Snow in America - what do they do with their horses?

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Sorry if this has already been posted about, but just reading about the winter storm in the US/Canada and wondering what on earth they do with their horses?

Does anyone know? I know we don't get weather anything like that over here, but it would be interesting to know how they cope.
 
They either put them in stables or feed them in fields, just like everyone else does in other countries. What did you think they'd do?
 
They are generally in big 'barns' aren't they? So I guess they stay in. Sure they have heated water pipes too. Maybe some yards have indoor arenas?? (just guessing!) Don't forget they have 'dry snow', so not quite so icy as ours. - I assume!
 
I'm in Wyoming at the moment with feet of snow on the ground.
And the majority of the ranch horses are out in the fields all the time, no rugs just getting fed hay
And they look pretty healthy
 
Cortez I meant in terms of getting them feed and water - I'd not thought of heated pipes, was just thinking of very pee'd off cold horses and wondering! So in terms of rugging, feeding etc - the barn makes sense as I guess they'd behave as they do in the field when they're cold, but really was just pondering how our horses would cope in weather that cold.
 
I think my welsh would have a meltdown in weather that cold and need about 10 rugs! :p. It is interesting to learn about how other countries keep horses, from what I can gather clipping isn't really a big thing in the US in winter, and they use indoor barns much more than we do.
 
Horses generally do very well in the cold, especially dry cold. I used to run a stud farm in Colorado and kept all of our horses outside, including TB's, unrugged. As long as there is hay and water available (heated pipes is the answer), and some shelter from driving winds, they cope just fine.

BTW, most American Barns are not open barns, they have indoor stables.
 
Hi,

I have a friend in Arizona, at very high altitude. Her horses are in a barn/ corral arrangement so they can choose in or out, with outdoor rugs on. Whenever I call she is shovelling more snow, it sounds like a nightmare. Her hay seems VERY rich, and is stored in the back of the barn, so no problem to throw piles out. The water has non freeze valves, and a ball in, and I think there is some kind of electrical heated system in, but I have only ever visited in summer so I cannot say how well that works. They either have shoes off in winter, or special snow pads under where there is a plastic bobble that throws the snow out. Again I have only visited in summer, but this is how it was described to me.
One horse is over 30 and the other coming up 30 years so it seems to work for her.#
Not sure I would like all that shovelling though!
She does not work the horses at all in winter and their coats seem to be about a foot long. This despite the fact that they are quarter horses with smooth TB type coats in summer. She has one competition horse and that is kept further down in altitude, such as in Phoenix for the winter so she can be kept in work.
Hope that helps!
 
I can testify to the coats changing year on year. My first pony came from Hampshire, and had a fine coat (Arab X Connie). The first winter in Yorkshire he still had a thin winter coat and despite rugs and blankets (back in the days of Hessian rugs in my youth) we could not keep him warm. The next winter he sprouted a HUGE woolly coat, and the year after even more. I found Yorkshire VERY cold compared with down south when I moved here too, so I could sympathise with him.

Conversely, where I work we have warm indoor stables and when we buy youngsters they come with huge coats but after a few years with good keeping indoors they stay with a moderate "summer" coat all year. But this is not true of the ones with normal "outside" stables. They grow coats that need clipping just like normal. Otherwise their stable management is the same.
 
Where was your stud farm in Colorado, Cortez?

In addition to what others have said, Americans have also figured out how to shoe horses so they don't fall over on the ice or get snow balls. Borium and snow pads! Drives me nuts when we get snow here, as farriers have never heard of either. No one at my barn in CO clipped and we all just rode fuzzy horses. Most weren't even rugged, though some, like my weenie horse, wouldn't put up with it and needed rugging in spite of being furry. People in the UK think I'm mad to keep my horse in work and not clip her, but it is what we all did and it worked (and still does).

I used to ride in Massachusetts winters when it was consistently -10 or thereabouts Farenheit for weeks. We had an indoor, but neither that nor the barn was heated. You wear everything you own. Put a cooler on your horse while you untack it. Horse can deal. They can handle temperatures lower than we can, so if you can suck it up and ride in it, they will be fine.
 
For horses that are kept in, there are usually heated ( freeze proof) waterers in each stable. There are also heated water tanks outside. That said, there is probably still a need to break the ice off tanks and waterers in this kind of bitter cold. My horses were clipped and rugged-- but not in the number of rugs you might imagine. All things being relative, such as temperatures, my horses wore two rugs-- one medium weight, one heavy, and did fine in this kind of bitter cold. If you rode, you had to be sure to completely cool the horse off before putting it up-- had a nice sweat sheet that helped keep the horse warm enough even as it cooled off. When I was a kid, my horse was mainly kept out-- not clipped ( had not even heard of the concept)-- given lots of hay to eat, and were in pastures with windbreaks. In winter, I would ride bareback--easier to keep warm with the horses's body heat.

Polar fleece was a Godsend. With silk long underwear and polar fleece to ride in, the cold was bearable in the unheated indoor arena.

In the bitterest cold weather, when there was a lot of ice, the horses might not get turned out, because of the risk in taking them to their fields on the ice. I would go to the barn twice a day if needed, to get them out and let them have a run in the indoor so they would get exercise, on days it felt too cold to ride-- fear of colic if they were left standing day and night without any exercise.

And lots of hoping for early spring-- I have a never ending fascination with the forecast of the Groundhog, always hoping he would predict an early spring.


ETA

That reminds me of a kind of weird incident. One very cold winter evening I was riding my warmblood x in the indoor. It was bitter cold outside ( and in) and no one else was around. There was a gravelled car park outside of the barn, so you would be sure to hear any cars coming or going. As I was riding, I heard the sound of one of the stall doors being opened ( a distinctive sound) and the clop of shod hooves going down the cement walk way of the barn, and then the sound of the water in the wash stall being turned on. All normal enough sounds-- except-- I was the only one in the barn and NO ONE would have washed their horse in that bitter cold. I peeked outside and there were no cars in the car park... then heard the sound of the hooves back down the aisle way and the door of the stall being shut. Weird... at this point I was glad I was on a big 17.2 hh horse, but not sure what to do. I waited and heard nothing more-- eventually put my own horse away and drove away, seeing nothing and no one-- and there were no wet, washed horses in the barn....

I was telling a barn friend a few days later about what I had heard, and the story I heard back was chilling. Evidently, there was a girl who had been killed some years back in an accident by a drunk driver as she was driving home from the barn. Her horse had been kept in that stall where I heard the door opening and shutting... Other people had reported similar instances of unexplained noises, of that door opening and shutting, and hearing horse's hooves on the aisleway when no one was around, of hearing someone whistling and walking across the gravel car park... Some people came to the conclusion the barn was haunted. I don't know if I thought that-- I had no more strange incidents-- but it was sure a strange night, that one very cold night.
 
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Keep in mind that most countries don't get as wet like England does all through winter, it's wet and rain that horses really struggle with, cold is just cold - if you keep your horses unrugged you will notice in minus temperatures they appear huge but infact it is their coat standing up to keep them warm. Providing they have enough to eat and shelter they will stay warm - it's the fermentation in the gut that warms them up
 
A lot of horses aren't actually affected by the cold, its the rain and wind that makes them uncomfortable. My horses rarely have rugs on. Yes, some horses are a bit wimpy but some re over rugged, if you rug to early they're winter coat won't be as thick and then they'll need rugged. If you don't rug they're coat grows thicker. (Not all horses though)
 
OMG Olivia - I have goosebumps from that story.

I went on a ranch holiday in Montana where basically it doesn't rain, so the snow is the only moisture they get. All the farms are established next to a stream, so the land get irrigated in the summer for growing grass for hay, and the hay stacks are just left outside with no shelter as they just get snow and when he snow melts the moisture evaporates away.

I see pictures of their horses in the snow, but no sign of clipping, or rugs. They have one horse that has only half ears and it was an unexpected foal that was born in the winter,and it lost its ears to frostbite.
They have plenty of hay to eat and shelter in the woods.
 
If you search for the forum user "Enfys", her previous post history should have some picture of her horses out in the snow - and lots of the white stuff! She is Canada based I believe.
 
The climate varies a lot across the USA so it is difficult to say one scenario fits all. My sister lives in Virginia and the weather is more variable over a season than say Montana and much wetter. Her old barn wasn't indoors although most are. They usually have hot and cold running water and heated wash stalls. Also all the troughs are heated. However the main problems are when they lose power rather than the snow itself particularly if they have an ice storm as they usually have to pump water from a well which means they can run out of water obviously they would lose heating and lighting as well. Most big places will have a separate generator as they have some wicked lightening storms too so they can lose power fairly regularly. I wouldn't say at least at a typical boarding barn in Virginia that the horses are kept much differently than here, they are clipped, rugged and pampered. My sister whinges about the same things we do here.
 
Caol Ila said:
Where was your stud farm in Colorado, Cortez?

In addition to what others have said, Americans have also figured out how to shoe horses so they don't fall over on the ice or get snow balls. Borium and snow pads! Drives me nuts when we get snow here, as farriers have never heard of either. No one at my barn in CO clipped and we all just rode fuzzy horses. Most weren't even rugged, though some, like my weenie horse, wouldn't put up with it and needed rugging in spite of being furry. People in the UK think I'm mad to keep my horse in work and not clip her, but it is what we all did and it worked (and still does).

I used to ride in Massachusetts winters when it was consistently -10 or thereabouts Farenheit for weeks. We had an indoor, but neither that nor the barn was heated. You wear everything you own. Put a cooler on your horse while you untack it. Horse can deal. They can handle temperatures lower than we can, so if you can suck it up and ride in it, they will be fine.
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Does the horse not get really sweaty working them unclipped? And if so is it just a case of cooling down properly so they're dry by the time you're finished?
 
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