We asked our online community to share their favorite cold weather and winter hacks to make life with horses easier, here’s what they said:

  • Using a sled to haul my manure buckets when cleaning pens in the snow/mud.
  • Metal-infused liner inside leather three-finger mittens. Hands stay dry, even when fishing ice from the trough.
  • Wear latex gloves under your normal gloves for extra warmth retention.
  • WD-40 on snaps for gates, it keeps them from freezing!
  • Toe warmers in my boots!
  • Mostly fill a large empty plastic bottle (the 2 liter soda bottles work really well) with super salty water and stick it in their water tank, lid side down. You don’t want to completely fill the bottle, you want a couple inches to stick up above the water. A lot of horses will quickly figure out they can push the bottle down when they want a drink when their tank is frozen over. The salt water inside the bottle won’t freeze, so the bottle doesn’t burst.
  • Heated vests, jackets gloves etc can be found quite cheap on Amazon and are game changers.
  • Put extra (full) water buckets in a heated tack room or garage. Then, when it’s -15 degrees and your water spigot breaks you have backup water!
  • Use heated water buckets and try to keep them within reach of a hose that can be fully drained and disconnected between uses so it doesn’t freeze.
  • Wool socks 24/7. Wear thin gloves under mittens. Loft = warmth. Barefoot horses pack less snow into their feet than shod horses.
  • Stick your hands under your horse’s blanket to warm up your fingers 🤣🤣.
  • Go to Bass Pro and purchase a pair of fleece-lined neoprene ice fishing gloves!! The ones without the slits cut in the fingers for baiting your hook. You can easily clean all of your buckets and troughs in the winter, and pull any chunks of ice out of frozen troughs. Your hands will stay both warm and dry! I’ve been known to keep mine on even for stall cleaning. They are a must-have in my book!!
  • Hand warmers are a lifesaver for me, and I place them directly in the palm of my hand in my gloves so I can wrap my fingers around them when my finger tips start to get too cold. However, it can get expensive and wasteful to use a pair for only a couple of hours and then have them cold by the time I need them again. I found that I can place them in Ziplock baggies, remove any extra air, and seal it to make them go dormant between uses. Just reopen about 15-min before you need them, and they will be warm again. I can get about the full eight hours of longevity out of one pair and have had a pair last over a week using this trick.

To read all the comments or to join in the conversation, visit our group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/coloradohorse/permalink/735463097104112

One of the most fun tips was:

Singing while I work. 🤣 To the tune of “My favorite things…” by Alice Pierce

🎶 Eight layers of barn clothes and useless wet mittens
The idiot barn-cat decides to have kittens
Blizzards on horse farms, the joy that they bring
These are a few of my least favorite things

Crap covered ponies and ice covered pasture
Results in a face-plant it could be a fracture
Phone calls to jerk-friends who have indoor rings
These are a few of my least favorite things.

Employees are no shows as soon as the schools close.
Wielding an axe because all of your troughs froze
Machines that won’t start, is that mare col-ick-ing?
These are a few of my least favorite things

The mare is just hangry, you’re late with her bran-mash
Your life has become just a winter-long car crash
That groundhog’s a liar, when will it be spring?
These are a few of my least favorite things.

Hooves with snowballs. Frozen feed bags. That pony don’t care if you’re sad.
Regardless of weather they’ll need calories. There’s no point in feeling bad. 🎶

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