Moving to Wyoming

[Wapiti_Rider]

Hey ya’ll,

Come spring my husband and I are moving from Florida to Wyoming with my Quarter Horse.
We plan on doing a lot of back country riding, but I have never lived in snow and neither has my horse.

Do I need to shoe my horse or will boots work for him?

Do you shoe your horse all year long or just during seasons when we are riding?

How do you keep your horse warm during winter?

How do you stay warm riding during winter?

What other information should I know to make this moving process easier? What other winter care tips?

Thank you!

[Where_sMyWhite]

Lived in Colorado for over 30 years.

I would do barefoot or shoes but not boots.

My one horse was always shod year 'round, TB with not the best feet. Other horse was paint/WB cross and she’s never worn shoes in her life and she’s over 10

Warm? Blanket(s), shelter, hay (hay is, IMO, essential not just for gut health but in the winter, their gut generates internal warmth as it digests the hay (not grain, hay). Do you clip? Will your horse be living inside or out?

Me? Hands were always cold but you can find gloves for winter riding. Jackets and layer. I’d start out cold and as I rode, would start unzipping stuff (I rode mostly in an arena either indoors or out.

Wyoming… I hope you like wind

Horse care in WY will be different than FL. You most likely won’t see acres and acres of lovely green grass in fenced pastures.

Horses can live out year round as long as they have good shelter from wind and weather and roughage always available. (This would be if your horse can grow a winter coat; if he doesn’t might need to blanket accordingly.)

Where in WY?

[jazz8899]

I lived in Montana. My guys usually went barefoot in the winter. If we did do shoes we had pads to keep the snow from compacting. I would definitely not do boots. I would shoe in the summer if you are riding outside alot, or boots than. That area is dry and the ground can get very hard, you are looking out for bruising and such here. My horses had wonderful feet because it was so dry.

Blankets for the horses. I would end up using a heavy weight with a stable blanket underneath during the coldest part of it. And sometimes more if I was worried(sub zero), There are people that don’t blanket their horses at all but your horse has never been that cold before and will not have the coat for it. Look at smartpaks little temp and blanketing chart. That is an awesome gage on when to start blanketing.

Make sure you can cool your horse down after the ride. Putting a horse out sweaty will not be good for them in the winter.

Layers are your best friend. Lots of them. You will warm up as you go, temps could change as much as 80 degrees in one day, so make sure you can shed those layers if you need too. And lots of socks. I worked at a barn at the time and would end up with three layers of wool socks. Muck boots were perfect.

Depends where you are moving weather you will be windy or not. Mountains help with the wind and actually make the temp a little nicer in my opinion. Those plains are cold, bitter, and windy.

Everyone is used to it out there and you will find lots of help if you need it. It is very beautiful and so very quite. Riding through fresh powder is also very fun

Hope that helps.

[Bellathemustang]

SmartPak has an app called Smart Blanket, it uses information about your horse as well as your location to get the temp, wind, and precipitation to make blanketing recommendations.

It will make recommendations a week out, that are subject to change as weather changes, but it is nice to get a little heads up if you may need to blanket coming up

[clanter]

good news is it is uncommon for a severe blizzard to last over three days LOL

We bought a horse form North Dakota who has never put on a winter coat here in Texas longer than 1/2 inch he just thinks he is living on the beach I guess

one thing that might drive you sort of crazy is the wind and the “wide open spaces” as the whole state only has 535,000 people in it (but there are 1,290,000 cows)

[WildandWickedWarmblo]

minus 40 in the winter! But spring and summer with some snow and some sun are nice. But the minus 40 made me choose to not move to Jackson Hole many years ago. I envisioned my horses and dogs and cats in snow drifts and me digging them out. Plus a resident, who went to Florida each winter and left her employees to tend to her ranch there, told me that Wyoming had the highest rate of alcoholism in the country, I think Cheyenne was #1 one city back then, because in a house or cabin in winter, snowed in, people went stir crazy. Now if I had a heated barn and big indoor, maybe. The scenery is spectacular in spring and summer.

[danacat]

I lived in Jackson, WY for about seven years with horses – different situation all around than if you’re in living in Gillette, Casper, Cheyenne where it’s not mountainous. Where are you moving to?

[jazz8899]

I can honestly say I was never snowed in and I was usually only driving a two wheel drive car. I think living there gives you a different mind set cause you WILL get out if you want to. Unless of course you want to stay put, that’s fine too. I would always go out and about like normal and most people did despite the weather. The county did sometimes say emergency travel only, which usually only happened if it did a snow, melt, ice rain, freeze combination, hardly ever, and only for a bit til they salted and plowed the main roads. I always drove on the roads than anyway because of the horses.

I only had a problem driving the car once, I bottomed out when I was trying to gun the car over a snow drift when 3 ft had fallen the previous night. All four tires where just hanging in the air. Someone had to push me.

[atr]

Big place, Wyoming… Whereabouts? I’m in the mountains of Utah, about 50 miles from the Wyoming border. We get lots of snow and winter weather, but the sun comes out, and it’s lovely.

Barefoot if at all possible in the snow. If you must do shoes, then you will need to do pads and studs or borium. Blanketing will depend on the horse, but I expect you will need to do so if moving from Florida.

Yes, it’s the hands and feet that suffer the most in the cold. Dress in layers, wear appropriate winter boots, and decent gloves.

[csaper58]

@Wapiti Rider

Hey ya’ll,

Come spring my husband and I are moving from Florida to Wyoming with my Quarter Horse.
We plan on doing a lot of back country riding, but I have never lived in snow and neither has my horse.

Do I need to shoe my horse or will boots work for him?

Do you shoe your horse all year long or just during seasons when we are riding?

How do you keep your horse warm during winter?

How do you stay warm riding during winter?

What other information should I know to make this moving process easier? What other winter care tips?

Thank you!

Spring in Florida or spring on Wyoming? Not the same thing or the same time of year.

Your horse’s feet, will determine his hoof care needs.

Be very judicious about riding in the hill/mountains at first. Your horse has grown up on flat land, and his tendons and muscles are not adapted to ground at an angle. Just walking and standing on inclined ground will be a strain to his body at first.

Ditto rocky ground instead of sand.

[Foxtrot_s]

All I know about Wyoming is from the books “My Friend Flicka”, “Thunderhead” and “The green grass of Wyoming”.
So cant help you, but it looks lovely!

[RMJacobs]

I agree with everyone who said to keep your horse barefoot if possible. They get much better traction that way.

I wish my horse could donate the winter coat he is currently growing (and growing and growing) to your horse. I recently did the opposite type of move: Colorado to South Carolina. My pony hasn’t gotten the message that he doesn’t need that huge double coat this winter. I am going to have to buy some clippers and learn to use them. Never had to do that in Colorado!

Rebecca

[saddleup]

When I moved from California to a snowy climate my horse didn’t grow a winter coat, so I blanketed him. After that first year he grew one, so I stopped. I did always blanket my older horse to help him keep his weight through the winter. When I have a horse in training over the winter I blanket him and keep him under lights so I don’t have to deal with a heavy winter coat.

I have had horses whose shoes I’ve pulled in the winter, and ones I didn’t. Depended on their feet. If they remain shod I have snow pads put on their front feet, and generally leave them barefoot behind. But if they’re in full training through the winter I leave their shoes on unless they have great, hard feet. I’ve only ever had one horse who was barefoot year round.

My horses always have shelter available, and I feed their hay in slow feed hay bags so they basically have hay available most of the time. They have a lovely barn with 24/7 access, but generally prefer to stay outside. Used to drive me nuts, but not anymore. If it’s windy and snowing horizontally they’ll usually, but not always, choose to come inside.

[Scribbler]

Horses actually do better in cold and dry, than in hot and wet, once they adapt. It’s probably harder for the humans!

[Mukluk]

Wyoming is a beautiful state. I lived in Laramie for many years but that was during my over 20 year hiatus from horses. Being a poor graduate student, there was no way I could afford a horse. It can be very windy there and the weather can change very quickly. Hope you and your horse have a great time.

[Fillabeana]

Horse advice has been good so far…

As for keeping yourself warm, I always have lots of handwarmers from Costco.
And good underlayers… Merino wool is your friend.
I also use windproof winter breeches as an underlayer. I wear my Fuzzy Britches all winter long. Under jeans if I ride, under Carrhart coveralls to work in.