I’m almost always all for out more than in …however this is extreme and just dangerous …I’m talking about thick sheets of ice everywhere
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My definition of “ice” changed this year 
. This year is like, get your skates out ICE ice, on the dry lots and driveway 
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And on top of all of this, the handle on my dump cart just broke. I really, really don’t want to have to push a wheelbarrow through/on top of this . . .
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Listen, if my horse wants to train to be an Olympic ice skater, who am I to stop her? She’s her own horse, she can do her own things…
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Mine are in with the exception of a small area around the barn and the indoor. I am rotating them. They don’t even want to be out…they just stand there afraid to move on the ice so why not be safe and stand in a stall.
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Yeah its just terrible. I have one paddock I’m not using too icy. And parts of my driveway I swear the ice is like 3-4" thick. I don’t ever remember it being like this before. What a nightmare! Ugh!
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I think we had close to a foot of ice before we had SOME melting. Our place is gated and normally my car mirror is low enough to fit under the mailbox with clearance where the key pad is. I haven’t been able to do that in months now. 
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Oh no 
Yes …,there’s ice …then there’s what we currently have which is crazy and treacherous …temps are still way below freezing 
…in fact we have temps in the teens with negative feel like temps currently…I can’t recall ever needing to keep them in for days on end like this …I think mine have been in since Sunday 
luckily everyone is still sane and not climbing the walls.
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Oh my goodness that’s wild!!
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This is our third go around with single digits temps this week.We usually have a few days to a week of temps in the teens/single digits each year in addition to lake effect snow. This winter? This winter reminds me of the ones when I was much younger. Cold, snow, relentless. I don’t remember much ice as a kid either. Ive had a couple days that the roads were so bad I couldn’t make it to the barn (I prefer to go everyday) and I’m not a fair weather driver. We’ve had a lot of storms conveniently at rush hour time which make things impossible.
Im glad at least we are getting some daylight back and DST is around the corner. Then we can look at our ice longer each day!
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We are sunny and a high of 29 today, with 40 expected on Saturday. Woohoo! Today’s edition of “how to get the horses out” involved taking an ice pick to the refrozen areas. I felt like the mountaineer guy from that Rudolph Christmas special I watched when I was a kid. 
Meanwhile, my gelding is going nuts just from staying in overnight. The mares are much more sensible. Hopefully everyone gets some relief soon.
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Mine was in yesterday and today. Back out tomorrow when the windchill and temps aren’t so far into the negatives. He does get a session in the morning and afternoon in the large indoor to have a roll and whatever else. Will get out for a third time tonight too. So it’s not ideal, but he copes better than I thought.
Yesterday with the wind, snow, and temps, he would’ve been miserable.
I’m usually the type to turn out in anything and he’s lived out 24/7 for most of his young life, but ever since he had a fall on the ice this year, I’m a bit more conservative.
He was not down for too long but started to shiver while they were working on moving him (he was wearing a blanket). The BO/barn staff acted as quickly as possible and had to pull him off of the ice with ropes and a truck so he could gain traction and stand up. He was really good about it all and didn’t struggle. He just let them help him.
He somehow was completely fine. No lameness, soreness, or anything. I even had a bodyworker out a few days later just incase. So scary because I’ve known horses to break their legs due to ice. I lightly joked that he’s young, flexible, and a bit round so he just bounced like a rubber ball. We were so lucky!
We did all realize that if the barn needed to learn how to do an “ice rescue” he was one of the best candidates. Once he was down he didn’t struggle or panic, and when they came to him and had to drag him off the ice, he just let them do their thing. When they encouraged him to get up, he did. Then let out a loud whinny.
Why he had to go on the one ice patch out there, who knows. He’s lived out all of his life and there’s been all sorts of weather and hazard, but I guess there’s no problem until there is. The rest of the fields weren’t bad, but the way that his slopes toward the back allowed more ice to accumulate, I guess.
I told the BO about spreading manure/muck from the stalls on the icey parts, and it worked well. You just have to work with what you’ve got sometimes. Ice just sucks!
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Mine were out ~2 hours Saturday and 5 hours Sunday. It has been so cold and windy, except Sat night/Sun morning when it warmed up into the 30s and rained which turned my driveway to 6" of rutted slush. I waited until the temp drop somewhat Sunday, so it was snowing when I turned out, then I spent ~2 hours plowing the slush off the driveway and I thought I was good for Monday. HAHAHA - I got up Monday to 6-8" of fresh snow in the driveway so I had to plow AGAIN before I left for work.
Since then, the horses were in Sunday until this morning and the stalls have not been cleaned. Also, because of the thaw, some ice got under the doors making them harder to open. I’m planning to leave work early today so I can get home and deal with the mess.
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This has been a longgggg winter! The forecast here for next week looks great though! 50’s and 60’s 
The other thing is that the horses are in a heated barn. It doesn’t go below 40/45° in there, so I think going out into negative temps is possibly more dramatic in comparison to a horse that lives out (ours are in at night currently).
I don’t love heated barns, but my options here are limited and there are some perks to it (things don’t freeze!).
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I’ve had to make a path to my waterer in the paddock before when it turns into a skating rink due to weird weather.
At first I wound up using a watering can and sprinkled water on portion of the path and then immediately threw some bedding down. It froze in place and kept it from blowing away.
Now I’ll use stock salt (it’s finer so covers better with less) to get a melted/wet layer and throw bedding down.
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For humans, crampons/ice cleats help.
Or ice skates 
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I’m glad your horse is ok after that fall. I think I would have had a heart attack.
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Thanks all. We were so lucky that he wasn’t hurt and that his “ice rescue” went so well.
It can be that the pasture looks OK, but there could be icey spots under the snow, or maybe a patch you didn’t see. We all know that if a horse can hurt themselves on something, they’ll find it!
If I had showed up to the barn later, and not known anything about this, I would’ve been none the wiser! He was acting and feeling completely normal and probably wondering why I kept looking at him and feeling him 
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