What did you do with your grass kept pony during the ice and snow last Winter?

[Furminator]

Hello. We are about to get our first pony. He's a lovely sturdy New Forest who will live out with a field shelter. He is lightly clipped and rugged at the moment (bit of a shame as I like hairy hardy unrugged ponies) so we will be rugging him throughout the Winter. I was wondering what people did with their ponies last winter - obviously if we have the snow and ice that we had last year dd isn't going to be doing any hacking, and we won't be able to get the trailer out. Will he be ok unridden in the field for a fortnight or so of hard weather?

Ours came out for a quiet wander round and a hack in the snow (but not the ice), but they'll be fine in the field for a couple of weeks. You could do some in hand schooling if you were worried about bonding - its great to get them really responsive to voice.

Great name btw - we love the Furminator.

Ha! So do we! Trouble is with hacking is that the country lanes were ice rinks last year and you need to use one to get anywhere. In-hand schooling is a good idea, yes i am a bit concerned about bonding as he is arriving next week just as it is forecast to get much colder. Bad timing!

Tell me about timing ! We got dpony December 9th last year - that was a baptism of fire I can tell you !

oh well, thank goodness he is sturdy and forgiving

I've always found that ponies bond very well with whoever feeds them . I wouldn't worry too much - lots of fuss and attention through the winter coupled with the odd hack should be fine. Things like picking his feet out daily and not allowing him to get bargy will enforce basic dicipline. Are you going to clip him again or let it grow out? You will be able to do more with him if he is clipped, but the quid pro quo is that he will need more tlc, food and rugs if living out.

yes we probably will clip him because if we can ride him and get the trailer out he will probably be doing quite a lot.

Congratulations on the new pony!

Two weeks of field rest doesn't really affect fitness levels but make sure you adjust his hard feed (if he is on any in the first place) accordingly (unless of course he is losing weight).

More than two weeks of field rest and I think you would need to do a couple of weeks of gentle hacking before asking for anything more intense (schooling, jumping).

For completely unfit ponies/horses I am a bit advocate of slow, road work. I would do 3-4 weeks of walk, starting with 1/2 hour and building up to 1.5 hours, then 2 weeks of gradually introducing trot out on hacks, then gradually introducing light schooling over the next two weeks. I've never had any ligament or tendon injuries this way.

Thank you that is very helpful. My daughter will need to be watched as she is a bit of a speed freak - but I am going to hack him out occasionally when I almost certainly will only be walking as he is only 13.3 and I am 5 foot 7!

Furminator,you are nearly the same as me,dpony is 13hh and I'm 5ft 8 ! I've only ridden the poor thing once so far.

Natives are bred to carry quite a bit of weight so I am sure he will be fine, and will benefit, from an adult riding him every so often. Personally I also think it's not so much the weight of the rider but how balanced they are. A larger person may ride more lightly because they are an experienced rider, whereas a lighter person may have more of an impact because they are unbalanced.

Phew! I am not planning to ride him regularly, but only so I can keep an eye on him and exercise him if by any chance dd cannot manage it. I am quite an experienced rider (used to exercise point to pointers) but havent ridden for a good few years.

Congratulations on the new pony. Winter is when we retire to the indoor school, concentrate on schooling, learn new dressage tests (walk/trot for me and hack out (hours at walk) when we can. And GD goes to Pony Club whenever it's safe to travel, it keeps them going till spring. But mainly it's hours and hours in the school, till I know every grain of sand!

Hi there,
I have a gaggle of equines from very tiny 8hands up to 16 hands with different jobs - pony parties/brood mare/competition horse/daughters 13.2 pony etc, different breeds and temperaments.
Many of the real competition yards kept their horses in for fear of them injuring themselves on the ice-it's not to be underestimated as I'm sure you're aware a broken leg in a horse usually means the end.
Usually these yards have indoor schools where they can do some work/exercise with their horses-lucky people!
ALL of mine went out EVERY day-they're usually stabled at night and out during the day. They're not used to be in 24/7, unlike competition horses who are usually only taken out of the stable for exercise/to work.
I felt that if I kept mine in 24/7, when it did come to letting them out they'd go mad and injure themselves, SO I put road salt down, hay over ice where necessary, led the horses out VERY slowly and hoped for the best!!
Fortunately ALL of them were really sensible whilst going over the ice AND whilst in the fields on the snow-when I watched them they just mooched around slowly, even my very lively 4 and 6 year olds!
It was only my old lady who I think, slipped over onto her shoulder and was a bit stiff but she is 25 so she's allowed to be a bit stiff!
Bottom line is take precautions, consider the temperament of your pony-perhaps ask the previous owners how he'd be if he had to be in 24/7 for 3 weeks, adjust your feed -I'd normally say ad lib hay but ponies have a tendancy to eat everthing offered , so just keep an eye on his weight and if he's not being worked or excercised drop the hard feed off - you don't want a hyper pony you can't let out because of the weather!
ANd if you don't work him for a number of weeks perhaps lunge him a couple of days before your daughter gets on-they can be lively after not being ridden for a while.
Good luck!!

In answer to the question in your thread title, in the snow and ice we spent most of the time making sure they had enough water, we had to bring it from home as all the pipes and troughs were solid. Also carrying hay, mucking out shelters etc, even getting to and from the field, all takes much longer when the ground is treacherous and everything you touch freezes your hands. We haven't got a school so riding didn't really come into it, but they were all fine not being ridden. That's the beauty of having them grass-kept, you don't have the shall we turn them out/not turn them out dilemma and there's less chance of them being raving loonies or totally unfit when you ride them again (especially if your field is on a hill like ours is, they tend to keep their muscle quite well). I would recommend making sure he has somewhere to stand that isn't all churned up as frozen ruts under snow are lethal to ponies and humans (very easy to turn your ankle which wouldn't be much fun in the middle of a freeze!). We have a big area round the shelter that we've covered in shredded bark (free from tree surgeon) which gives a safer footing for them if it snows, and we put their hay there.

My horse has wintered out all his life. This year I invested in a moveable field shelter for him, he seemed to be rather scared of, but feeding and putting his hay in it seems to have sorted that.

I agree its making sure they have water, I fed plenty of hay and one hard feed every day. No riding will be fine for a few weeks they tend to exercise themselves unlike stable kept horses.

Im 5ft 11 and used to have a 14.1 highland pony who took my height and weight no problems, Im sure your daughters pony will benefit from you riding him.

I'm 5 ft 9 and ride my daughter's 13.2 gypsy cob out (he's stronger than my own 14.1 Irish Draught cross pony)

We had terrible ice last year for weeks - both ponies are unclipped and live out all year round (with rugs in really cold weather) but we just left them unworked for the cold snap. Not worth the risks to us or them.