Winter riding: BRRRR!!

As I set out this morning, it is -21 C but with the wind chill it is -27 C.

I will be wearing my fleecy riding pants and my winter riding boots along with other warm pieces of clothing. I need it all when I get to the barn - it is not heated. Then when I start to get Abracadabra ready to ride, I can take some of it off.

There is heat in the arena if I need it. What is nice on a cold morning like this is to turn it on for a while to warm up while I am getting ready. I got used to not having the heat on when riding Bishop as the air got very dry and dusty and it was not good for his COPD. Also at my age I tend to be warm anyway and once I start trotting around on a horse, I am quite comfy.

Abracadabra has quite a warm fur coat and sometimes she may even be too warm and start to sweat some. Some of this is also because she did not have regular exercise before she came to Ottawa to be my horse. When I am finished riding her I can wrap her in her nice blue wool blanket. I have had this blanket for a long time. Being grey she looks very pretty in blue.

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The barn does not have to be heated. When the doors are shut and the horses are all inside it can be quite cozy even on the coldest of days.

Unfortunately the water has been known to freeze and then the automatic water bowls in the horses’ stalls do not work. Then is when the barn staff have to run around with buckets of water to drink and to help thaw out the frozen pipes.

Where the barn is located there is now a connection to the city’s water system. However the horses do drink a lot and there is a well. There was a major disaster in the past - in fact at the time of the big ice storm in 1998 - when the well died. What a production to truck in water as well as dealing with all the ice and snow.