Winter weather forecast.....

We've been told our area is meant to have snow solidly from November until January. Pretty much the same as 2 years ago then when we had snow arrive at beginning of Dec which didnt leave until March! Our winters seem to be pretty bad nowadays every year so we're pretty used to it nowadays. I rough my horses off for the winter anyway so it doesn't bother me from that point of view - only annoying thing is the water trough tap freezing but otherwise at least everything is nice and clean!
 
To add to the Monty Python theme, I too was small in 62 - I was 4 in the March. No ponies, but we did still walk 2 miles (each way) to the nearest town for shopping twice a week with my baby brother in the pram. All I can remember is that the path was cleared through drifts that were higher than me so it was like walking through a tunnel of snow.
 
To Carry on the Monty Python theme I was 2 in 1962 But I remember my Mother telling me about 1947, that really was a HARD WINTER which when the thaw came the Ground was so hard the water just Ran off and it caused massive flood damage in the Fens and other low lying pump drained areas.
My Mother born and Brought up on the Fells of Northumberland and She Stated and I wouldnt doubt her Word that they still had small pockets of Snow Laying under the shaded stone Walls In JULY!! from the Massive Drift that had buried the Sheep.
20 odd years ago working in a quarry on a muck shift we stock piled Semi Clean Sand & Gravel (HOGGIN) with a cover of 6-10 inches of snow on it and when we moved the material in August there was still Snow in the middle of the heap quite Surreall.
 
I'm glad there's still a few of us left to tell the story of the great winter of 1962/3 lol

Well despite most weather of the weather forums predicting a cold hard winter like nothing we've ever seen.....there does seem to be a bit of doubt creeping in that it could now turn mild.

Ideal scenario, dry and mild till the end of feb, then 6 weeks of steady rain at night. which will then take us into April and Bob's your uncle spring is here. Now wouldn't that be great!
 
Well, we have had a bumper crop of walnuts this year, and I mean bumper, sodding tons of the useless things still falling onto my yard...but, so my neighbour tells me a good walnut crop means a mild winter.

So, there you go, Oxford County, Ontario is going to have a mild winter:D the UK is having what we normally have;) Shame, because I love really cold, really snowy winters. :(
 
Reading that link threw up an interesting point - apparently this summer was a wetter than average with flash floods a feature. Well not in East Anglia it wasn't - we have had a very dry summer! Just goes to show that broad brush national forecasts/descriptions are useless & you have to look at the local picture. The ground is still like concrete in our grassless fields.
 
Rosie'smum said:
It annoys me at my yard that there are so many people that are soft and have already started bringing their horses in cause there is a slight wind!
Mine is out fair enough in a lw but she has a blanket clip but tbf she doesnt need the rug. It is incase it rains so i can ride. But if a clipped horse can stay out in this then so can the big heavy hunter type thats fat and keeps getting 2 huge feeds a day. Even worse she is trying to get everyone else to bring in for some god knows why??

Sorry got me ranting
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Sorry but I disagree, every horse is different and if the horse owner is wise they will suit what they do to the horse and not to what others are doing!

I have 2 horses, one stays in all winter,( and I mean all winter goes from barn to arena and back, no turn out, his choice, will bring himself in if put out and will close stable door after himself as well!) with rugs and plenty of feed. The other was out in snow and ice last winter, no rugs , no hard feed. Horses for courses.

Your fellow livery's horse may have issues you know nothing about.

As for snow, for me it is preferable to all the rain we get here. But it does make climbing the fells in the car interesting to say the least! I find it amusing that during the summer the other cars on the road are all anxious to overtake our Landrover, first sign of ice and snow and I feel like a duck leading her ducklings around the nasty slippery roads!
FDC
 
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cremedemonthe said:
There seems to be a few of us who were small in 62 !
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I, sadly, was not so small - I was 13. Remember that winter so well; it started snowing on Boxing Day and thawed at Easter. I had to walk to and from school (about 5 miles each way) for the whole of the spring term as they didn't do girly things like grit roads in those days ( we lived in steep valley) and schools didn't do girly things like close either! We only had a coal fire in the living room that was lit in the evenings when we all got home from school and work. I remember sitting on my bed drawing in the frost on the inside of the windows and getting dressed and undressed in bed as it was so cold. The milk would freeze on the back doorstep and we got excited when the weather forcaster said the temperature woud rise to minus 3!!!
 
Faithkat said:
I, sadly, was not so small - I was 13. Remember that winter so well; it started snowing on Boxing Day and thawed at Easter. I had to walk to and from school (about 5 miles each way) for the whole of the spring term as they didn't do girly things like grit roads in those days ( we lived in steep valley) and schools didn't do girly things like close either! We only had a coal fire in the living room that was lit in the evenings when we all got home from school and work. I remember sitting on my bed drawing in the frost on the inside of the windows and getting dressed and undressed in bed as it was so cold. The milk would freeze on the back doorstep and we got excited when the weather forcaster said the temperature woud rise to minus 3!!!
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LOL, yes it used to be like that, do you lot remember trying to get around in the snow in 2 wheel rear drive cars that weighed a ton and with cross ply narrow tyres on?
We had the Morris Minors, Travellers and Austin A40 Vans to name a few, all heavy!
My parents both worked at Cane Hill Hosp in Coulsdon back in yester year, I did a stint in the laundry there back in 1978 too, we had to get there by going down Marlpit Lane which is a long hill, we never actually got that far though as we couldn't get any grip to get out of the end of the next road which was on a slight incline!
Only other choice I had was to use my motorbike which I thought better of!
Oz
 
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I wil take and deal with whatever comes. I have learnt a few lessons from last year and have everything ready...plenty of grass, hay to last through to summer next year, winter woolies, thermals, waterproof trousers, heated gloves etc
i can hopefully get access to work from home if needed and then we will use the 4x4 when the farmer has cleared our roads a bit. We are lucky that one of our farmers is paid and retained by the council to snow plough the local rural roads that are not gritted. He had covered them all after a couple of days and although it left us with a smooth taboggen type surface, it was drivable with care.
 
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