Whits end with winter!!!

[kal40]

Please can I moan too.

Had a great month off from 19th December until 20th January so really enjoyed that. Started a job with fairly long hours and having a real problem with my field. I now get up at 5am, do the boy get ready for work then have one hour drive to work. My field is absolutely rubbish this year as the farmer halved it to get more horses in. He is basically still on his summer starvation paddock. Cob is starving and for the first time ever, loosing weight by the day.

Light nights would make my life easier.

 

[southerncomfort]

Hang in there everyone! Only 4 more days of January (worst month of the year!) to endure and then we are on the home stretch! Spring will be here before you know it and we'll be drowning in horse fluff and moaning about the grass growing too quickly!

 

[Enfys]

Southerncomfort - you are so right

Then it will be foal and lami watch.

 

[L&M]

Weirdly, I have found this winter (so far) better than last. The constant storms and flooding where far more disruptive, and our fields have held up a lot better this winter, hence happier horses! Last winter my youngster was a real sod, as had to stabled too much due to ground conditions, and every ride was taking my life into my own hands. This winter he has matured a little, and combined with more turnout, has mainly been a pleasure.

I can also get quite depressed in the winter, and last winter was very close to giving up the horses and associated lifestyle, but this year have had a rare day when I have felt like that.

Keep positive all, we may not be out the woods yet, but it is Feb next weekend, which is a nice short month, then we are into March, and spring will be really on its way x x

 

[Shoei]

Well we may have a blizzard outside but just before that started, when I left work at 5 it was almost lightish! And the old mare has decided today is the day to start moulting!!!!

 

[Highlands]

15 , well 14 more minutes of light a week, clipped horse hot in medium rug and needs re clipping

 

[FairyLights]

I'm really fed up and as soon as spring starts it'll be sweet itch time and I'll have to manage that. :-(

 

[maisie06]

When I lived in the UK I was always in the deepest depths of SAD by this time of year, so I feel your collective pain.

I was fed up with everything (Welsh winters are dire) the wet, the clay, the mud, the bone seeping chill and damp, the mud, the never ending greyness - inevitably one day I would come home from hunting (which I adore) and think "It's that time again" My horses would be put out the next day and apart from the usual daily care I more or less gave up horses until April.

I HATE British winters, they were a huge part of the reason we choose to skedaddle, not exactly for warmer shores, but for somewhere that does at least have seasons. We know we will have hot summers, and we KNOW Winter will be cold, and mostly dry, and that for the most part the sky will still be blue, and the sun will still shine. Cold temperature - you deal with it, snow, for months - you deal with it.

Winter happens here and I love that.

Winter in the UK is hit and miss.



I miss many things about the UK, the weather is not one of them

This post sums up exactly how I feel about the UK - it's horrible, we don't have proper seasons anymore, it's depressing and dire, and once my horses go they will not be replaced and I am hoping and praying to get out of this country.

 

[wiglet]

May I have a whinge too please
Fed up with the cold, rain, snow and hideous wind. Why can't we just have cold and frosty but calm then winter sunshine? Now that I don't mind.

Mud. Blah.

I have ridden but I seem to get a few days in then the weather stops play. We have no school - just a paddock that's either muddy or rock hard with frost.

Fortunately we are not on restricted turnout but there's no grass anywhere

To cap it all off, tonight my mare refused to eat her hay. Offered her another bale but she still wasn't keen. Will prolly buy haylage tomorrow - I hate the thought of her being stabled over night with nothing to eat

Whinge over

 

[meesha]

Got to yard tonight, it started to snow then turned into a blizzard, got on very perturbed horse wondering about the sanity of it all and deciding that roads were out, got to the end of the lane and it stopped, managed 35 mins in the freezing cold for short hack. Got back and no sooner had I untacked than another snow blizzard! Then sun again, suppose it could have been worse! But flaming Nora I was cold!

 

[pottamus]

'What do you do when you get in these down grumpy moods.... It can't just be me!!!!'

What do I do...I go into my horses stable, pull back a bit of his rug and bury my face in his beautiful, black, sweet smelling, warm horsey fur...which warms my heart and takes away all the cr@p in the world.

 

[RunToEarth]

What do you do when you get in these down grumpy moods.... It can't just be me!!!!

I think forward to late July when its pushing 30degrees... Where I will be reading a plethora of threads full of people complaining about the hard ground, flies, having to stand horses in out of the heat and it being too hot to ride...

 

[Meems]

My cob has started shedding. Spring must be on its way!!

Mine too, she's been shedding for a couple of weeks. But she's a nutty horse who actually starts losing her summer coat in June, so probably best not to go by her shedding as a sign that spring is round the corner.

But I'm sure it is. When the rain stops, the wind dies down and the sun comes out (which it does do from time to time) I can on the odd occasion feel something on my face that I can only describe as 'warmth'!

 

[Slightlyconfused]

I will also be happy when I don't have yo have so many layers on....this time of year they get heavy

 

[aintgotnohay]

my last day of horse ownership was january 2012.it was a very windy day.i always rem.mixing his feed and taking it down to the field.it was a final goodbye as i adjusted his rugs and kissed him goodbye.i could no longer afford to keep him so had given him to the yard owner to find a good home.i can still rem. the mud and bits of blown hay on my boots and in my hair....the next day you dont know what to do with yourself.hang on in there with your horses .you cant control the weather...

 

[Shoei]

It's the 1st of feb guys... That's another month of winter gone! Chester was fully clipped yesterday and is in a foul mood because of that and the wind today! Real feel temp is currently -4 but we layered up and put his sheet on and managed a short schooling session.