Winter came in January 2025

We had a lot of walks together

We went from the 50’sF during Christmas to plummeting 20s (20F = -7C) during January and anywhere between 6-12 inches of snow/ice over the weekend.  

our little random cabin after day 1

The first day the horses soaked their blankets a couple times because they wouldn’t stay in their nice shelter. They like to go in and out quite frequently. The freezing rain and snow the first day was coming down so hard their outside layer of blankets got soaked. I spent  A LOT of time changing blankets out to make sure everyone stayed warm and wasn’t carrying around a brick ton of weight by having a wet outer blanket.

everyone is dry and quite warm underneath. this was after dinner for them

The best hack for keeping my mare extra warm is throwing on a neck wrap. Thankfully I am a slight blanket hoarder so I never ran out of blankets during all the swapping out.

I actually was going to double blanket them but they were actually so warm under their blankets I was worried they would sweat. I do wish I had stalls or a large covered space so they could run around but big picture I am quite happy that my horses get to choose whether to go in the shelter or stay out in the pasture. I wish I had some pictures of them playing and bucking in the field.

Another strange thing my horses did was preferring to bust their own water. I had a nice heated water trough freshly scrubbed that they drank out of BUT the preferred water was a different water trough I hadn’t even cleaned out. They kept it busted! So wild. But they all drank lots and ate 2 meals a day with constant hay.

SO weird. I checked for shock and temperature of the water trough with a heater in it and it was all good. They just preferred this

I got to enjoy beautiful quiet walks after taking care of the animals. And I finally convinced my kid to come outside in the cold and we had a great time playing for almost 2 hours!

I think I overdressed us both by a layer

Driving into work I imagined I lived in Colorado or Utah with all the snow on the hills it was quite beautiful. I am still extremely happy my sister and I have a campsite in florida booked at the end of February because I will definitely want a break from the cold and dreary by then.

Happy 2025 everyone.