As winter blankets the landscape in a glistening layer of frost, us Colorado equestrians face the challenge of maintaining rideable outdoor arenas.

Our favorite winter arena hack is to use a landscape rake on the back of our tractor to breakup and fluff the snow. This allows that wonderful Colorado sunshine to be more effective at heating the footing and melting the snow in a much faster timeframe than if you left it alone. Be sure to have the rake skim the surface of the footing (and not dig in), as the footing might be frozen under the snow.

You might need to repeat this a couple of days later to breakup the rest of the snow and allow the last remaining chunks of snow to finish melting in a faster manner – like the video below!

If you have some other favorite tips, be sure to drop them in the comments!