Is your driving limited with the cold weather?

[CZP1]

I live in NC and we have had some really nice days lately to drive. Was in the 60's today. Sunny and the perfect weather. I didn't drive because I had too many things to do. It is hunting season too, so can't go out on our usual trail so would have to trailer in to a friends farm to drive that has a great ring and lots of trails where no hunting is allowed.

My question: Do you drive when it is really cold out (40 degrees) I know that isn't cold to everyone (I am originally from NY and we rode in the indoor ring when it was -12 outside). Do you put a half-sheet on your horse to slowly warm them up and do you do a special clip to help cool them off faster with all their winter coat. I have my horse clipped under the belly where the girth goes, in-between the front legs and up the front of the neck to the face. He still looks like a little yak but is still warm enough with that little of a clip that he doesn't need a blanket on. He is stalled at night.

As I look back at what I have written and rambling on......What do you do to keep you and your horse fit during the cold winter months?

Thanks for letting me ramble.....

 

[rbrown]

I'm from WI, so everyone here on the east coast gives me a hard time for being cold at any temp below 45! I really hate the cold, but my horses much prefer winter temps to the hot, humid summers, so they love to work in this weather. I've been driving Kandy 4-5 days a week, and Skippy gets used about 3 times a week. I don't clip them because I board (the barn is 45 min from my house and the barn owners don't change blankets), and the girls aren't stalled at night. They get pretty sweaty when it's above 45 or so and they get a decent workout. When it's cold enough that I don't want to put them away when they're still a little damp, I just don't work them for long

They take FOREVER to dry with their yak coats!

I will probably give them a break when snow starts accumulating, since I hate the cold and the footing on the trails (where we primarily drive) will be too slippery (although when I had the horses at home in WI, we drove Kandy just about every day, in every kind of awful winter weather, and loved it!). It's getting tough for me to work them as often as I do anyway- by the time I get to the barn after teaching, I only half about an hour of daylight. As soon as it starts warming up in the spring, I'll be giving them trace clips and putting them back into work!!

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I don't as a rule drive my horses once winter sets in. It is far too cold here to do any kind of clip and feel happy about it and their stalls are no warmer than out side (just dry and wind free). They all get winter off to just hang out and be horses. They do spend a great deal of their day playing together and walking/ running in their large dry lot, that keeps them fit enough to be happy. In the spring I will start slow with light work and gradually rebuild their fitness levels.

 

[Kendra]

I don't drive in the winter. My best driving horse came up lame one March and never truly recovered (he is driving again after 6 years off), and the vet figured he'd slipped on ice and hurt his SI joint - and he was just out on pasture. I couldn't live with myself if one of my horses was hurt because I wanted to drive when the footing was questionable. So yeah, I don't drive if there's any snow on the ground, at all, but that's just my personal paranoia. If I'm going to do some winter work, I do it in my small indoor area (not big enough to drive), and I never work them enough to work up a sweat. More mental exercises than physical.

Our horses winter out on a huge (1/4 section) pasture, and I believe they're in better shape when they come in that I could have hoped to get them by working through the winter anyway! They put on a lot of miles coming to and from the yard for water, and have lots of fun ripping around, being horses.

 

[Renolizzie]

This will be my first winter with my little guy. I'm like the OP. It has been nice enough to drive at least some days. We get a lot of wind out here so no driving on those days. BUT I've been so busy and I am too tired to move some days. I have been taking him for little walks, brushing him out every so often, cleaning his feet and not driving.

I am afraid to clip him at all since we have some winters that are appallingly cold. So far it has been nice but we have had it to -10 or -18 on rare occasions. About every 5 years. He doesn't have a barn. He has a three sided shed.

He certainly is adorable in long winter coat. I think it is still growing longer!!!

 

[happy appy]

This is my first year with minis to drive so I'm not sure how it's going to work out yet. Right now I am driving and ground driving/training 4.Depending on footing I hope to do something with them all winter. I don't mind the cold as much as I mind the heat. Skijoring looks like something I could get into though. I have a couple minis that would be up for that I think.

 

[dreamlandnh]

Living here in New England (New Hampshire) yes the cold weather does play into our driving. With the snow on the roads we do not go out on them as the snowbanks make the roads even narrower. We only drive around in our field, thankfully it is huge and flat. We then look at the conditions of the snow (if we have any) and if there is the crusty snow no driving is done so not to cut the horses legs up. Basically when went comes the horses get to be hay burners and just be a horse. Also, we don't clip other than a bridlepath for the bridle to fit better. Our boys are out each day and inside a barn each night.

But when we do get the right conditions it is alot of fun, there is another post here in the Driving thread with pictures of sledding with horses

 

[Rhondaalaska]

We are not training in the winter. With the snow and ice I don't want to take a chance. My little mare slipped when we got our first ice/ snow storm and was hurt for a couple of weeks. And that was in her own padock , So I am just letting her be fat and happy for the winter. When spring comes in may than I will go back to training. We are to cold to chance over heating. So she will get 7 months off to just be sassy .

 

[Marsha Cassada]

We get lots of nice weather during the winter here so the only thing that stops me is wind. Or an ice storm. I probably should do a trace clip, but we are not driving fast and furious, just trotting. So even if he gets a little sweaty he just rolls and seems to be fine.

 

[shalakominiatureshowhorses]

Here in Texas, our weather is CRAZY! One night, its 50, then its like 36! I dont drive on weekdays because of school, but on the weekends i drive when its the warmest. The only thing that bothers me is the wind. Last year I was driving against the wind, and it just felt like it was tearing at my face! It hurt. But, now I wear scarf covering my face that goes over my helmet. My friend said I looked stupid, but I'd rather look stupid that freeze my face off. As for the horses, they were shaved in October, so their coats havent grown in yet, so i drive when its warmer. But, even though im lightly working them, they get to eat as much as they want (well, not really)! Ive been giving them hay with the alfalfa so they can warm up at night. And they are stalled and blankedted(?) 40 or below.

 

[Jules]

No, not limited by the cold buuuut am extremely limited by the heat!

It is a day away from Summer here and the temperature is 107F....the sun is beating down mercilessly and I feel like I need a bag of IV fluids to keep hydrated, so my dear pony is currently under the shade of a fig tree with a water sprinkler misting him with water. I want to drive - waaaahhhhhh.

 

[Katiean]

I don't drive in the cold weather because I am a cold weather sissy.

 

[Minimor]

We don't do any driving in the winter. We used to drive the Morgans on a sleigh once in awhile but don't with the minis and ponies. It is so rare for us to have the right snow conditions--usually there is too much snow or too little or it is icy. This year we have meted down snow with a hard crust on top so the footing is horrible, and now freezing raid has added a layer of ice on top. Our winter temps can drop down to -40 so there is no way I am doing anything with horses in that. It does them no harm to just hang out and be horses for the winter.

 

[hobbyhorse23]

I usually gave the kids time off in late September/October after a busy show season then started doing some light recreational driving again as the holidays neared but our biggest problem in Washington was rain, not cold. It's hard to harness a perpetually soaked pony! The weather and daylight dictated how often I got out. This last year I was laid off so we did a lot of training and exercise in Feb/March but the weather stayed awful through early July so I basically skipped our whole show season in disgust. That meant when the weather finally got nice in August I wanted to be all about driving, but by then I was busy prepping for our move to California! Now that we're down here we went crazy driving as long as the good weather lasted and I had to clip the boys as they were haired up for a northern winter and it was 90 degrees the day we arrived. I ended up with the same clip on Kody that the OP did plus a strip down the belly and up between the hind legs with a long blade when doing only the girth area didn't give him enough ventilation. Turbo tends to think he's freezing in anything but a full coat so I only clipped his chest with a 7F and a tiny snippet of girth, belly, and groin when he was still sweating terribly during turnout. That seems to have done the trick as neither now gets that matted-down sweaty look when they run around and any dampness on their chests dries quickly but they're still comfortable even in a cold wind. We're in the middle of a nasty series of storms in Northern California right now but when they end I plan to go back to driving as often as I can as it's a welcome break for them to get out of that small paddock and they love it. Christmas parade next weekend, yeah!

Leia