Worst thing about Winter?

The main road that connects us to the local city being under 3ft of water for about 2 weeks was a highlight and that's after the road had been raised a few years ago.
Blocked field drains meaning our fields were under water, ice, frost, cold. Mainly cold day to day as I'm a freakishly cold person.
 
dafthoss said:
The main road that connects us to the local city being under 3ft of water for about 2 weeks was a highlight and that's after the road had been raised a few years ago.
Blocked field drains meaning our fields were under water, ice, frost, cold. Mainly cold day to day as I'm a freakishly cold person.
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We seem to have been paddling around in drains all year! We work a lot for a local estate and there is always a broken pipe, blocked drain, flooded patch somewhere each week, which wouldnt be that bad if someone had actually got a plan of where the bloody pipes had been put in!! Some were marked by a large rock....some large rocks are just...large rocks!!:rolleyes:
 
The negative - trying to do horses before work / school.
Getting up - shouting to the child to get up as well (half way through mucking out when he appears.......) worse, finding he did not empty the wheelbarrow the night before - so opening gates, and pushing through cattle to empty the barrow into an empty cattle shed. Finding that the cattle and I am competing for who gets the water from the hose first.......Finding myself in the middle stable mucking out the stroppy horse, as son is also changing his rugs from night to turn-out, melee of swishing tail and rolling eyes.
Even worse, getting to the bargey last horse, who has not yet had his hay, as son laggging behind, having not been able to get out of bed.......bargey horse is hopping over the wheelbarrow to get to bale which is right in front of his stable- sending wheel barrow full of stables 1&2 muck......why do I bother?
However, when we are form, we do the jobs as if synchronised, and totally in tune, the concherto goes as follows .........mucking out (me), hay (him), rugs X2 me, rugs X 1 him - water him, feeds me - all done in max of 20 mins. School bus (him) brief case and suited and booted me, out of the door - the working day begins......

Positives of winter - horses in stables, clipped and usually quite clean, and if not, 5 mins deals with the mud. Crisp mornings (no flies) lovely sun rises, stunning views - smokey breath, mine and the horses combined - smart trotting up hills to get us both warm, twinkling lights as we ride those precious few late afternoon minutes before darkness settles.......
 
dressedkez said:
The negative - trying to do horses before work / school.
Getting up - shouting to the child to get up as well (half way through mucking out when he appears.......) worse, finding he did not empty the wheelbarrow the night before - so opening gates, and pushing through cattle to empty the barrow into an empty cattle shed. Finding that the cattle and I am competing for who gets the water from the hose first.......Finding myself in the middle stable mucking out the stroppy horse, as son is also changing his rugs from night to turn-out, melee of swishing tail and rolling eyes.
Even worse, getting to the bargey last horse, who has not yet had his hay, as son laggging behind, having not been able to get out of bed.......bargey horse is hopping over the wheelbarrow to get to bale which is right in front of his stable- sending wheel barrow full of stables 1&2 muck......why do I bother?
However, when we are form, we do the jobs as if synchronised, and totally in tune, the concherto goes as follows .........mucking out (me), hay (him), rugs X2 me, rugs X 1 him - water him, feeds me - all done in max of 20 mins. School bus (him) brief case and suited and booted me, out of the door - the working day begins......

Positives of winter - horses in stables, clipped and usually quite clean, and if not, 5 mins deals with the mud. Crisp mornings (no flies) lovely sun rises, stunning views - smokey breath, mine and the horses combined - smart trotting up hills to get us both warm, twinkling lights as we ride those precious few late afternoon minutes before darkness settles.......
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haha this made me chuckle! Sounds a lot like our routine. And yes, it's an actual incentive to right the article now! :p
 
I do not mind winter with its cold and mud but I just cannot stand all this flipping DARK! Never seem to get anything done when its pitch black all the time :-(
 
Mud, mud,mud :(
Its so deep where my horses are its straining their legs trying to walk through it
Yo normally lays mulch done after scraping excess up before the winter sets in but we have had so much rain that its not been possible. Can handle everything else but not the mud.
 
I can manage it being cold at the yard as I can dress accordingly and keep warm by moving, but coming home to a cold house (no central heating) and arriving at a cold office is rubbish!

Having to de-ice the inside of the windscreen is not enjoyable.

And frozen yard taps!
 
The damn cold! I cannot seem to get enough layers. I went out for a hack yesterday and had to walk half it is as my feet were in agony!
 
I love winter but my problems with it are
1. Frozen taps and having to fill bottles of water at home and lug them round.
2. Frozen roads which are too slippery to ride and I have no school so sometimes like last winter I couldn't even bring one horse out of his field in a week as it was lethal outside his gate.
3. obviously mud!
 
1 Mud
2 Frozen taps
3 Mud
4 Dark mornings
5 Mud
6 Dark nights
7 Mud
8 Rain
9 Mud
10 Frozen windscreen on horsebox(Its huge)
11 Mud
12 Frozen water troughs
13 Mud
14 Councils that don't grit enough
15 Mud.
 
Its the lack of daylight. I can honestly work around or cope with everything else but hate seeming to live life permanently in the dark. I have dogs to walk as well and they will not walk in the dark in the morning.
 
We all grumble about winter... I know I do, but one of the most special *warm fuzzy* bits of owning a horse for me is bringing my horse into a warm cozy clean stable, snugly bed, lots of hay, a nice feed and fresh water, seeing them rugged up nice and warm and cuddling into their neck and sliding my hand in under their rug and giving the a scratch.... Nothing beats that!

For me, the worst bit is the restrictions that winter places on you... The wet or excessive wind, ice, fog and darkness all affect the ability to ride- or ride safely...this morning I woke at 2 am it took ages to get light and I was dying to go and have a ride to brighten my mood.
 
The_Snow_Queen said:
We all grumble about winter... I know I do, but one of the most special *warm fuzzy* bits of owning a horse for me is bringing my horse into a warm cozy clean stable, snugly bed, lots of hay, a nice feed and fresh water, seeing them rugged up nice and warm and cuddling into their neck and sliding my hand in under their rug and giving the a scratch.... Nothing beats that!

For me, the worst bit is the restrictions that winter places on you... The wet or excessive wind, ice, fog and darkness all affect the ability to ride- or ride safely...this morning I woke at 2 am it took ages to get light and I was dying to go and have a ride to brighten my mood.
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that would be true if i had the luxery of a stable
 
Snow causing major disruptions costs money if u cant get to work, usually have to pay to have help with your horse as u cant get there.

Lack of daylight I'm sure I get that SAD problem especially as cant ride cos too dark or icy.
 
Dark, cold, ice, frozen fields, frozen school. Icy tracks and roads =can't ride, can't lunge, or do in hand work. Grooming, carrot stretches, massage make up for some of it, but there is constant worry of horse injuring himself by hooning around on hard ground, or slipping on ice.
 
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