Winter 2010

Charlie Brown enjoying a light breakfast.

We are often asked by concerned friends how the horses are faring in this harsh weather, particularly as they aren't wrapped up in warm rugs and stabled!

The short answer is .... very well indeed!! Just look at Charlie Brown, our veteran in the region of 30 years old. He is very well covered, wearing nature's best furry coat. The grease sheds the rain a treat and, if you part the hair, you will find the skin quite dry. You can warm your hands between their front legs and at the base of their ears on the coldest of days!.

In the autumn, after the 'blackberry moult', we stop deep grooming and allow the natural grease to build up in their coats, and their coats get thicker as the days get shorter and colder. Since we don't work the horses in the winter there is no need clip or molly-coddle them.

They have free range of some 20 acres or more, so there is no need to feed hay unless we get a deep covering of snow, and mercifully we have escaped that down here! They do, however, receive a light breakfast of a handful of Hifi Light, bran and pasture mix plus some oil, garlic and additives so we get to have a good look at them each day and this is followed up by a check before dark in the afternoons.

There we have it! We have four healthy, happy horses and there is natural shelter on all boundaries of the field to account for any wind direction, especially the 'lazy' wind from the east that tends to go through you rather than go round!