What have you/will you do differently this winter?

Wagtail

Wagtail

Horse servant
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With the coming winter forecast to be even worst than the last, I thought it would be useful to share our thoughts on the preparations we may need to make.

Last year my main problems were:

Frozen drinkers and troughs
Frozen Pipes
Slippery footing
Deliveries not being able to reach our yard
Wood pellet bedding freezing, or being unable to use the frozen hose to dampen it.

So far I have:

Put additional lagging on all the water pipes.
Bought a snow shovel.

I plan to:

Schedule deliveries at least a month before they are required to give me a safety net should deliveries be unable to get here.

Order a pallet of rock salt to be delivered in the next month to take advantage of pre winter prices and ease of delivery.

Order in more megazorb bedding to cover the period of frozen temperatures.

Is there anything I have missed?
 
I've seen quite a few adverts of late of people wanting to put their horse on "short term loan" from roughly now until March / April. Apparently their 'different' thing is year is to get rid of the horse while it's inconvenient or difficult to keep them. Grr!

Sounds like you are well prepared though!
 
sheep said:
I've seen quite a few adverts of late of people wanting to put their horse on "short term loan" from roughly now until March / April. Apparently their 'different' thing is year is to get rid of the horse while it's inconvenient or difficult to keep them. Grr!

Sounds like you are well prepared though!
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Wow! fair weather horse owners now. Not just fair weather riders!
 
The weathermen can't forecast that far in advance I reckon it's all scare mongering! You wait, we'll have the warmest winter on record:D That said, if it's as hard as the last 2 winters I better get my a*** into gear and start getting organized like Wagtail :)
 
I have my horse on livery this year!!! thank god, the stress before and after work, walking miles in the snow in the dark alone (after parking on a main road)....good bye!! Only have to worry on the weekends now but at least im safe in the knowledge someone WILL be there to do her if I cant get there!
 
Well, the horse is going out from late November to the end of December on his holiday because not riding him for weeks and weeks but having him in and clipped is a waste of money, and as he doesn't hunt then there's very little on then and he needs time to chill. So he'll have a nice break, and be visited twice a day and given lots of hay and warmed water and the whole icy yard thing will be avoided!
 
I need to buy a pair of warm boots which a waterproof, my boots failed badly last winter.

And order some full waterproof chaps, I found a real difference in warmth with them on but they are very tatty now.

Ohh and buy a water carrier, mine split last winter after I forgot that I left it full overnight.

Ohh and warm waterproof gloves.

For the horse I need to get him used to wearing rugs, (a youngster) and him used to a stable too.
 
Thinking of going on livery! Can't cope with another winter like last year, & my field lights have had to be turned off because they keep tripping land owners house electric :(
 
I've got some ice grips for my boots from last year - they were a godsend!

I'm going to invest in an elimanet haynet to slow down my mare who practically inhales her food, also an H2go water carrier, my field is only two minutes walk from my house so this will be ideal to put in wheelbarrow or on a sledge if my pipes freeze.

Will be getting some beet pulp or fast fibre in to be able to give sloppy feeds to keep hydrated if weather is really freezing again.

Mine lives out, so no real issue with frozen bedding, although she does have access all the time to a bedded stable.

For the humans lots of warm clothes, log pile stocked and nice comfort food.:)
Hopefully it won't be as bad as last year, it started really early and seemed to last forever, I can remember thinking that 2 degrees seemed positively tropical!
 
Mucky Shavings said:
I need to buy a pair of warm boots which a waterproof, my boots failed badly last winter.

And order some full waterproof chaps, I found a real difference in warmth with them on but they are very tatty now.

Ohh and buy a water carrier, mine split last winter after I forgot that I left it full overnight.

Ohh and warm waterproof gloves.

For the horse I need to get him used to wearing rugs, (a youngster) and him used to a stable too.
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Oh yes, gloves. Thanks for the reminder. I always buy a pair of sealskinz gloves every winter. They are fab, but do wear out and split and go a bit hard so need new ones each year.
 
touchstone said:
I've got some ice grips for my boots from last year - they were a godsend!

I'm going to invest in an elimanet haynet to slow down my mare who practically inhales her food, also an H2go water carrier, my field is only two minutes walk from my house so this will be ideal to put in wheelbarrow or on a sledge if my pipes freeze.

Will be getting some beet pulp or fast fibre in to be able to give sloppy feeds to keep hydrated if weather is really freezing again.

Mine lives out, so no real issue with frozen bedding, although she does have access all the time to a bedded stable.

For the humans lots of warm clothes, log pile stocked and nice comfort food.:)
Hopefully it won't be as bad as last year, it started really early and seemed to last forever, I can remember thinking that 2 degrees seemed positively tropical!
Click to expand...

Ice grips - good idea!
 
Have purchased auto socks for the car in case of emergency to get to yard and icetrax grips to put over shoes so stop me hopefully from spending so much time on my butt. Have snow shovel and salt from last year. YO started using shredded cardboard last winter which was amazing at not freezing (poos frozen in staw bed but not when in cardboard) so that should be covered. Not alot we can do about the pipes as it was the ones under ground that froze and cant lagg those! but we have the huge water butts ready.
 
Unless I can find a loan home for the pony I'll have to go on grass livery :eek: Never done that before - prob not a good time for a first time, the horse will proably move out in disgust lol :D
 
I bought spare stable rugs, med and heavy off ebay when out of season for my 2. Last time, they spent so much time inside their rugs were truly disgusting. I did the summer sheets underneath but its not much fun stripping off rugs that take revolting into a whole new category. I made do but there was a long delay in getting them cleaned so prepared this time. Bought yet more torches, proper walking boots, in a sale but better grip than my normal yard boots. My lined waterproof chaps were a godsend last year so out again now and I ended up buying a granny coat for dogwalking. I look like a walking duvet but I don't care. I can walk my dogs and lunge my horses and be fully covered. I just don't go anyway I can be seen! (another ebay buy btw!)
 
My two are going to be living out this year with the stable ready for any event they need to be in... the field has lots of natural shelter and ungrazed for many years, will start strip grazing until the long grass has gone (likely to be around 3 months).
I have only one item left to buy - a battery powered air pump to put into the trough on the nights it is likely to freeze, hopefully it will keep a small hole for them to drink from ;)

Have H2Go bag ready, Fast Fibre and my thermos to transport hot water from home to defrost the tap and make warm sloppy feeds, warm boots and grips, thermal socks and gloves, sallopettes and coat!
 
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only new thing i need is decent gloves, have everything else already, i use an aquaroll type water carrier, so much easier to pull that along than trying to carry anything.
already have a 4x4 so no excuses not to get to the farm, have dug out and washed my waterproof chaps and my super stylish leg warmers:D they may make me look like pippi longstocking but they are so warm pulled on over a pair of jods and they come up over my knees:D
Only thing i have to remember to do this year is put the layflat hose away so that it doesn't freeze, normally i can pump water out of the stream as it never totally freezes but only if the hose isn't froze:rolleyes:
 
I've purposely not rugged unless i've had too, and then it's only been a light weight turn out. So i've got enough rugs for when I clip and then enough spares for if it gets overly cold.. last year i rugged up too soon and ran out of rugs
 
I've been to my local saddlery and bought an elimanet, Rugged Horse winter breeches (as I got bad chilblains last year) and my Le Chameau wellies. Hay has already been delivered for winter. Now I'm looking into the best riding boots for winter - all ideas welcome! Oh and of course my pony has a new Amigo rug to keep him warm plus his Bucas stable one from last year.
The only thing I can't control is the yard owner who will act as though winter is a huge shock and not be at all prepared :mad:
 
Well i have a horse this winter :D

But my plan is to keep him out as long as I can, he hates being in for too long. So the little TB will be out all the time with his new rugs :D
 
We have been and got lots of hay so the barn is full. Hoping to buy a hay steamer so we don't have to feed haylage when the water is frozen. Got our land rover fixed, the postman crashed into us in the first lot of snow last winter and it was out of action for the next lot of snow so we had to walk four miles each day and ran out of food for the horses.
We have lots of grass left for strip grazing, the stables are clean and ready to go, clipper blades sharpened and rugs cleaned and reproofed!
 
lilaclomax said:
I have only one item left to buy - a battery powered air pump to put into the trough on the nights it is likely to freeze, hopefully it will keep a small hole for them to drink from ;)
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Could you not just put a couple of footballs in them so they continually float about and help stop the freezing?

Hay is already all in, we've plenty of salt and cat litter for the ground, I got some yaktrax last year for my feet and we've only got one beast to cope with instead of two. We've also got a landy defender hovering about to make sure we can get everywhere!
 
I have already stocked up on hay, thermals, socks, heated gloves, snow chains for my wellies. The 4x4 has new tyres on it and is booked in for a big service.
We have logs and fuel already for our house and a freezer full of food from our allotment.
Horsey just needs to focus on growing a good thick coat and he will be sorted too!!
 
pottamus said:
I have already stocked up on hay, thermals, socks, heated gloves, snow chains for my wellies. The 4x4 has new tyres on it and is booked in for a big service.
We have logs and fuel already for our house and a freezer full of food from our allotment.
Horsey just needs to focus on growing a good thick coat and he will be sorted too!!
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heated gloves? I'm loving the sound of those!!

Im not overely prepared yet oops. Have my hay, hoping 48 bales will be enough for I'm hoping a maximum of 5 months in. But fingers crossed tightly for that.
Really need to go and buy a new coat aswell!!
 
My 2 are on full grass livery this winter so my change is not having to do them myself! I must admit I am quite liking this arrangement so I may continue it if/when my back gets better :D
 
Mine are not coming in at nights until the 1st Nov as last year they came in on 1st Oct which made it an even longer winter! I have got 20 bales of hay and 4 bales of straw to mix in with haylage/ feed in the field as mine piled too much weight on with just haylage! I have hot loads of bubble wrap so am going to try and wrap round water buckets to stop them icing over so quickly! I already have snow shovel and salt down at yard! I am getting 4x4 serviced this month! So all sorted!!!!!
 
Allready have my head torch, emergency shavings supply, and snow tyres (Before it snows - can u believe it). I'm buying a kettle for the yard this weekend to avoid having to set a fire under the pipe every time I use it and I've bought the dogs flashy collars so I can now find them in the dark!
 
I've bought some liner gloves and now I need to work out what gloved to put on to (any suggestions?)
Also thought about filling water carrier with water and insulating it for when the hose freezes.
I was at a different yard last year so I'm not sure what to expect really.
 
sheep said:
I've seen quite a few adverts of late of people wanting to put their horse on "short term loan" from roughly now until March / April. Apparently their 'different' thing is year is to get rid of the horse while it's inconvenient or difficult to keep them. Grr!

Sounds like you are well prepared though!
Click to expand...

And my lovely black cob has been returned to me 'for the winter'. Grrrr. I've brought in 50 small bales and 20 big bale haylage (to go with my 37 big bale). I've also hardcored tractor access so that its easy for farmer to run them in.... haven't got a farmer to agree to doing this yet though.
 
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