Conference noted::equitation

Sorry, but someone has to do it.  :-)

My wife has been riding twice a week;  some days have been 60+ here in Colorado,
and the ground's mostly bare.  The weather reminds me of a very cold fall.

                             Roak

Don't worry, before the winter's over I'm sure you'll be able to rub our noses
in some great back-East weather!

    We just moved up on a *mountain* and are trying to prepare the
    barn for my mare.  My SO actually put in a post and rail fence
    during the past several weeks!  Now we have to fix part of
    the barn roof before we can bring her up.  That is, if we
    can figure out how to get her up the 2/3 mile road to the
    barn in all this snow & ice!  
    
    It will be nice to have her with us, though, and not have
    to drive to the stable in this weather.
    
    beth
    

    
    Oh, so Roger (Roak) wants to brag about weather.  
    
    I have been riding every day this week in order to take advantage of 
    the nice sunshine and warms temps before those of us here in 
    Colorado get to make the national news about blizzards here. 
    
    I empathize with the folks back East.  My horse's breeder is in 
    northern Virginia.  And they have a really hard dealing with the 
    snow and ice--they just don't have all the equipment necessary like
    the folks in the north who are used to snow and ice. 
    
    Mary Jo 

    Ride?  What is that?  
    
    A few summers ago, we divided our turnout into two sections by building
    a 4 foot high fence across the middle. I can see the tops of the posts 
    sticking out of the snow.  I am assuming there are rails in there, 
    somewhere.
    
    My pony can't see over the banks of the path I've had to shovel out to
    the manure pile.  And our trailer, being parked near the end of our
    'barn' driveway (which is not plowed) is a mere small rise in the
    landscape formed by the passing town plows.  
    
    I'd ride, but with storms coming in at the rate of 3 per week, I cant
    stop shoveling long enough.  :-(
    
    
    

    
    	The last time I rode was Dec 27th, the day they got borium. :(
    
    	We have our ring cleared out with a front end loader, to the 
    	tune of $85 every time it snows! We now have a snow MOUNTAIN in
    	the middle of the ring and the kids have dug an igloo in the 
    	middle that holds ten people [aka, how to scare the crap out of
    	your horse, or someone else's horse, which is even better]. :)
    	The horses just can't figure out what those legs are sticking out
    	of the igloo opening, and what they belong to! [no, we don't
    	_really_ scare them, once was enough]. 
    
    	Sherry

    Winters like the one you are having in New England is one of the main
    reasons we moved! I'm getting too old (as are my horses; the youngest
    is now 20! ;-) to stop riding for the 4 or 5 months that the ground is
    snow covered in New Hampshire.
    
    Winters here in Washington state are dark and drizzly but the ground
    rarely freezes and snow is unusual. When we first got here, we were
    supposee to go to a friend's house one day. It started a few flurries
    and our friend called to tell us about the weather in case we wanted to
    cancel. We laughed at the time but now we've turned into real weather
    wimps! Cold and snowy weather is a thing of our past, thankfully! We
    don't go out in the snow anymore because the people here are too
    dangerous! They don't know how to handle the stuff at all. And there's
    no snow plows and very few sand trucks... I'll take the rain and wind
    storms over snow any day.
    
    Well, I'm done rubbing it in so I guess I 'll go rub a horse. It's
    raining too hard to ride(No indoor arena)...
    
    John

A mare from a neighboring pasture got through the fence this weekend and, with
nothing better to do, kicked the daylights out of my poor, defenseless critter. 
She got him twice behind and, worst of all, on his right front before the barn
manager was able to rescue him.  Fortunately the front leg injury is several
inches above the knee and nothing seems broken, but he is one VERY sore puppy
and the mare's borium shoes gouged his leg (so we'll have another scar to
remember this latest incident by).

    Not being a native New Englander I never learned to stay indoors in the
    winter now that I live here. After the snowstorm in December I hitched
    my horse to my sleigh and took my fellow boarders jingling through the
    neighbourhood (Hollis, N.H.). I spent Christmas and the New Year
    holiday in England and came back to all that had accumulated over that
    time, 20 inches on my driveway and a four foot barricade that the town
    had thoughtfully provided at the end of it. Having taken most of the
    weekend to clear it I went for a ride yesterday afternoon. 

    I pointed my horse at the snow bank at the side of the road. When he
    was in it up to his belly there was a short pause while he figured out
    how to get all the way through which he did by jumping his back legs
    over the pile. From there on the snow wasn't too deep for him so I took
    a short ride through the woods to a neighbour's driveway. My horse
    isn't very fit so I did not ride him for long and we retraced our path 
    back to the barn.

    I'm fortunate to have an indoor arena to ride in, but who wants to
    ride indoors with all these buildings collapsing!
    
    My horse thinks he's blind and wants to go back to Missouri.  It is
    always either snowing in his eyes or when you open the barn doors he's
    blinded by all the white...
    
    I really get a kick out of the mini's with mini-fencing who can walk
    right up the snow and over the fence to go a visitin!
    
    Karen
    

    Well, I actually DID get to ride this weekend, after all!  Not far,
    just our old 5 mile, dirt roads loop.  It's a nice ride, though, with
    hills so we had to work a little at least.  Plympy was very happy to
    get out, and barely stood still for me to crawl on - I rode bareback
    - much warmer! - once I was up she was off like a rocket.  We went out
    both Sat and Sun - let's hope next weekend is a repeat!  It was great
    to remember WHY I am carrying water buckets, shoveling snow, and paying
    for boriums!
    
    

    
    We have found for horses having trouble with being 'snow' blind, that
    those nice Farnum fly masks we use in the summer work somewhat to 
    help the snow blindness in winter.

    
    Winter happiness is......
    
    scrapping frozen manure out of the wheel barrow
    
    dragging heavy, wet, frozen blankets in the house to dry
    
    getting lucky and getting hay on a day that it's not snowing
    
    swinging my arms like a helicopter to get feeling back into my fingers
    
    shoveling to the barn and to the manure pile every 3-4 days
    
    
    Anyone care to add to this?
    
    Tina
    
    

    I can add to this list...
    
    - walking 200 feet uphill with water buckets (hydrant froze)
    - cleaning hay out of bathtub (from filling water buckets)
    - chasing loose 10 hand pony who can now walk over a 5 ft fence
    
    Actually, it's not so bad - I'm boarding Dexter at an
    indoor for the winter and can ride regularly.
    
    - Janice
    
    

    
    our barn is very old and was not designed by an equine lover.  Our barn
    door is on the out-side of the barn.  So every day the door is frozen
    shut or frozen open and we have to bang and bang and kick to get it
    loose - I broke the door yesterday trying to shut it.  You can put down
    the salt to melt the ice, but it does not work quick enought and the
    very next morning, it's frozen again!
    
    Our water is also frozen from the pump.  We have to haul our water from
    the house and down the icy path.
    
    We allwasy buy enought hay to get us though the winter, so no problem
    there.  :-)
    
    I have taken up stock in the "hot-hands" company.  I don't leave for
    the barn w/out "hot-hands" in my gloves and boots.
    
    --
    

    Its been so warm here that I'm worried about the horses 
    shedding out too early. 
    The horses are hidding in the shade of the barn to stay out of the
    heat.
    My feet are warm in my cowboy boots.
    I forgot my gloves when I went to feed and did not care.
    Been putting on sun block before a ride.
    Blankets are neatly folded in the tack room.
    
    Oh Colorado has been nice so far this Winter!
    
    Carl

Well I decided to do a partial lease of a horse at a barn with
an indoor ring. I've been riding about 4 times a week since mid
November. So far I've been lucky - I haven't been in the
ring during a major snow avalanche.  I don't really mind the 
snow as much as the cold. I hate it when it goes below about
25. Of course it takes me about twice as long as normal to do 
things. I used to be able to groom and tack up in about a 1/2 hr.
Dealing with both the snow and the cold means it takes me almost
a full hour. I have the lease until mid April or so. Then I'll 
probably have to go back to riding once a week. Someday I'll get 
this right and lease a horse when it's actually pleasant riding 
weather.


diane (who always seems to end up leasing horses in the winter) 

Did everyone enjoy Friday's special rainstorm melting about 2 1/2 feet
of snow all at once?  Did ya try to push the wheelbarrel through that one?

The streets looked like rapids!

Karen

    I live in Harvard and I've been riding mostly every weekend, except for
    maybe 2 weekends.  Mostly we ride to Bowers Springs in Bolton/Harvard,
    which are trails marked and are used by others, including cross country
    skiers.
    
    Well, in the Harvard Post, was a letter to the editor asking that the
    horses keep off the cross country skiers tracks/trails, that we mess
    up their neat trails.
    
    Well, I replied, that the Bowers Springs are Conservation land and that
    everyone has the right to use them.  I'm sending it in to the Post to 
    be published next week.
    
    That got me so mad, it's hard enough for us to find trails that we can
    go on in this deep snow, and then have some, that doesn't even live in
    Harvard/Bolton, ask us not to use them.
    
    I've also riden on a dirt road this winter that gets plowed and thats a
    really nice road, no traffic and its nice and relaxing and it gets the
    horses at least some excercise.
    
    I plan to ride as much this weekend as possible, before the next snow
    fall, which we will no doubt get.
    
    Anyway, sorry for complaining in this note, but it really got me mad.
    
    Brenda
    

    Re: .19
    
    Not knowing the exact circumstances in Harvard I can't comment on this
    particular situation. However, whenever I come across cross country ski
    tracks while I am out riding in the snow I try to avoid trampling on
    them by riding on the opposite edge of the trail. This is not always
    possible but leaving the ski tracks intact is important to cross
    country skiers, who may only have a few days to use these trails
    (depending on snow conditions) each year.
    
    Such an approach will satisfy most trail skiers. I always stop and chat
    with them when I meet them on the trail. There will always be a few who
    want to "own" the trails, but fortunately I haven't come across any.

    I too, can understand the skiers point.  The very nature of horse
    hooves in snow tends to reek havoc to a path, particularly with the
    slightly warmer than normal temps we've been having.  The skiers'
    trail is not simply 'nice and neat', the holes made by horses can
    make their sport quiet difficult, and it there aren't a lot of
    snowmobiles coming along to help flatten the path down again, it can
    get to be a real mess.  Their sentiment is probably something similar
    to how horse riders feel when ORV's tear up trails in the summer.
    
    Staying to one side or the other of the path is very considerate, and I
    am sure most skiers would be happy to share the trails with horses if
    this was/is the norm.  I personally only ride in the woods in winter in
    areas where skiing is not dominant, and when I do see them, I move off
    the path and let them pass.  Same with snowmobilers.  Face it - we
    on horseback have a far longer period each year when we have access to
    the woods - all spring, summer, and fall we are pretty much other there
    by ourselves (with hikers and mt bikers).  Skiers, snowmobilers, and
    hunters all have relatively limited timeframes to enjoy their sport in
    - and we all have to share the trails peacefully if they are to
    be preserved and available to everyone.
                          

    The trails in Bowers Springs have been open for as long as I can
    remember to horses.  They are conservation trails that are open to 
    the public.  I rode on them for almost 15 years (until I moved to 
    Colorado 6 years ago) and regularly took my horses swimming in the 
    ponds during the summer.  They aren't open to motorized vehicles but 
    are open to all foot/horse/bicycle traffic.  They are not and have 
    never been skiiers trails.  
    
    I don't mind sharing the trails but it really makes me mad when one
    set of folks want to prevent others from using an area that they 
    consider theirs.  The bicyclists have also complained about the horses
    using those trails and the horse folks were there LONG before either
    of those two sets of folks.  I can't see why folks just can't share - 
    there is always some group that wants to prevent other groups from
    using what they consider "their" property!  Got tossed once when
    my dog took exception to other folks using "his" property and chased
    their dog right under my horses front feet! So I can't say I haven't 
    been associated with the guilty parties either! ;-)!!!!
    
    I ski too and would love to run across horses on the trails (not 
    literally mind you! ;-) just to see other folks enjoying them.  It is 
    a really pretty area and gorgeous trails.  If you come out the end
    of the road from Bowers Springs and go diagnally up to East Bare Hill
    road and then cut off to the left on a very faint trail (it used to
    be semi blocked with boulders so motorized vehicles couldn't get 
    through) there are miles and miles of trails to ride on.  I used to
    take my horse and dog and be gone for hours.  Somewhere down in there
    there are a bunch of little shacks that local kids have built as 
    their hide-outs and an old junk dump.  
    
    I miss riding down in there. 
    
    \Caroline
    (Who also used to be a Baer. :-)