12/02/2025
Many people laugh when they see how adamant I am about my pen management in winter!
Yes I clean the snow out of all my pens every time it snows, as best I can.
Yes itās a little bit of workā¦..that saves me a lot of time in the spring.
Letās look at this. Letās say you get 60ā of snow in a year and you donāt clean it out.
1. Horses will pack it down and it wonāt look bad on average Iād say 10ā of snow will get packed down to 4 ā.
2. Letās say you have 6 storms of 10ā (again you donāt clean the snow out). That leaves you with almost 2ā of packed snow!
3. Packed snow doesnāt melt real fast so in the spring you will be dealing with wet, sloppy conditions prob into late spring or early summer.
4. Letās not mention all the manure packed in with it. Or heaven forbid you have poor drainage.
Thatās a lot of snow to melt as well as a lot of unnecessary slop your horse has to endure for extended periods of time! Thrush, sprains, fungus growth are to name a few side affects of poor pen management in the winter!
Yes it takes time but my horses are healthy and happy! And I donāt have to waste a lot of time fighting the slop come the spring thaw!
I give my horses my best and in return I expect their best!
Itās really quite simpleā¦..if you want to be a leader for your horse you must act like one. It all starts with the management of their welfare!
Something to think about!
