It comes around every year, you would have thought we’d be used to it, and yet as the cold and rain approach, grooms everywhere dread the inevitable arrival of winter.   The freezing temperatures, knee deep mud, dark nights (and mornings!) and fresh, stable bound horses are just some of the delights that can be expected.   It makes for an exhausting few months so it’s vital to find ways to make life easier and there are a number of tips and tricks that can help.

The first and foremost principle would be the old saying ‘work smarter not harder’.   This may sound cliché but there are lots of ways to make jobs easier and less time consuming.

For example, coating horses legs in pig oil and sulphur before turning out is amazing for preventing mud fever.   Therefore not only does it improve horse management but also saves you the time you would have spent treating mud fever or keeping horses in to prevent it.   Deep, wet mud runs straight off so it has the added bonus of keeping legs cleaner and is also great for hunting.   Similarly adding a few drops of tack oil to your soap saves lots of time down the line.   It feeds the tack a little each time it’s cleaned so you don’t end up with a pile of dry, stiff tack at the end of a wet week, which would be a time consuming job to oil and sort out.   Also if you don’t have the luxury of a drying rack/room, but horses are warm and dry under their wet turnout rugs leave them on for a couple of hours and their body heat will soon dry them for you.   Being aware of and adjusting feed in relation to turnout and workload is crucial to keeping horses sane and therefore making groom’s lives easier (and safer!).   If horses are staying in for an extended period of time be sure to cut down their hard feed or even feed a lower starch substitute and you’ll have happier and more manageable horses.   If the horses are on a hacking or lunging day, then swap bridles and rollers between horses to save time and tack cleaning.

The second key principle to surviving winter is to have good kit, which doesn’t necessarily mean expensive.   Don’t underestimate a woolly hat/headband and a neck warmer, all relatively inexpensive items that really will make a huge difference.   Equally a good pair of gloves will really help and whilst the name brand waterproof ones are great a pair of thermal, rubbery gardening gloves are a fraction of the price and do the same job.   Likewise, good thermals and over trousers will make an enormous difference.   Footwear is the last key area of clothing as cold wet feet should be avoided at all costs.   It’s an area that it is definitely worth spending the money and getting some neoprene lined wellies or thinsulate long boots.   Then last but by no means least, a bright head torch will make the ever shortening daylight hours seem less imposing and allow you to get on with your jobs, though be aware horses may be spooked by one at first sight!

Haynets are really handy, even if you prefer to feed from the floor.   Portions can be measured out for days or the week ahead, into the nets so that all you need to do is hang them up or empty out onto the floor.   This is also really handy if you are soaking or steaming hay as well, and makes them much easier to handle.   I use any spare 5 minutes i have through the day to fill a couple of nets up each time.   Putting hay out in the fields before turning out stops you getting trampled in the rush!, and keeps the horses settled, saving your fields.   Making hard feeds up the day/night before saves you time, means you don’t rush to do them at the end of the day.

To prevent the water troughs from freezing over in really cold weather, use a tennis ball or similar to keep the surface moving slightly.   If the weather is preventing you from riding, use the time to get the horses clipped and trimmed up.   If you can clip in a sheltered area it will save you and the yard getting covered in hair.   I always make sure i have a spare set of clothes if the weather is wet or i am clipping!

TOP TIP – Plan Your Day!

First thing in the morning, or even better last thing the night before, plan the day.   Make sure everyone knows which horses are going out, what exercise they’re all doing and whether you have any vets, farriers, physios or deliveries expected that day.   There’s nothing worse than the farrier turning up to shoe a horse that’s just been turned out.   It results if you having to trudge all the way back out to get him, at which point he no doubt decides he won’t be caught! You later have to apologise profusely to the farrier for keeping him waiting and the very muddy horse as well as totally unnecessarily wasting half an hour of your day.