Scottish peeps....how are you coping?

Chestnutmare

Chestnutmare

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After hearing on the news that one part of Scotland reached minus 21
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How on earth are you coping with these temps...are your horses's / animals OK warm enough do you layer them right up?
how about water supplies???

Just been pondering about this really cos my yard has no water (2nd day) and it has only been minus 5 at night and my pony is rugged up to her eyeballs
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I think if i was up there in those tempratures she would have to come in and lay by the fire/radiator
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Hope your all OK up there too and safe
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Hey their i'm in aberdeenshire i think it got to about minus 16 a few nights here. My horse seems totally happy in his big cozy rug and fluffy big bed. its just me i'm freeeezing cuurrntly sat in my bed with electric blanket on full heat after being up at the horses. hasnt snowed here today but i believe its supposed to tonight. Have been fairly lucky in that our stables open onto the field
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im in between inverness and aberdeen, and its FREEZING! all our water is frozen completely, we've been using our yard owners house and lots of buckets to fill up baths for the poor beasties
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my horse is actually a really warm horse anyway, so he only has a fleece and a mediumweight, but a new heavyweight is on its way and should be here tomorrow just to make sure he's cosy! i compared him to another horse who had on a medium weight and a heavyweight and my horse was the warmer one! weird horsey!
hope everyone else in scotland is coping ok xx
 
wow thats still a really low temp.....dont know how i would cope??
How do you manage?
have your roads come to a stand still too?

and yes its due to snow later tonight and over weekend again...i defo dont want anymore - this is all enough but the cold snap is set in for couple more weeks.....arrrghhhhhh

hope you manage to stay warm, drinking lots of hot toddies??
 
I have a full TB. She has a trace clip that is partialy grown back and is in at night.

It's was -11 at 6am this morning when I set off for the yard but T has has been warm enough in just one rug.
It's a 450g turnout and I have not needed to add layers yet - will reassess if it gets down past -15, christ that is cold!!

It's the lack of riding that is worst of all, but I imagine is the same for everyone all over the country. I haven't ridden since the 12th Dec.

BUT - am moving to a new yard with an indoor school at the end of the month
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On a serious note though - getting water is a b!tch. All the outdoor taps are frozen and our YO is topping up the water buckets in her house for us.
We have to take fresh buckets to the field every day.

A horse at a neighbouring yard has just been put down with colic and, although I don't know the full details, I do know that the vet said that there has been a lot of it in the area because if the horse isn't drinking much due to the icy water and then comes in and gorges on haylage - it can be a colic risk. I'm parroting what he said - but suffice to say I am plying Tara with water!
 
I'm in Moray, it's been in the minus teens here as well. we are a hardy bunch tho', and just get on with it.

Horses haven't missed a days turnout yet. They spent one day in last year because we had a thaw, then a freeze and it took a day or so to get rid of the several inches of sheet ice on the yard.

BPuds is still only in his 300 amigo, but he has plenty tum to keep him warm and he's in at night. They are bored picking around the snow covered fields, but they would be more bored inside all day.

We turn off the automatic waterers when the cold starts, then normally have to defrost the yard tap with a kettle every morning, but haven't had any other problems with water this year.

We put made up feeds & beet in paper feed sacks to stop them freezing, that works really well.
 
April - that is very cold too...brrrr
seems that horses are managing very well in these temps better than us

oh poor pony being pts, yes guess that is worry really....just glad that my mare is drinking as normal, although havent been able to freshen her water for a couple of days....least she has some i guess...

so sad when things like this happen
 
Very cold here and my two horses r living out (I am starting to feel guilty!) but brought them in yesterday and were not keen to come in and wanted back out!!

They have add lib hay, two big feeds a day and both have three rugs on! when u feel under there rugs they r toasty! Im lucky i have a running burn through the field so it defrost during the day also big 13acre field if lots of hills, trees and shelter. Had lovely sunshine all day but was -12 this morning.
 
horses are doing ok considering, water at the house is frozen but lucky enough we have a river in one of the fields we can get water from if need be, farmer is struggling to deliver haylage though
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we dont actually have a water supply at our yard anytime we have a huuuuge tank that we need to take home and fill every couple of weeks and so far its only been frozen up once. The horses seem to have kept their trugs from completely freezing over. My lad is in a 360g weatherbeeta turnout with 180g neck. in at night with same rug. He is well toasty
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He had little icicles hanging off his whiskers today it was quite cute. As reguards the roads luckily i had a weeks hols this week. But next week back to work i'm a driving postie and i am quite worried about it not being able to get back at reasonable time for horses but lluckily my mum will able to do them for me
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Its pants but we'll get through it x
 
I'm in the borders and exercise racehorses for a living as well as my own lot and I have not been able to work (so no money!) for the past month!:( cant ride my horses, very boring, no water supply on the yard so I get hot water form my house (2miles away) mix it with plenty of snow and it seems to be enough for the horses to drink and I do that twice a day for them. The hay is the problem now tho, as some farmers are keeping hold of their supplys until their own stock get out to grass again which doesn't help my situation.
I did loose a mare 2 days before xmas. Think she may have got mild collic through the night which turned into pnemonia (she was in foal too).
I've never been a fan of snow and now it's really getting on my tits!!
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I'm in the west of scotland so its not so bad as in the north and the borders! It was only minus 12 last night. Ours are going out every day and are in at night, just the same routine as normal really, though there is no grazing as there is a foot of snow on the fields!. My main worry is making sure they are getting enough liquid as colic is a constant worry in this weather.
Baileyhoss thats a great tip about putting the feeds into paper sacks to stop them freezing - must try that tomorrow!
There is only 1 tap working at the yard - with 50 odd horses plus the farmer's cattle needing water from it that's been a bit of a pain but we're a lot luckier than some.
 
I'm in Central Scotland and we have had snow for over 3 weeks.
Been carrying water to most troughs since day 2 of bad weather - Thank god for equilac milk replacer bins - they hold 20l and you can put a lid on them to save you soaking yourself!!!
I have 30 cobs out a couple of the lighter ones rugged but the rest are toughies and don't seem to mind the bad weather at all........ they have hay at their mouths constantly and are fed twice a day..... The hard part is the water!
I'm having to fill 6 bins (each holding 20l) 5 times a day..... For the youngsters we have in also have no water! I'm just grateful that two of our fields have a fresh water stream running through them!
It's currently -10 atm........ n They are playing in the dark!!!
This is a photo of one lot getting their breakfast!
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we have had -20 5 times so far
and -15 very often
during the day its sitting about -8 -10
i live in a very high remote rural area.
still have my horse in her 200gram fal rug and ad lib hay , and shes happy and warm enough, she out in the day and in at night.
 
We are in the south east, just outside edinburgh, and it was minus 9 just before 9am this morning.
Ours get hay in the field in the winter anyway but they are going through loads. We haven't had any problems with the water freezing luckily.
My pony is out with just a HW on but he's nice and toasty underneath it.
 
Im in NE Scotland. Snows bad here, very very cold. -18 in my area today apparently! Black ice everywhere, too me ages to get home in rush hour.

My horses are all fine, they live out 24/7. They're rugged up and are getting fed lots of hay and feed. Only problem is water trough keeps freezing.
 
I'm in the Borders, high up in the hills, and we've reached minus 18-19 a couple of times recently. It hasn't been above freezing during the day now for about 10 days. My boys live out 24/7, in HW rugs, and the past couple of days I've added liners. They are coping fine - the biggest problem has been keeping them hydrated since the river that supplies their field froze over. We're now shipping containers of water twice a day and they are very happy to see them!

We have 18" of snow and some ice but not too bad yet. I am going through my hay store at about twice the rate I expected...
 
Blimey all your stories make us southerners sound rubbish ha ha
glad you are all OK though!
so what actually happens if you run out of hay and the farmers are holding onto what they have left?
God I thought we had it bad down here...but nope
 
I'm in the NE too - We've actually been quite fortunate at our yard, the horses are still getting out during the day then back in at night. After reading all of the other posts re horses being stuck in I feel very fortunate! The roads are fine where I am, have been able to get to the yard every night but then I do have a 4x4! Really frustrating not being able to ride but then everyone is in the same position, unless lucky enough to have an indoor school. The only really annoying thing is that all of the water taps have frozen up on the yard so it's a pain in the ass lugging small buckets of water from the kitchen to his box - but it could be much worse!
 
Day 21 in the Big Ice House

Snow covered Stirlingshire

I'm fed up not riding but horse looks smug in her middleweight rug. Haylage in the field twice a day, water still running (natural stream). Out 24/7 and I think this has worked well for her as there's no shock from going inside to outside. She's picking her way carefully about and seems to have worked out where the slippy parts are and where she can safely walk. I think the only thing she's finding hard is that every now and then I whisk off the rug just to check everything is ok underneath!!
 
-12 at the moment with us in central scotland. I won't turn out in snow which has now turned to compacted ice in places and so the horses are in and just being turned out in the arena which is too hard to ride in but a more level surface for turnout than the fields. The yard is completely clear so the competition horses are being thoroughly groomed and walked out in hand. They are all perfectly content with hard feed dropped right down and ad lib hay but we're going through hay like there's no tomorrow. The water taps do freeze but a couple of kettles of boiling water and they're find again. The b class road we're on is sheet ice on top of snow and there's no way we could get the lorry out even if we wanted to. By the time this thaws we'll need to do a fittening programme again before we can consider competing.
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