. Any thoughts?
 
Ours is frozen at the mo and to be honest, even if was half thawed I would be wary of using it and be worried about it causing injury. Hacking out for me til it softens. Tack shop I was at last week was advertising Stockholm Tar for preventing balling up in the hooves.
 
Went to try a little horse this morning (before I bought mine - yay!) and rode her in a sand school that was so cold the sand was actually frozen and slippery. We found it difficult to even walk on and the little horse slipped a couple of times. She was trotting very gingerly and reluctant to canter after she'd slipped (can't blame her). In an ideal world, wouldn't have done it.
 
Thanks for the replies! I was concerned that might be the case. Obviously if the surface was frozen solid I wouldn't have gone in there in the first place. It 'gave' as normal when I walked across it but packed up in the horse's hooves.

Against all evidence I'll just hope for a mild winter then ;)
 
The only time we cant use our is like now!

On Friday is snowed then over night it froze, its been so cold it hast thawed.
The same thing happen in February when we had snow, couldnt use for a few days.

Horses get an unscheduled time off!
 
Our jumping school surface is OK - sort of. Its mixed rubber and silica sand. It is frozen and, to my mind, too hard to jump on. But it won't ball up in thier feet. The dressage school is only sand and is rock solid now - but you could do walk/ trot work on it I should think. Both were graded when the teperature started to fall so the surface is reasonably even - just hard. The only time we really can't use either is in the snow - but thats because of the snow, not the surface. The horse walker is frozen though....
 
Ours has a dusty top couple of mm, the rest is just concrete really! No way am I riding on it, I value my mares legs far too much. Road hacks for now, no lessons though as no school, hurry up thaw!
 
Ours is like concrete now and totally frozen, so anything other then a walk (as it has frozen rutted) is out of the question so cannot even have a little trot around. The annoying thing is, at the moment it isn't thawing out so cannot even go in there before it freezes again, as it hasn't thawed.

It's times like this I wish I had hacking from the yard with no roadwork! - So cannot even hack out anywhere. Stuck in yard.... :(
 
heidirusso - we have off road hacking form the yard onto 700 acres of common land, but even that is like concrete with ice patches hidden under the snow....!!! The farm lanes from the yard are ice slicks so no go there either.

Our outdoor school is also frozen even with a supposedly 'all weather' surface, and a friend who has an indoor school at her yard said that even that surface is frozen now, so you can't win!
 
Yes they are usable in cold weather.... but i have not much time to tell you in detail that how they are.




Steorra said:
Evening! Bit chilly out.

I have a question for those of you who have access to outdoor schools in winter. Are they usable in cold weather????

I went to the yard on Saturday morning to ride the bat (blonde Arab thing) and the arena surface was so cold it was balling in her feet like snow. Now it is supposed to be treated silica sand and be usable all year unless it rains then freezes (ie has frozen puddles), according to the bat's owner. But it seems this is not so.

Are your outdoor schools usable through the winter?

Any suggestions to prevent the balling? I find lots of Vaseline helps for snow but am wary of creating an icky greasy sandy mess. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
 
Ours isn't usable ATM, it is totally frozen. There isn't really enough rubber in our surface now and when it gets very wet, it freezes. It is usually OK until the really cold weather, so it is fine for most of the winter. The roads around the yard are practically impassable ATM too so can't even hack! My horse and most of the others are officially on holiday until Jan!
 
Ours is usable unless it gets wet and then the whole school freezes. Our one at uni was mainly rubber and never froze, even when every other outdoor school in the area was frozen! So I think rubber is the key (current yards school has rubber in). Having said that the school is frozen today.... but then it is -2 and wet!
 
Ours is semi-useable. One end is frozen due to puddles freezing but the other end is ok to use. I wouldn't do anymore than walk/trot though. I'm only really using it to do groundwork in at the moment.
 
It's been years since I had only an outdoor school to ride in, but I don't remember it being out of action for more than a handful of days each year. That one did have rubber in though. I'm sure you're right Snowysadude! Something to remember for future yard selection.

It's so frustrating - I've just started part loaning this mare and was really looking forward to building a connection. It's too slippery to hack, the school is out of order, there is nowhere with good enough footing to do groundwork. Typical. Deep breath...this is life with horses...soon it will be spring...this is life with horses...soon it will be spring...
 
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