I wait until it thaws. Hopefully it will be a short 4-5 months.
In the winter, I usually only pick up manure in the shelter. That does freeze solid as well (we have already been dealing with COLD – the high temp today was 0F) but there are shavings in the shelter so they don’t freeze to the ground. I couldn’t be bothered trying to chip away at every pile in the paddock.
[QUOTE=Wayne;7309892]
i’ve used an ice chopper. The one with a long ( 4 or more feet) wooden or fiberglass handle and a steel blade. If you can get under the piles it can loosen it enough to break it free.[/QUOTE]
This is what I use too.
[QUOTE=emilia;7309881]
Mosey, kicking hurts my toe. 
I need to invest in steel toe winter boots. Does anything like that even exist? :)[/QUOTE]
No to steel toed shoes! Never around livestock. God forbid if a horse steps on your toes… The steel would crush and stay crushed on your toes. Dangerous.
This whole thread had me laughing!
[QUOTE=Linz Rae;7311010]
This whole thread had me laughing![/QUOTE]
Why?
[QUOTE=Manahmanah;7309926]
They do sell metal pitchforks with close tines just like the plastic ones, you know.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/little-giantreg%3B-metal-durafork?cm_vc=-10005[/QUOTE]
tried one of these and the tines bent really easily. Made cleaning stalls really hard as the bent tines kept catching.
Coal shovel, pitchfork, boots (for kicking), wait for the sun to come out…
I feel your pain. I am obsessive and pick paddocks every. single. day. To look out and see frozen poop makes me nuts. I’ve started taking little walks around during the day and creating piles that I can come back to when it’s easier to get it. My husband and I worked yesterday on the piles instead of going to the gym. : )
Break the poop balls loose with instrument of choice. I use a HEAVY 7 or 8 tine pitchfork, which I also use when stripping stalls. It’s tines are thick and stout and do not bend. Once the manure is broke loos from the frozen ground I go back with a narrow shrub rake and rake the frozen manure into an upright dustpan. The dustpan is wide and deep and has a long handle. It will sit upright on the ground and the poop balls can be RAKED into the pan and lifted to the wheelbarrow. You’ve all seen these upright dust or debris pans used in parking lots and sidewalks. Frozen manure rakes easily. You can even rake it onto your plastic manure fork but the debris pan is easier and faster. An the pan works well for sweeping up barn aisles.
http://www.amazon.com/Quickie-Jumbo-Debris-Dust-Handle/dp/B005WI2P0S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387031406&sr=8-1&keywords=debris+dustpan+handle
chicamuxen
Thank you, all, again for your input.
I know the close-tine metal pitchfork and, as others have pointed out, it bends for me, too. Therefore, I prefer the plastic and then the sturdy metal ones.
I am going to consider the pan, chicamuxen, especially, since it seems wider and deeper than a shovel.
The temperatures eased off a bit, I could get most of our horses’ nightly offerings out without much hassle today.
Still, I cannot wait, when all snow is melted and I will be able to clean and rake and make everything smooth and pristine again.
Everyone out there fighting elements- Good Luck to you! 
Tractor with front end loader.
[QUOTE=airhorse;7311274]
Tractor with front end loader.[/QUOTE]
Great idea. We have one of those. Already used it for the driveway.
We do not have that many big horses though to justify driving a tractor in every morning (I have to clean daily).
Picking up the minipoop with a bucket might be a little bit of an overkill. :lol:
[QUOTE=fivehorses;7311003]
No to steel toed shoes! Never around livestock. God forbid if a horse steps on your toes… The steel would crush and stay crushed on your toes. Dangerous.[/QUOTE]
This is so ridiculous, and untrue.
Dynamite? (Only partially kidding…)
I bust loose what I can with a heavy metal pitchfork and clean up with a plastic muck fork. The rest can wait until spring and the tractor.
Just leave the piles for you and the horses to trip over until it warms up :lol:
If you get a warm few days and things thaw a bit at some point over the winter, you can go out and pick it up then. Otherwise just hope the snow covers it so you don’t have to look at it 
I’m all out of sorts because I have some piles frozen hard in my paddock right now, and it annoys me to leave it there for now.
Don’t kick it with your toe, but often you can loosen it by thumping it with the heel of your boot. Works often for me.
And when it’s frozen solid I take the tractor out there. I use the york rake on it more than the FEL. Rake is faster, no aiming required, LOL! I just drop the rake and drive in a spiral around the main paddock. Pops all the poop loose. Then I can scoop it up.
It’s snowing like heck now, so covering the maybe 20 piles frozen to the ground in my paddock. I’ll be able to pick up any new ones easily from here because of the snow. But the ones under the snow may be there for a while because I wasn’t able to get out there and pop them loose before it started snowing.
And will continue to annoy me, LOL!
I second the vote for coal shovel. Works great and doubles as a snow shovel.
Re steel toes - yes, steel toe winter boots do exist. Muck Boot actually makes some. You can also get snowmobile style boots with steel toes. The thing about steel toes in the cold though, is that if the steel gets cold, you are completely screwed. I would only wear them in the cold if I had to for work, like if I was doing outdoor work like construction or logging or something.
I use a sledgehammer to loosen the piles and then scoop up with a plastic pitchfork.
I had one winter where I suffered from incredible heel pain. I never have issues with my feet hurting and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me.
Then it dawned on me that I was using my heel to loosen the frozen manure piles. I switched to using a sledgehammer shortly afterward!
Well, I tried the shovel technique mentioned on this thread, and it only worked on a few piles. So I got out the heavy artillery–the pickax! Worked like a charm.
Pick Axe
I do the paddock walk and knock loose the frozen piles with whichever end tool on the pickax it takes to get it free, then do the walk with the cart and a plastic fork to toss in the loose bits. If the snow is a bother then I used the snowmobile sled. EVERYbody helps. PatO
We had some sub zero temps last week so I helped out our poor stall/pen cleaner with my horse’s and my friend’s horse’s pens.
My implement of choice was a hoe. It worked a treat. So…one lap of the pen to knock everything loose then another lap with fork and wheelbarrow. My friend’s horse is a big draft cross and her poop is kind of juicy and there were a couple piles that I was not able to liberate with the hoe…so they stayed there. Even at that, it took me nearly an hour to clean 2 days worth of poop out of the 2 pens. I really dislike winter:(.
Susan
I use the bow rake like SuckerForHorses posted to loosen most piles. Then I pick it up with a metal tine rake like this http://www.farmandfleet.com/products/157147-agrimaster-bedding-and-manure-fork.html#.Uq5LcH_nbmw. Yes, it can catch on uneven frozen ground, but it does the job. The draft cross often leaves frozen turdpiles. Sometimes these can be kicked, but in the temps we’ve had, kicking would end in a trip to ER. We use an axe, or wait for a warmer day. I’m not sure how people can say to leave it. We’d be breaking horse and human legs trying to walk on all that frozen manure, and I’d have a horrific mess in the spring. As it is, it doesn’t all get picked up if it gets buried by snow before I get to it.
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