Winter weather forecast.....

TicTac

TicTac

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As an owner of 2 horses I tend to become a bit obsessed with the weather forecast at this time of year. Rugs on, rugs off, lightweights or medium, horses in or out wearing flippers or flymasks...........and so on lol

It seems that up until now a very cold winter has been forecast or has it? I've just consulted one of my weather web sites and it is now saying maybe it wont be so cold after all! Unless any of you know any different?

Sometimes I do get annoyed with all the hype that surrounds the weather in this country. No matter what it thows at us we are never prepared. For me though, if it stays dry and mild like it has been, my 2 will spend the winter out and I would be very happy. This year they went out 24/7 at the beginning of March and to date they are still out.

Dry and mild or cold and dry would be the perfect scenario for me as the wet soon turns our clay soil to a boggy nightmare, however, for the time being I am happy that my horses are still have them out 24/7.........however this bloody wind is doing my head in!!!!!
 
Don't think anyone can predict what will happen. I've heard it will be harder than last year! They have trouble predicting the next days forecast let alone months in advance!! Will just have to play it by ear and each day they are out as a bonus :).
 
I've heard that this winter is going to be colder than ever and twice as much snow...but you have to be open minded i think. I love the snow though, the cold weather and wrapping up warm and rugging the pony up within an inch of his life :D
 
The met office says wet and windy with average or just below average temps for the next 30 days for the north east. I'm crossing my fingers we don't get a prolonged period of snow, last year was such a nightmare, I was living at hunt kennels and rely on deliveries as I'm not allowed to drive and nothing would come to me. The horses were quite happy though, they got lots of time off just turned out as couldn't get off the yard with them.
 
Don't believe the weather forecasters, remember the BBQ summers of the last couple of years? The met office can't even get the weather right for 24 hrs ahead!!!
 
Am building a shelter and have 200 bales of hay stacked up just incase. Just got a new truck aswell, snow won't be stopping me this year.
 
Any stock, horses, cattle and sheep will do better in cold weather - even snow, as long as they have food, than they will in driving wind and rain.

I really cannot understand people rugging up already, some with what look like thick rugs on. My working horses have only just been stabled at night, and they are all out cubbing once or twice a week. I haven't even clipped them yet so they only have a sheet on at nights. \Mares, foals and youngsters are still out and not really wanting any hay or hard feed.

As for a hard winter, who knows? We can only cope with whatever is thrown at us. There is nothing we can do about it except moan.
 
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
 
I think I heard today that we may be entering another mini ice-age as something to do with currents and cold water coming down from the arctic are the same ones that created the mini ice-age we had in britain 300 or so years ago, the ones where the thames froze :eek:

Set to continue for a few years they think :)
 
Stencilface said:
I think I heard today that we may be entering another mini ice-age as something to do with currents and cold water coming down from the arctic are the same ones that created the mini ice-age we had in britain 300 or so years ago, the ones where the thames froze :eek:

Set to continue for a few years they think :)
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Yep, this is what Joe Bastardi a forecaster who used to work for accuweather was saying last year, something to do with volcanic activity I think, but he said to expect much worse winters.
 
Op- my boys were out early march too and are still out now (norm in by end of sept!). I have clay soil also, can sympathise it's a bloody nightmare!! Gateways already trashed!!
My field man came out to Harrow today and said he's very busy getting customers paddocks done as they forecast snow in about a fortnight and the coldest winter yet! Great! Snow doesn't necessarily bother me nor ice, it's when it melts!!!
 
I'm afraid I don't believe any forecast further ahead than a day or two - and then I trust my own eyes more!

No rugs here yet! (out 24/7)
 
If you all think that last winter was 'bad' because we had more than 4 " of snow then think again!

I was a mere child when it snowed Boxing Day 1962 - a real blizzard. I recall watching the snow coming horizontal. In the morning the drift was above the front door and a house opposite had a drift that was over their bedroom window and out halfway across the street.
Then the freeze set in. Temperatures remained well below zero day and night until the end of March.
I spent the winter dragging cast iron milk churns filled with water to the ponies in the fields, they drank as faster than we could get the water to them. We also dragged hay. All this was mostly up steep hills and over the frozen drifts.

Only time my mother ever allowed me to skip school.
The ponies and horses, non rugged, had icicles hanging from their beards and whiskers yet they remained looking well and non were ever seen shivering.

Many times I have walked six or seven miles to see to the horses, in deep drifts and then walked the same distance back and done this for several days until roads were cleared.

Now there are a lot of diggers and powerful tractors that can help to clear the roads so, although it can take a few days it is nothing like it use to be when it was weeks before roads were cleared.
 
Foxhunter49 said:
Now there are a lot of diggers and powerful tractors that can help to clear the roads so, although it can take a few days it is nothing like it use to be when it was weeks before roads were cleared.
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Unless you have to deal with district councils which are bloody useless and barely grit the roads in the town let alone the country roads :rolleyes:
I'm in the Surrey Hills and last year a fairly busy main road was almost entirely blocked by a snowdrift, took the council weeks to get it cleared. Also the main road from London to the coast was littered with abandoned cars and vans (A22) just outside of Croydon and Purley. The hills round here are dodgy at the best of times - 16%.
 
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I was a small child in 1962 but remember older family members telling me about that Winter, we tend to get snowed in up here on the North Downs. We had 15 inches of snow last year and it was minus 14, the roads were ok if you had a 4x4 as I did at the time and ferried people to their horse who didn't have 4x4's etc, I had to admit defeat one night trying to get my neighbour to her Arabs to see to them as all the roads I tried were blocked.
It was all the 2 wheel drive cars that were getting stuck that blocked all the roads up and that's why we couldn't get off the hills!
 
Exactly! I saw someone trying to get through Lingfield in a Fiat500 :confused: I mean really?! Did you see the drift I mentioned up on the Limpsfield Rd just between Botley Hill Farm and the road off to Tatsfield?
 
broke_but_happy said:
Exactly! I saw someone trying to get through Lingfield in a Fiat500 :confused: I mean really?! Did you see the drift I mentioned up on the Limpsfield Rd just between Botley Hill Farm and the road off to Tatsfield?
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I didn't need to go out as far as that, I was volunteered (called upon) to take 3 old ladies home from the Brunton Centre in Caterham as Dial a Ride couldn't even get their minibuses out of the car park.
I has a 7 seater Maverick at the time, all of them lived in Warlingham, it took me 20 minutes just to get down Whyteleafe Hill when it normally takes me 2-3 mins. It wasn't the snow or ice but the cars that were stuck. Even a woman with a brand new large Discovery bottled it infront of me going up Westhall Road, she did a 101 point turn infront of me and crept back down the hill.I went straight up no problem with cheers coming from the old ladies in the back!
Had the hill to myself on the way up but loads of cars sliding down past me.
It was sheet ice but you could still get up it if the road was clear. The last lady lived down the end of the road opposite Chalkpit Lane, as warlingham was grid locked I went up the Woldingham Road past the station and that way up to to it so I missed Botley Hall on the main Limpsfield road. Woldingham Road was empty and it is a good way up as most cars don't try to use it where as all the hills in warlingham were blocked mostly, try that if you ever find your route up to warlingham or woldingham is blocked by cars.It's a good escape route and the old ladies gave me a bottle of wine as a thankyou for getting them home safely but I don't drink wine, so gave it to my sister to go with her Xmas dinner!
Oz :)
 
Oh I was forever using Woldingham Rd last year, that hairpin bend by the station was fun! Having said that I was using Chalkpit Hill a lot last year as well with no issues - until the BMW tried it and failed, then the van, the jeep, the ford and the pillock in the peugot who sent me into the front of the ford and then parked in my boot! The yard I was on was directly opposite the top of Chalkpit Hill.
Problem was that last winter I was working in Limpsfield Chart so had to use Titsy Hill a lot too - not fun at all going down there, especially as at that point I was in a Legacy with road tyres!
 
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I think the only problem with the winter here is that hardly anybody is prepared and everybody panics ... (at least here in the Aouth East) For starters nobody seems
to insulate outside waterpipes and is then surprised when they freeze, nobody cares to shovel the fresh snow off the footpath and then people are surprised when it turns to ice and they land on their bums, no- one has winter tires or snow chains ... Everybody tries to get up the steepest hills... Things just move a lot slower when it has snowed yet everybody expects to get to places in the same time as usual

I find it quite amusing!

The horses love the snow To play in but as we are not allowed to turn out in winter, I sneak up late in the evening and let them lose in the school for a buck and a fart ;)
 
Foxhunter49 said:
If you all think that last winter was 'bad' because we had more than 4 " of snow then think again!

I was a mere child when it snowed Boxing Day 1962 - a real blizzard. I recall watching the snow coming horizontal. In the morning the drift was above the front door and a house opposite had a drift that was over their bedroom window and out halfway across the street.
Then the freeze set in. Temperatures remained well below zero day and night until the end of March.
I spent the winter dragging cast iron milk churns filled with water to the ponies in the fields, they drank as faster than we could get the water to them. We also dragged hay. All this was mostly up steep hills and over the frozen drifts.

Only time my mother ever allowed me to skip school.
The ponies and horses, non rugged, had icicles hanging from their beards and whiskers yet they remained looking well and non were ever seen shivering.

Many times I have walked six or seven miles to see to the horses, in deep drifts and then walked the same distance back and done this for several days until roads were cleared.
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This thread is becoming similar to the Monty Python sketch:D:D (There were 10 of us living in a shoe box etc etc)

I was very young in 1962/3 but we lived at the bottom of a private driveway. My father never tired of telling people that Mum had a WI meeting at our house the night the snow fell and he spent half the night digging and pushing the cars back up to the main road (up a hill if I recall).

I seem to remember the winters in the 70s/80s being a lot more snowy than the ones of late and I also thought 2009/2010 went on a lot longer than 2010/2011.

I have a lovely picture from last winter of my trace clipped connie x welsh and his shetland mate munching on a big pile of hay fetlock deep in snow, with more coming down. People were horrified that he did not have a rug on but he was perfectly warm.

Oh, how I long for global warming ...
 
1962, now that was a winter to remember! I too was a small child and to be honest dont recall much about it other than what my mother tells me. In those days we didn't have central heating only coal fires. I remember being told that we were virtually house bound for most of the time due to not being able to get out and me and my brother only being 2 and 4.

What I do have as a lasting testement to that winter is a huge scar accross my nose as apparently when the weather finally cleared up enough for us to be allowed outside in the garden, I was like a mad crazy child running around. I tripped and fell and hit my head on a small brick wall leaving a deep gash accross my nose. I remember being wrapped in a blanket and carried into an ambulance by an ambulance man where I went to hospital for attention!!
 
broke_but_happy said:
Oh I was forever using Woldingham Rd last year, that hairpin bend by the station was fun! Having said that I was using Chalkpit Hill a lot last year as well with no issues - until the BMW tried it and failed, then the van, the jeep, the ford and the pillock in the peugot who sent me into the front of the ford and then parked in my boot! The yard I was on was directly opposite the top of Chalkpit Hill.
Problem was that last winter I was working in Limpsfield Chart so had to use Titsy Hill a lot too - not fun at all going down there, especially as at that point I was in a Legacy with road tyres!
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I was a bit wary of that hairpin bend too but thought what the hell, just go for it, worst that could happen would be me sitting on the platform at Woldingham station in the Maverick waiting for the Oxted to London train to go by!
We probably passed each other a few times without realising!
I didn't use chalkpit as although I dont get stuck others do and slide using me as their brake as you found out!
There was a beauty down Tithepitshaw Lane, I slowly crawled down it and found a line of stacked up cars including the 4x4 that some one had tried to use as a brake and ended up pushing it down the hill into 3 more cars, there were all stacked up in each other zig zagged down the hill!
I would have hated to sort that claim out!
Oz ;)
 
To add to the Monty Python sketch, I too remember the 62/63 winter. I had just got a little section A on loan, he wintered out in a field about 2 miles away, my mother and I walked there once a day to give him hay and a bran mash. The people in a house overlooking the field carried buckets of warm water to the ponies a each day, they were absolutely fine, and of course weren't wearing rugs. I don't remember being given time off school :mad:, but do recall being pulled round the roads on a sledge pulled by 4 GSDs. :D
 
MurphysMinder said:
To add to the Monty Python sketch, I too remember the 62/63 winter. I had just got a little section A on loan, he wintered out in a field about 2 miles away, my mother and I walked there once a day to give him hay and a bran mash. The people in a house overlooking the field carried buckets of warm water to the ponies a each day, they were absolutely fine, and of course weren't wearing rugs. I don't remember being given time off school :mad:, but do recall being pulled round the roads on a sledge pulled by 4 GSDs. :D
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LOL, that sounds like fun!
As a kid I had a go cart we'd made out of old pram wheels and a scaffold plank, my dog Elsa used to pull me on that, her "harness" at the time as an old nylon webbing headcollar turned round so it fitted like a harnes with a dog lead clipped on one side and cotton lead rope on the other side as the traces.
To stop, my brakes were me sticking my toes of my shoes in the spokes!
She used to pull me on my sledge (homemade of course) in the snow too and I had no brakes on that!

I too seem to remember seeing archive newsreels of that winter with horses out and none in rugs either.
We seem to over rug a bit nowadays!
Oz
 
The horses love the snow To play in but as we are not allowed to turn out in winter, I sneak up late in the evening and let them lose in the school for a buck and a fart ;)[/QUOTE]

What a lovely owner, I think there are fewer things more uplifting than seeing them play your comments gave me something to smile about and give a more positive outlook for winter.xx
 
Last winter was the worst I have experienced with temperatures so low for so long---15/-16C
My mains water froze on Christmas morning, not my service pipe but where the mains came under a tarmac road.
For 2 and half weeks I had to carry every drop for the house and horses for half a mile with everywhere desperately slippy

The annoying thing--Scottish Water promised to make sure those parts of the distribution system which failed would be altered,---pipes put deeper, they did not do so
 
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