Preparing Horse Properties for Winter

By Alayne Blickle, Horses for Clean Water

You can count on Pacific Northwest winters being cold, wet, dark, and windy. During many winters you can add snowy and icy to that description. For horse owners this usually means struggles such as slogging through mud to do chores with less time to ride or exercise horses. As it is with most everything, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This fall to-do list will help you tackle the hassles by making your horse property chore-efficient now, which will help ease you through the winter months when you least want to deal with winter’s little (and big) surprises.

If you haven’t already done so, establish a confinement area (often called a heavy use area, sacrifice area, corral, pen, or winter paddock). There are two main reasons to use a confinement area. The first is for pasture health to prevent overgrazing and soil compaction. At a minimum, your horses should be confined to a paddock during the winter and early spring to prevent potential damage to pastures when soils are soggy and pasture plants are dormant. At least three inches of leafy grass is needed in pastures for rapid regrowth in the spring. Compaction of wet pasture soils reduces water infiltration and impairs root growth. Poor pasture management results in reduced quality and quantity of grass, increased soil erosion, nitrogen runoff (from manure and urine), and weeds. Lower pasture productivity also increases feed costs and potentially vet bills if your horse eats toxic weeds.

Secondly, use of a confinement area helps you manage a horse’s weight and health. Many horses develop weight issues from being on pasture. Even brown winter pasture grasses can be high in non-structural carbohydrates.

Winter confinement area Photo credit: Alayne blickle

Bring in footing material for paddocks, confinement areas, and other high traffic locations such as walkways, in front of gates or stalls, and stock-watering areas. Using footing in these places can help reduce mud and soil erosion and allow for drainage by keeping the horse off bare ground. Fall is the right time to think about deliveries since these materials become less available when demand is high. Plus, it is much easier for delivery trucks to back into paddocks or driveways before they become slick or muddy.

Gravel (crushed rock sized 1/2 to 5/8-inch) or sand (coarse washed) are beneficial and commonly used on horse properties. Hogfuel (chipped wood) is sometimes used although many wood products are toxic or have foreign materials in them and should be strictly avoided. Wood products are not recommended when weather or soils are wet since they decompose quickly under these conditions, creating more mud. They can also be slick when icy.

Well-draining crushed rock footing with mats. Photo credit: Alayne Blickle

Check gutters and downspouts. Now is the time to clean and make needed repairs or additions to your roof runoff system. Think “keep clean rainwater clean” by diverting rainwater away from your paddocks to areas where it won’t get contaminated. Good places on your property to divert to include grassy swales, dry wells, rain barrels, stock watering tanks, well-vegetated woods, or an unused portion of your pasture. Doing this can make a big difference in reducing the amount of mud you and your horse spend the winter standing in, and it makes chores easier.

Begin a manure management program. If you don’t already pick up manure on a regular basis, fall is the time to begin. A horse can produce approximately 50 pounds of manure per day. When mixed with winter rains, this manure can quickly turn to mud. Picking up manure on a regular basis will greatly decrease the amount of winter mud on your farm—and it will reduce your horse’s parasite load. All manure should be picked up at least every three days in stalls, paddocks, confinement areas, and high traffic areas to help break the parasite reinfestation cycle.

Consult the Snohomish Conservation District for information on how to compost horse manure. 

Keep manure covered to compost it and prevent rain from washing it away.

Tarp your manure piles. Tarping helps keep in the nutrients you are trying to save and prevents them from being washed out into surface waters where they can cause a water quality problem. Be sure to cover and store manure as far away as possible from streams, ditches, or wetlands to avoid potential pollution issues.

Spread compost. Early fall is a great time to spread compost. Compost is a rich soil amendment. It adds micro and macronutrients and replenishes beneficial bacteria which improve the health of soil and plants. Spread compost in pastures in the fall in a thin sprinkling, no more than a ½-inch thick and no more than three to four inches per season in the same place.

Reroute surface water runoff. Runoff from driveways, parking areas, and hillsides adjacent to confinement areas can add significantly to the problem of managing mud. Ditches, grassy swales, dry wells, water diversion bars, rain gardens, and culverts are all useful means for diverting water away from confinement areas and barns. It is considerably easier to build these when it’s dry, rather than during the next cold downpour when everything is frozen, and flooding is occurring. Consult your local conservation district for proper engineering design recommendations and to verify permitting requirements.

Bring your horses in from pastures. If you’re lucky enough to have pasture, fall is the time to baby it. Pastures, particularly small acreage ones, that become grazed too closely in fall will be subject to winter damage and are slow to regrow in the spring. For winter protection it’s best remove grazing animals in the fall (mid-October) and allow the grass plants to produce a good amount of leaf growth, at least four inches. Livestock that over-winter on pasture continuously graze dormant grass plants, reducing their growth in the spring. Plus, saturated soils are easily compacted during soggy months. A good option for managing horses during this time is to utilize some types of confinement area.

Consult the Snohomish Conservation District for information on how to create a confinement area for horses. 

protect your pastures: grass is slow to regrow in fall and winter.

Review your lighting needs. Do you have adequate outdoor lighting? Are your stalls bright enough to care for horses during dark winter evenings? When you’re feeding at night will you have enough light to see if the hay you’re feeding is green or moldy? Would you be better able to do manure pick-up chores in paddocks with outdoor flood lighting? Have you been meaning to put in lighting along walkways or drives? Get that work done now instead of waiting until temperatures are freezing or you’re feeding by flashlight.

Set up a water supply that won’t freeze or get icy cold. A horse drinks 5 to 12 gallons of water per day. Research shows that horses prefer water temperatures of about 45-65 degrees and tend to drink less when water is cold. Science tells us that a horse cannot get enough moisture by eating snow. A decrease in water consumption can lead to dehydration and colic so make every effort to ensure your horses are drinking an adequate amount. On very cold days, break (and remove) ice in the morning and again in the evenings. You can also consider getting a stock tank heater or heated stall buckets. Plan to have this equipment on hand before the snow comes. Another reminder: older horses or those with dental problems may not be able to drink very cold water and may require additional warming of their water. In these cases, you many need to warm their stall buckets with some hot water.

Consider insulating pipes and faucets with heat tape or other insulation materials. Check with your local hardware store for recommendations.

Consider your emergency and winter storm preparedness. Do you have a flashlight or headlamp for the house and barn hanging in easy access locations? Are extra batteries on hand? How about fuel for generators, cook stoves, or lanterns? Battery-powered headlamps that free up your hands are excellent equipment to have on hand if the electricity goes out. These can be purchased at camping stores or online. A battery-powered radio as well as a weather radio are useful during storms and power outages. Finally, having a cell phone charger on hand that runs off your car is extremely important.

Consider the roads leading to the property.  Poorly maintained dirt or gravel roads lined by trees can be dangerous during a winter storm. If your vehicle is already having issues with potholes or mud, rectify that situation as soon as possible. Be sure you can get your truck and trailer in and out during a storm event and that emergency vehicles can get to you.

Develop a back-up plan for watering your horses before you lose power to your well and are struggling with getting water for your horses. Consider what your needs are and how you might address them. Water can be stored in rain barrels or garbage cans. Emergency officials generally recommend having a three-day supply of water on hand which would be a minimum of 30 gallons of water per horse.

Get ready for winter storms Photo credit: Alayne Blickle

Keep your equipment in a convenient location and well-organized to save yourself time. Photo credit: alayne blickle

Review equipment needs for daily chores. Having the right equipment for chores not only makes barn life more efficient but also ensures that you’ll be more likely to get those chores accomplished when it’s dark and cold. Consider getting a manure cart that’s easy to push and dump into the compost pile. Is your manure fork half-broken? The heavy-duty plastic-tined type with a bent edge are made specifically for cleaning horse stalls and paddocks. Wooden handles or ones wrapped with tennis grip tape (or even vet wrap) are easier, and warmer, to grip than metal handles.

Check fencing after the winds or heavy snows hit to be sure there is no damage. This precaution will help prevent horses from escaping or getting injured from downed fencing.

This checklist will keep you ahead of most problems and put you in a good position for next summer. Get moving on these fall chores now so both you and your horses will be more comfortable and able to cope with the upcoming Pacific Northwest winter. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement PC-01J18001 to the Washington State Department of Health. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.

pick manure daily, provided it isn’t frozen to the ground! photo credit: alayne blickle