What are you doing in this weather?

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muffinmunsh

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As above really... Our yard is frozen solid with parches of ice, the school is frozen solid and really lumpy and tricky to negotiate and we have no turnout, only a muddy - now bumpy, frozen, - small paddock. :-(
I spent the past couple of evenings walking the two superfit WBs in hand up and down the road (no traffic, no through road) for 1/2 h each but they are getting quite difficult to manage now! Have cut their hard feeds to chaff only for time being but other than that, what can I do to keep them sane and exercised?
 
I'm in a similar situation to you except even if the ground wasn't frozen I can't exercise him (nothing!). He's bored as hell so at the moment he gets a few clicker training sessions a week to keep him enthused :)
 
We have muddy turnout so have been chucking out with hay and an indoor school so guess quite lucky. Such a miserable time of year, roll on the summer!!
 
I'm paying someone to ride mine out during the day :-) Even though it's been so cold, there's not been too much ice on the roads & by mid-day it's been ok for them to hack out for an hour. We've got a hill around the corner so they've both been up that :-)

I did harrow the school yesterday & that was fine to ride on, probably wouldn't want to jump on it but gentle schooling was fine.

Lets hope it doesn't last too much longer. Roll on Spring.....
 
I'm in the soft south so not quite as cold as everywhere else (still minus 8 this morning!!!). We are turning out with hay (not much grass) and by mid afternoon the school is soft enough to ride in. We can hack without roadwork, but you'd only want to be walking at the moment b/c the ground is like iron, and we do have on-site grass gallops. I've taken Kal up those (in walk) to take advantage of the hills.

P
 
Sorry to those who can't ride! :( Good riding conditions here in Gloucestershire, just extremelyyy cold and roads a little icy - thank god for an indoor school.
I'm just really ill with a cold, soldiering on though! :/
 
It's really cold here in north Leeds today, it's -5 at the moment. Our school has been ok up to now but think the temperature today might be a step too far. We do turn ours out every day with hay. At least there won't be any mud today as frozen solid! Just hoping this snow doesn't appear too
 
Mine will be turned out, boots on the event horse just in case he knocks himself, others out as usual, they have grass to pick at and seem fine.
 
We are v lucky, our arena doesn't freeze so although it has gotten a bit crispy late in the evenings, it's still perfectly OK to ride in. Hacking isn't so easy though as the roads by the yard aren't gritted and an awful lot of our hacking is off road... it's frozen solid and rutted ATM so will be avoiding that for a while.

Up until now my horse has been turned out most of the time, only coming in for a few hours, but he really struggles on this sort of ground (has arthritis in front legs so finds this ground difficult as well as v hard ground in summer) so he's in for much longer now.

He's had a sort of blanket clip all winter so far and I hunter clipped him on Monday (usually do this time of year) in preparation for hunting again on sat... and the meet has been cancelled due to the weather!! Poor horse is now rugged up to the eyeballs and no party to go to! :(
 
Our school isn't frozen fortunately and my field has enough grass cover that they're fine out. The only difficult bit to negotiate is the rutted track up there, then it's fine. Sorry if you didn't want to hear that!
 
Our school is frozen and I don't hack out much but our turnout is fine so she's happily out munching her hay. Sorry, no solutions to offer but I do feel for you
 
As mine are always out, they're well used to teetering around and there is barely any frozen mud anyway. It's the water which is a pain for me. I have three troughs, but could only break the ice on one. Both of the others were frozen solid and my 'emergency container' was a 25L ice lolly. Will call at home before tonight's visit and fill up a fresh container, then take the ice lolly one home to defrost in the conservatory.

Am not hacking in this anyway. Raynauds means it's not very pleasurable for me! I gave up hacking in very cold temps after I was reduced to tears with the pain (on my birthday, no less!).

In your situation I'd turn them out into the school. It may seem solid to you but I bet the weight of a horse will break it up in no time.
 
Our school is frozen now, was ok for lesson Tues night but not since. I'll hack out over weekend until the snow but not ridden since then this week.

Access to fields is up a tarmac drive so that's fine, fields are rutted and muddy at the gates but they are all happy out and still out for 12hrs+ daily - so not bothered about being ridden :)

Yard is slippery in places but I let her sort her own feet out - she's much better on ice than me!
 
I'm supposed to be having a lesson at 3.30 today, hopefully the school will have been raked as it was a bit hard yesterday.
Brrrr... it's cold up here, wish me luck! :D
 
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