LOL I think you meant “not a good idea”… but yes, they have shelter from the wind if they need/want it.
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You can blame me. For the last few years, we’ve had relatively mild winters, and throughout our awful buggy summers, I have said (loudly and often) that I wished for two continuous weeks in the winter where the ground was frozen solid, so that the bugs would die.
I acknowledge that I got my wish.
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No, I meant it the way I wrote it. Forcing them to stay out of the wind is not a bad idea when it’s wicked cold, if they don’t have a windbreak they will actually use.
I take this blame as well, but only partially. My request was “bitter cold with no snow on the ground to insulate the little bastards.”
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That is one small blessing coming out of this winter, if we get fewer ticks this year I’d be thrilled.
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I’m not ready. I ordered my goats new blankets and fingers crossed they will arrive before single digits.
Pony is fine. He has warm blankets. I did order a 500 gram stable blanket for my horse with no hair. Seriously everyone thinks he’s body clipped.
Keeping water unfrozen is the problem. Even with a heater it freezes up at night. Contemplating using a cooler for water.
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What heater are you using on what sized trough? I can keep a full 100 gallon trough without ANY ice on it - I have a 1500W heater on mine, and the trough is near but not right up against the barn.
Can you cover it at night? Or cover most of it and leave a head sized hole?
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and mosquitos
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It’s a small heater, I only have issues 3-4 days a year so haven’t prioritized upgrading when I take out warm water 4x a day already.
Pony could easily break a hole in it, he just waits on warm water in the morning.
If I cover it the goats won’t use it, but they drink out of coolers at least in the summer.
Pony drinks around 8 gallons a day of warm water that I bring out, plus what’s in his soaked food. The water has a layer of ice for 3-4 hours a night before I go out and add hot water at 6:00 AM
It’s not as bad as it could be, just frustrating.
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I’m strategizing how to keep my dry lot having traction given the snow/ice and the severe drop in temps coming. It’s not going to be above freezing for the next week.
My plan since I forgot to get a load of screenings for winter spot help is to take sand with mag chloride (from my indoor) and create a layer of traction. Do not want my horses standing in my barn for a week. Luckily I’ve got a tractor and FEL. Theory is just the finest, thinnest layer will get us some.
Ya think?
Interesting opinion. Because my thought process would be that if the horse is choosing NOT to use the windbreak, then they aren’t cold.
Nothing wrong with putting food in shelters and by windbreaks and such, but I guess if the horse voluntarily chooses to stand out in the wind, I don’t see a problem with that. Now, if you have a bossy horse that chases the other horses away from the windbreak and they are cold as a result, well, that’s an entirely different problem with herd dynamics.
If we do not have much snow, my horses will voluntarily go stand out in the wind and graze, even when it’s -20 * F. They prefer to graze on the dead grass in my pasture, than to eat the dead grass from the haybale (most of the time). So they go out.
And yes, of course, this is regional as the definition of “cold” is going to vary greatly for different areas of the country.
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Play sand might be cheaper at Lowe’s or Home Depot rather than borrowing expensive indoor footing.
I use barn lime and it works well.
Yes. Bagged ground limestone is even better though. It will get a (notorious for getting stuck if someone so much as says the word ice) milk truck out without having to get the tractor out of the shed … most times.
Not all horses are that smrt. Not all herds have the right dynamics to allow all to shelter at once.
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Appreciate and great ideas of the lime powder, bagged sand and bagged ground limestone. It was pretty easy to skim off some sand and go out and scatter and fingers crossed my kids can stay out and move around more over the next week.
There are gonna be so many emergency room visits with the freeze coming after all the snow and slush.
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that would have been our son’s POA, beautiful pony but every day was as thought nothing had been learned before, took us five years to feel comfortable to sell him. He went to a property developer who was developing an equine development. Pony was put in the first lot as a beauty point… he was a red roan his pasture mate was blue roan …they were pretty together
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That’s almost literally what I said. Put the food by the windbreaks, but if they’re committed enough to go stand out in it for whatever reason, fine.
I try to exercise myself right before I go out in the morning to feed and clean stalls. Getting my blood circulating and body warmed up really helps my hands stay warmer for longer. I also break up chores into smaller pieces and go out more frequently for shorter periods of time.
I do get tired of it taking 10 minutes to put all my layers on. And my shoulders get sore from the weight of carrying all those extra layers. Hanging from the top of a door helps stretch my upper body out.
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