Weekend Link RoundUp: Winter Riding - Don’t forget the chisel!

Winter has finally arrived in California.  For much of the country, winter means cold and ice, but out here in the San Francisco Area, it just means rain, rain and more rain.   When I lived in Sweden for a few years, my California winters left me completely unprepared for dealing with ice and snow.

Imagine my shock when, as I prepared to go on my first snow-filled winter ride, my barn manager handed me a small hammer and chisel saying “oh! Don’t forget these! You’re going to need them!”.  As I sat scratching my head with a befuddled look on my face she tried to explain by adding “For the snowballs of course!”

This raised some very concerning questions in my mind - Was I going to be using them to bat away snowballs thrown at me by pedestrians as I rode by.  Why were people going to be pegging snowballs at me and my poor horse? Was this some ancient Swedish tradition? Couldn’t I have a tennis racket instead of a chisel?  

Turns out, when you walk a horse through snow, it gathers in their shoes in these ginormous balls so that after only a few minutes of walking, your horse is wobbling around on snow stilts. Barring a portable, battery operated hair dryer, the only effective tool for removing these stilts is a chisel and it’s accompanying hammer.  You can put special shoes on them or vaseline on the bottoms of their feet but for going out in the snow before you can get the farrier out or find a thing of vaseline, don’t forget your hammer and chisel!   

In honor of winter finally arriving, here are some great links for tips on real winter riding and horsecare:

Winter Riding Tips
Maintain A Winter Riding Program
When to Blanket Your Horse
Managing and Preventing Winter Skin and Respiratory Conditions

Happy Riding!