Winter Gear Review

I've done some roundups of gear that gets me through the winter in the past (here's 2013 part 1 & part 2), and since this week we've officially hit spring (after snow flurries last Saturday, hahahaha, fuck you, weather), I thought I'd do a quick roundup of what worked really well for me this winter.

Breeches

First and best addition to the wardrobe: new winter breeches. I've been looking for a good pair of winter breeches for a long time; my old breeches were threadbare and wearing out fast.

That niche was admirably filled by the Noble Outfitters Softshell Riding Pants. These did absolutely everything I wanted them to: they held up to 5 days a week of riding, they were lined and warm, they cleaned up nicely, they came through the laundry just fine.

Gloves

In 2016, I spent a lot of time trying out gloves, both winter and summer. I had some abysmal failures, and some tentative success. This year, I'm happy to declare that the gloves I was happiest with in 2016 remained my favorites through 2017.

My absolute favorites were the SSG Fleece Knit Winter Riding Fleece-Lined gloves. They were warm enough and flexible enough to get me through. The caveat? They are not the sturdiest things. The second caveat? They're no longer made; I can't find the on the internet anywhere. Damn it all.

My runner up gloves, which were warm but not depths-of-winter warm, were the Equistar Ladies Fleece Winter Riding Gloves. Let's be honest: these are total junk. They have zero fancy upgrades, are not particularly stylish, and I honestly might be able to sew them myself given some thinking time. HOWEVER, with all of that? They're the best combination of warm, comfortable, and flexible that I found after the knit gloves, and at $5 a pair, I don't particularly care that they might not last more than two or three seasons. (For the record: my two pairs are still in totally fine condition after two seasons.)

Boots

My best-beloved and discontinued Ariat winter boots remain perfect. These will last forever, God willing, and even if they do finally go to the great tack closet in the sky someday, I am happy enough with their similarities to the new Ariat winter boot lines to buy those immediately and strongly suspect I'll be happy.

Layering

Alllllll about the layers. This winter, I could most typically be found in long-sleeved technical shirts of two kinds, depending on the weather. For warmer (20 degrees or more) days, I have a few that can double as sunshirts, made out of lighter technical fabric. For colder days, I have a few that are fleece lined and more in the style of compression shirts, most of the made by Nike. That was base layer.

I also had a nice rotation of sweatshirts or other thicker layers over that base layer, and topped it off with a Patagonia down jacket that was light and flexible but also quite warm.

Miscellaneous

One of my very favorite additions to my winter wardrobe remains my fleece helmet cover. It makes a HUGE difference in comfort, both as a insulating layer to keep my head from bleeding warmth and as a windbreaker to block the vents in my helmet. I freaking love it.

Product Review: Noble Outfitters Softshell Riding Pants

Noble Outfitters Softshell Riding Pants
MSRP: $99.95
I paid: $67.46, at Riding Warehouse, on Black Friday

I've been on the hunt for new winter breeches for close to 18 months now. I have an old pair of Devon-Aire breeches that are thinning precariously, and have a hole in the knee from a bad fall on the ice at the end of last winter. Plus, going through a whole winter with just one pair of breeches is both a precarious state of being AND really gross.

Winter breeches were my #1 request from my family for Christmas this year, and my parents obliged by telling me to pick out whatever I wanted. I chose these based on a couple of factors: price, looks, the softshell outside, and my experience with a few other Noble Outfitters products - namely their Perfect Fit gloves, which are my new favorite thing.

These arrived last week and I've now put 4 rides on them. I have some mixed feelings.

Overall? They're pretty great. The softshell outside really does work to repel hay and other things that you might pick up at the barn. It does get dusty, but what clothing doesn't?

They're reasonably warm, which is to say: as warm as one layer of fleece + top fabric can possibly get. I've ridden in temperatures from 16f to 36f and while at 16f I was glad I kept my legs underneath the quarter sheet they were still fine for walking around while tacking up, etc. Once in the saddle, they were flexible and accommodating in all the right places: I never felt like I was held back or cinched up too tightly.

I'm not sure the knee patches actually do all that much? They felt super-sticky right out of the box but after a week of wear are not nearly as sticky. I've ridden in them both with and without stirrups, for a plain walk around, a more thorough dressage schooling, and some trot sets. I didn't notice any extra stickability, per se, but I also stayed in the saddle just fine, so...there's that?

Here's their real problem: they sag a little bit. I have to pull them up occasionally when walking around home or the barn. They're not as bad as the Pipers (sigh, so much potential, so much sagging) but it's still noticeable. I wish they came in a Long version; I think what's happening is that the slim fit of the legs (which is perfect! hooray for sock bottoms instead of velcro!) is tugging them down as I walk. So a long would give me just an inch or two of extra fabric and keep that from happening. But basically no one makes winter breeches in long, so I am SOL on that one.

In short - I would recommend them for their price point and for their intended purpose. They're still very workable. They're just not perfect, but then - nothing is!

Product Review: Helmet Helpers Polarfleece Original Cozy Riding Cover

As part of my big overall effort to upgrade my winter riding experience this year, I ordered a Helmet Helpers Polarfleece Original Cozy Riding Cover as part of my big Christmas order.

It retails for $38, and I paid $23.96. I bought it in black.

The idea is that it goes over your helmet and helps block wind and keep your head warm. I am a big believer in keeping your head covered during winter; the human body loses some astonishing percentage of its heat through the head, and it can make a big difference to keep a hat on. It's for that same reason that a vented helmet can make a big difference.

My beloved new helmet is very much vented, and in the past I've gotten nasty earaches from riding in the cold, so when I learned that something like this existed, and it made sense for my budget to pull the trigger, it was at the top of my list.

First impression: LOVE LOVE LOVE.

More details:

I was quite frankly surprised at how quickly and easily it went on my helmet. It was snug without being too tight. I was actually imagining it would go on like those rubber bell boots and STAY ON, but that is very much not the case. It slides on and stays on firmly. The trick was to start with the brim and then pull the rest down. It's well-stitched and sturdy, and does not necessarily rely on elastic to cling to the helmet, just good snug fit.

Make no mistake: this is not a fashion statement. It might be with the right fabric or whatever, but though it is relatively sleek and unobtrusive, it is still a big piece of fleece covering your helmet and your entire face.

photobomb by Tristan; he was pretty sure I was taking a picture of him so he started mugging

But does it work?

Ohhhhhhhhh yes it does. It really does. It works in two ways: first, as a windblock, it keeps cold breezes from going through those lovely vents and taking away my body heat. Second, it traps the heat that is generated by my body and keeps it from flying out those vents. All of that means that it works during warmup and then again during my ride itself.

It is really, really good at both of those things. My ears stay warm. My chin stays warm. I stay warm overall because of it. Honestly, at the end of my ride I often have to undo the velcro strap around the chin because I am a bit too warm. (I think at least part of that is this weird tropical winter we're having, to be fair.)

If I could say one bad thing, it would be this: the chin strap bit is not as functional as it should be. The velcro is a bit thin, and is placed a bit too high up. I have a fairly average head. I should be able to get the velcro on immediately, every time, and it should cover itself by at least half. Most of the time when I'm doing this it takes me one or two tries, and then I only catch the end of the velcro. It has not come undone, but it's definitely a design flaw.

you have no idea how much I did NOT want to share this photo, but for the sake of completeness, here's what it looks like from the front.

In summary: if you ride in the winter, you need one of these. It works as advertised, and works well.

Product Review: SSG 10 Below Riding Gloves

As I have mentioned, this is going to be my winter of figuring out my cold weather riding glove problem.

Whenever I Googled or asked around about riding gloves, the SSG 10 Below gloves came up. They're the warmest things you can ride in! people said. They're the only thing I'll wear in the winter! people said.

Those people must not live in Vermont. Or actually ride in the actual winter. Or...I don't know...use their fingers when they ride. Or their hands. Or their wrists.

But let me start at the beginning.

These gloves retail for $43.95, and I bought them from Riding Warehouse for $26.36. Which puts them among the most expensive riding gloves I have ever purchased. (Hi, have you met me? I'm cheap.)

As soon as I put them on, my heart sank. These gloves are huge. They give bulky a bad name. They are so thick I felt like each individual finger had tripled in size. They were so thick I could not really wiggle my fingers, let alone flex them.

Making a fist required actual exertion.

Holding the reins with them was an exercise in frustration. Not only could I not really feel the reins, I couldn't get a good tight grip, either. The reins kept slipping out from my fingers, and I couldn't tell it was slipping, and forget when Tristan tried to yank the reins out from my hands. When he coughed they fell out of my hands.

sorry someone was in a zippy mood and would not stand still for photography

Oh, and what's more: they're not warm. My fingers were cold and numb during the warmup until my actual body warmed up and then blood flow got to my fingers. Which, for those of you following along at home, is exactly what happened with the other SSG gloves I bought this year for 1/3 the price.

the below-mentioned elastic strap in action

I will give them this: they are well-made. The stitching is tight, the fabric is tough, and it's got sticky stuff (like sprayed on neoprene or something?) in the right place. It does have a particularly clever design in which there are elastics inside the cuff that you attach before you put on the gloves, so you can pull off your glove but not lose it. Which is good, because there was no fucking way I was doing any buckles while wearing these gloves. Or even reaching into my coat pocket. Or...well, you get the idea.

In summary: seriously, whose hands do these gloves fit?!

Oh, the weather outside...

It's been to cold to ride since Saturday, so I thought I would take this time to let you know that the new official Star Wars app has a weather widget.

You're welcome.

...too soon?

Product Review: SSG Fleecee Knit Winter Riding Fleece-Lined Gloves

I've talked before about my big blind spot in winter riding gear: good winter riding gloves. This year, I set about fixing that, and so I have several pairs of gloves that I have been testing out to share & review with you.

First up are these SSG gloves, a purchase with Christmas money. Years ago, I owned a pair of fleece-lined knit gloves that I adored, and have never been able to find since. (I bought them on clearance and suspect they were being discontinued; they didn't even have a manufacturer's tag on them.) I found these and hoped they would live up to those long-ago gloves.

MSRP is $15.00 and I paid $9.56 at Riding Warehouse, so I really couldn't go wrong.

First impressions: I really like them. They are not my long-ago gloves, but they actually look kind of stylish. They are thin and flexible, which is great, and you can get a good rein feel through them. 

I've now ridden in them about 8 times, including a couple of road hacks outside, so here's a longer list of pros and cons.

Pros: they really are light and flexible, yet surprisingly warm. They held up to a short road hack outside in 25 degrees with a wicked wind. I like schooling in them, as I can really use my fingers. The cuff is long enough to be useful.

Cons: they're not waterproof, and the knit will not hold up to lots of barn chores like throwing hay or undoing anything with velcro. The seam on the index finger is unnecessarily bulky, but I found that this didn't really bother me after a few rides; either I got used to it or it got mashed down.

They're also not really, really warm gloves. They're middling gloves. I used them while longeing earlier this week and they did just ok; in situations where my fingers weren't actively moving all the time, or I wasn't exercising and therefore warming up my core, the fell short.

They ran pretty true to size; I'm a 7 in SSG gloves, and the small was meant to be a 7/8. If I could get between an XS and a S I'd be happy, as these are just a smidge large for me. (I have TINY hands and short fingers, which is a perpetual challenge for me in finding gloves.) I'm not sure that they're the highest quality and most durable gloves out there, but at $10 each they are miles and away a better value for the price than many $20 gloves I've seen.

In Search Of: Winter Breeches

Please send help, blogosphere!

I only own one pair of winter breeches. In past years, that has been sufficient for Vermont, but this winter has been so mild that I'm riding a LOT more than I usually do, and the years of wear & tear on this pair is getting to be too much.

let's just say the breeches have outlasted literally everything else I'm wearing in this photo except the boots.

I have some fairly specific things that I know I do and do not like in winter breeches. I will have to order these online and test them out, so they need to be returnable. (I don't have time to play the tack swap game!)

My current breeches are Devon-Aire Fleece Full Seats. They are fleece-lined with a suede full seat. They are great, but they are getting quite thin and they have a hole in one knee from a spectacular ice wipeout last winter. I would replace them with the same brand, but the last time I tried that, buying a pair on clearance that were the same size and type on spec, they did not work AT ALL. They were seemingly way too small, and the fit had totally changed. I may end up ordering some of the same kind again, just to make sure that I wasn't way off base, but...ugh.

So please help! Send your ideas and suggestions!

Here's what I know I like/need:

- They must be real breeches, not tights. NO pull-ons with elastic waistbands; proper zippers & buttons only. I used to have a pair of the winter Tuff Rider pull ons that I hated with the fire of a thousand suns. They all end up feeling like diapers.
- They must be realistically winter breeches. I live in Vermont y'all and ride down to 10 degrees. None of this "oh well they were warm in Texas in the 40s so they should be fine!"
- Ideally they should either run a bit long in the leg or have a tall option. While I rarely need a tall, I am almost always more comfortable in the tall version of jeans and breeches.
- Also in sizing, I recently learned that sometimes breeches aren't made over a 34? Fuck that. I usually run 30-32 depending on the breeches, which means my ass fits but there's gapping at the waist, but otherwise it's just a no go.
- Ideally they should have a full seat option.
- They really really should be below $100.

Help? Anyone?

Wordless Wednesday: New Turnout Blanket

Ok, mostly wordless. I picked up this SmartPak Turnout Blanket (medium weight) on steep clearance late last winter, and it came out of storage this past week with the plummeting temperatures. I'll do a full review at a later date, but in the meantime: how fucking adorable does he look in it?!

Fall 2015 Cushings Update

So, continuing on in our Cushings journey.

Previously: Tristan's fall 2014 ACTH levels were back within normal range, and he had a good spring and summer.

My horse is sad because jump standards are not part of his diet.

Tris has not had a ton of work in these past weeks; every time I think my work schedule is about to even out, it ramps up again. The house has been taking the lion's share of my mental and physical energy. I'm getting him worked maybe 3x a week in light work. So his physical condition from exercise is not terrific.

Overall, though, he's in great shape as we head into the winter. Last week, on November 4, he got an updated flu/rhino vaccine, an overall physical, and his vet pulled blood to run another ACTH level so we could make sure we were on track.

She was pleased with his overall condition and demeanor, and reported that he tolerated her kissing his nose several times. Good pony. <3

Last night, we got his ACTH levels back: 33.7 pg/mL, which falls within the normal range of 9-35. It's a smidge on the high normal side, but the vet was not concerned, and it's definitely still within a safe range.

So: good boy, Tris!

For reference and future blog posts: he is down to 1/4 quart of Blue Seal's Carb Guard AM + PM, still on what grass is left, and 3-4 flakes of hay. He also gets a ration balancing vitamin & mineral supplement and a hoof supplement. He is maintaining a healthy weight just fine on that. He's started his blanket rotation for the season - depending on overnight temps, he's in either a stable sheet, turnout sheet, or slightly thicker honeycomb sheet. He seems more comfortable with the temperature swings this year, knock wood.

Clipmageddon 2015

Last year, I angsted almost endlessly about clipping my horse. I asked for opinions, got a ton of awesome thoughts, and then still waffled and flopped around. When I finally got around to it, I was relieved and happy and wondered why I hadn't done it sooner.

So: I knew without question that I was going to clip Tristan for this season. Then I dragged my heels, shockingly enough.

Then, on Monday, it was warm. Tristan was huffing and puffing and sweaty after just 30 minutes of relatively light work. (Granted, some of that was because he insisted on flailing around, crowhopping, and trying to pull me toward the jumps in the ring at a dead gallop, so it was kind of his fault. 20 years old, huh?)

It was time. So I pulled out the clippers.

Let me just state at the outset that I am like your model of What Not To Do. I had no intention of bathing my horse - it's November in Vermont, you have got to be kidding me. I own clippers that are a good example of what they are, but are classified as "ear and nose trimmers" so yeah not exactly your fancy $400 body clippers.

I was also too lazy to get an extension cord so I, um, stood on his lead rope to keep him in one place. DON'T BE LIKE ME, INTERNET. Your caveat here is that I know this horse intimately, he is solid for clipping (he was antsy last night because it was dinnertime) and I did actually position myself so I could duck into an empty area off the aisle if he decided to snark about it.

I aimed for a very light trace clip, and used the 0 blade cover. I think I have some more to do, but I will live with this for a week and then update it next week.

...wow I didn't realize how bad those lines were until just now. sigh.

So there you have it. First clip of the season is out of the way.

I am very seriously considering some kind of My Little Pony style clip on his butt when I expand his current clip. It would need to be some kind of geeky symbol. Suggestions welcome, keeping in mind that I possess exactly zero artistic talent and would need to use a stencil.

Night Check

Does your barn do a night check? What does it consist of?

I've always felt most comfortable keeping Tristan at a boarding barn that does night check. I think it's a good double-check, and a good way to help keep barn management flowing smoothly. It makes me feel more comfortable, as a nervous horse owner.

Last Friday night, I did night check, since one of the regular barn workers was visiting with the trainer in Florida. (And posting photos of kayaking in t-shirts on Facebook, sob.) I hadn't done it in nearly a year, so the barn manager left me a list of what the current night check routine is.

Holy mackerel, guys. Here was my night check.

sigh. summer.

9:00 pm - Arrive, turn on lights, walk up and down the aisle to make sure everyone is bright and alert

9:05 pm - Duck into tack room, let cat out, check the list.

9:06 pm - Put on lined rubber gloves and start soaking hay for the two recent colic cases. Tear the hay up into tiny shreds, flip over and over and over again to make sure water penetrates every possible nook and cranny.

9:15 pm - Start haying remaining horses in the barn. Everyone gets two flakes, except for a few who get three, and the yearling, who gets one. 2/3 of the horses in the barn have Nibble Nets right now. All of the Nibble Nets are double-clasped and those clasps are tied together with baling twine. The first stall takes me a solid 7 minutes and I swear, out loud, repeatedly. You haven't known frustration until you've tried to stuff two flakes of hay into a Nibble Net hung at head-height, while undoing the tiny clasps with thick winter chore gloves, while a deeply impatient horse is dancing back and forth, snatching pieces of hay that are escaping your arms.

10:07 pm - Finish haying (YES, REALLY), and do blankets. Every horse that had a neck cover got that neck cover that cover pulled up and buckled down. One horse was wearing a cooler from being worked earlier in the evening; I pulled that and put on the two blankets in the aisle. Probably about 1/3 of the horses had some layer that needed to be added. I also took that time to look hard at all the other blanketed horses, and fixed two leg straps that had come undone. Fortunately, I was warmed up enough from haying that I could take my gloves off to do the straps.

daytime, not last night, but Tristan's blanket waiting for night check

10:23 pm - Toss grain to the horses who either got a snack at night check, or whose evening grain had waited until night check because they had been worked right around dinner time. Add water to all the grain.

10:30 pm - Start water. Oh, winter water. My nemesis. I had two options: hose or buckets. Using the buckets would take longer, be harder work, and involve more walking back and forth. Using the hose would guarantee that I would screw up the draining, hanging, and putting away, especially with the barn manager's warning that the hose would freeze very, very quickly once I stopped using it. Buckets, then!

11:07 pm - Water done. On the one hand: I am now twice as cold, have ice rimmed all over my jacket, and pulled something in my elbow hauling water to 25 horses. On the other hand: is there anything quite as satisfying as using a sledgehammer to smash out ice from buckets?

11:08 pm - Quick double-check of the list the barn manager left for me. Check everything off. Do one last walk up and down the aisles, checking doors, latches, and lights. Everyone looks happy, and the mare who earlier was a bit unexcited about her hay is going at it with gusto now. Good. Tristan, who got extra hay scrids and a sip from every water bucket as I went by, doesn't really want to see me go, and shoves me all over the place with his nose while I close up his stall door, which I had left open with a stall guard up.

"But having my stall door closed is booooooooring!"

11:15 pm - Put the cat back in the tack room, over his loud protests. It's 14 degrees and predicted to hit 1 degree by about 3 am, so I don't feel right leaving him out. Make sure the space heater is on and near the water line and not touching anything. Make sure the frost-free hydrant outside is not dripping, or the dripping water will freeze right back up into the water line, no matter how well-insulated.

11:16 pm - Get into my car, blast the heat, and sit for a moment checking off the list in my head. Decide I'm done, drive away.

11:17 pm - Turn around because I have no specific memory of tucking the draft blockers underneath the front door. I hadn't really disturbed them when I entered, but the barn gets unbelievable wind coming up the valley and hitting the hill, so this is actually an important piece. I double-check: yup, they're in place.

Barn in winter, earlier this season. We have way more snow now.

11:18 pm - Back on the road again.

11:43 pm - Home. Bed. I'm too keyed up from what amounted to two hours of constant physical labor to sleep, so I read for about 15 minutes until the adrenaline passes and then I am out.cold.

Whew.

So yeah. Our night check routine is pretty intense right now. In the summer it's just to put eyes on everyone, toss grain and sometimes a little hay, and make sure all the lights are turned off.

Happiness Is... (Winter Version)

Tristan LOOOOOOVES a good roll.

A friend once told me that you should count how many times your horse flips over while rolling. Each flip is $1,000 added to his sales price. I guess the theory is that it shows flexibility.

I counted up to 8 once with Tristan.

See, I wasn't just whining: coldest winter EVER.

I would just like to leave this here, as evidence that I am not simply a whiner who can't cope with winter. While Boston was getting record snowfall, Vermont experienced literally the coldest winter in recorded history. I have never sacrificed so many riding days to the extreme cold.

From Eye on the Sky, our local non-hysterical and actually-meteorological weather guys:

The February 2015 Summary: 

This was one of the coldest months on record for several stations. 

For Burlington, it was the 3rd coldest February, and the 7th coldest of any month, with an average of 7.6°F. 

In St. Johnsbury, this was the 2nd coldest February, and ties the 6th coldest month, with an average of 7.7°F. 

In addition, this was the coldest January-February period since 1904, and includes 41 days (so far) with temperatures consecutively at 32°F or colder, the second longest stretch at the Museum (the longest, 51 days, ran from late December 1976 through early February 1977) 

This is the only February on the Museum records with no above freezing temperatures.
Southern areas also received heavy snowfall, with 45.6 inches reported in Marlboro, VT, and Hillsboro Upper Village, NH had 56.5 inches. 

To get an idea how extraordinary the cold was, the image shows the average February temperature in St. Johnsbury since 1895 (the dark blue line), with the red line a 7-year running mean to show a trend over the years. It is only the 2nd February to average less than 10°F since 1934. This was NOT just an "old-fashioned" February!

They do not report on my area, but did in a previous post: my city averaged 4°F for the month of February, which was officially its coldest ever.

WHY GOD WHY

GO TO HELL, WINTER

Wintering Over

On Sunday, it was 30 degrees. Thirty. Degrees!!!

I felt almost instantly more human again. I did a ton of laundry, worked around the house, and headed over to the barn for some actual time with my horse.

I tacked up and everything, and we went up and down the road for about 30 minutes. OUTSIDE! I rode him in one circuit of the outdoor ring, but he was less than enthused and I didn't want him to strain himself. It's one thing to ride through deep snow, but this had clearly drifted quite a lot in some places, and he was having trouble getting even steps. One step, fine, the next step, waaaaaay deeper, with no way to really see or tell which would be which.

So we did the roads.

There were horses in the turnouts just to the right who were deeply concerned that we were on the road.

 Winter apples, dried on the branch.

Road hacking in the winter is not without its travails, though. See the snow drifts on either side of the road? And the thicker snow? Down the middle of the road is the safest place to ride in some ways: it's the most visible, and it's the smoothest and flattest. On the other hand, it's also the iciest, because it's what melts first. So you'd think that it would be better, but right at the foot of those snow drifts are ditches, masked by lighter, fluffier snow that hasn't settled and packed.

So I tend to keep him down the middle of the road, and if it feels too icy - if he's slipping too much, I head inside. On Sunday, the warmth and the sun kept the middle of the road just fine, slushy and a bit muddy.

With so many indoors coming down lately, I was both worried and pleased to see someone on the roof digging snow off. Looking more closely, though, and chatting with the barn owner, it's really just that corner, where the wind forces the snow into drifts. Removing the load in that corner made a huge difference.

In all, a nice ride and a productive day. Now we're back to low single digits, though, so back inside for me.

Weekend Plans

First, in good news: puppy has finally pooped. Hooray! Nothing like sick animals and baby humans to make you track and celebrate poop. She seems to finally be fully on the mend.

I am a little stumped right now, to be honest - I have lots of things going on in my life, but so few of them are horsey. My interaction with my horse lately has been primarily to kiss him on the nose, check his blankets, and heat up his bucket. It's too cold for both of us to pull his blankets and groom - I get stabbing pain in my fingers, even through gloves, after just a few minutes. So, nope.

I am reading. Crocheting. Watching waaaaaaaay too much HGTV, like to the point where the other day I thought positively about the turquoise paisley wallpaper one particular person had chosen for one room of her guest bedroom remodel. WTF, NO.

I have hit some kind of wall and had the fiance drag the stationary bike out of storage, and am committed to working on that for a while every night when I am not riding. I am not an exercise person; I tend to be a move-quickly type of person in my daily life, but ain't nothin' movin' right now.

On the plus side, it might be 30 degrees on Sunday, which would be amaaaaaazing. I am supposed to be in the next state over meeting friends on that day, but it's a 7 hour round trip drive for ~6 hours of interaction, and it would mean giving up literally the one day in the last two months when it has a chance of getting above freezing. (I am not exaggerating. Weather stations are starting to rank us in top 10 lists in terms of consistently coldest winters.)

I'm trying to kick some life into my Figuring History blog, and have made some small headway recently. So, follow that if you want Morgan horse history.

Anyone else have exciting weekend plans I can live through vicariously?

Winter Hacks & #horsegirlconfessions

We're back into subzero temperatures; I got three! whole! days! of riding in last week when the temperatures came above single digits. It was pretty great.

Then we plunged back into the arctic abyss.

When it gets this cold - and by "this cold" I mean well below zero, double digits below zero, wind chills colder than -30 - there is quite simply no way to keep fresh, unfrozen water in front of a horse at all times unless you have a bucket heater. Bucket heaters and de-icers are strictly verboten at my barn, and I tend to agree with them. They make me incredibly nervous. I saw a barn fire once, and it remains one of the worst memories of my life.

For the most part, the horses adapt pretty well: barn staff keeps a very, very close eye on their consumption, and each horse has a rotating system of buckets so that they get fresh water 2-3x a day. The horses learn to drink their fill when they have water. They get soupy mashes on the regular when it's going to be painfully cold.

That's not to say I'm not doing all I can to increase Tristan's water consumption. Lately, I've been staying an extra 30 minute or so, or going out when I'm not riding, and heating up four or five kettles full of boiling water in the tack room with the electric tea kettle. I top his bucket off with those to get the water up to lukewarm; it makes it more likely that he'll drink deeply and less likely that it will freeze immediately. (And I do mean immediately - by the time you finish doing water in the barn, most of the buckets have skimmed over with ice already.)

On Friday night, I stepped up my game and bought a bucket water heater from Tractor Supply. A friend of mine has one and loves it. They're designed not to de-ice, but really to heat the water up to boiling if left long enough.

So, the new system is to pull Tristan's bucket from his stall and put the bucket heater in it for about 10-15 minutes. I stand next to the bucket and check it constantly while I'm doing so.

As you can see, it does end up melting the ice. It takes a while, but it gets the water nice and warm. I don't think I'd feel safe really getting to boiling - for a lot of reasons! - but once the water is warm it'll take that much longer to freeze.

The other night, I was going through this system and it was bitterly, painfully cold. I'd forgotten barn clothes, and I was wearing thin pants. I wanted the water to heat up quickly. I dipped one finger, then another, and now both my hands were cold and wet even inside my gloves AND my pockets. I was impatient, and all I could think was that there had to be a way to test the warmth of the water without making me colder.

So I decided to lean over and stick my tongue in. I know. Gross. But it worked! My tongue was already wet, so whatever, and it got warm again immediately, and since I already knew how to test the temperature of liquids with my tongue I had a good barometer.

Another few minutes, and I brought the bucket back to Tristan. One of his quirks is that he will almost always take a sip of a bucket that is on the ground or held for him, so I put it on the ground inside his stall, and he promptly drank half of it. Score one for lukewarm water!

I half-filled another bucket, heated it up again, and topped his bucket off before I left.

I'm declaring the new bucket heater a success! The only drawback: even knowing it has an auto-shutoff, even carefully unplugging and triple-checking it, I still have a twist of anxiety in my gut about it. Ah well.

Have you ever resorted to slightly strange and obsessive ends to make things more comfortable for your horse in extreme temperatures?

Joy Comes in the Springtime

MY HORSE IS SHEDDING

WE MIGHT MAKE IT THROUGH WINTER AFTER ALL.