Snow? Maybe? Some Winter Safety Reminders

As we prepare here in the south for Snowpocalypse.......erm....1-2"of snow....I think about some easily overlooked safety tips in caring for horses during winter.

Blanketing: Make sure they are familiar with the procedure before you have to blanket them.  You think dressing a 2 year old child is difficult....just you wait when a 1,000+lb creature decides it doesn't want to wear that "sweater"!

With multiple horses, a lot of us horse peeps blanket them in the field with no restraint, not even a halter....make sure you can do this with your horse and that you are safe! It's highly recommended to either halter and tie or cross-tie your horse but I just run out there with the blankets and get each horse set....uh, yeah.  Here's a great video of the proper, proper way to do it!

The safest way is to fasten all the connections from the front of the horse working towards the back, this is imperative if you don't have your equine in cross-ties or tied to a post.  Velcro and buckle the chest strap first!  If your horse moves or walks off they are less likely to then have a half secured blanket tangle in their legs if they decide to bolt.  Next work your way to under the belly and if there are two straps make sure they are crossed in the middle.  If there are three straps, the front and back straps should follow that same crossing pattern under the belly. Then to the tail end, some blankets have leg straps some just the tail strap.  For the tail strap DO NOT use a bungy one (yes Rambo's $400 horse blankets come with a bungy strap, these can get caught on something and then snap back hard and fast to injure your horses leg....ask me how I know!).  Then you are done!  Just watch as your beautiful, expensive horse blanket turns to the color of mud!

Stock tank heaters: Through the years I have gone through the various types.  I've settled on drop in heaters will a cage and have also learned to rig up a silly gelding proof PVC power cord protection device.  I'm not so concerned about chewing of the wires, since these heaters come with a good wrap but the fact that silly shadow pony (aka Seamus) likes to pull the heater completely out of the
water to play with! Not a safe toy in the least!

The cord for the water heater goes through the PVC pipe and then we also have the an extension cord plug keep that prevents water from coming into contact with the contacts, the extension cord and the water heater.

There is also another part of this set up, a grounding wire. It's important to make sure plastic stock tank water is grounded. Grounding Your Deicers We've attached a copper wire that wraps onto the heater cage a couple loops and then runs through the PVC tube and down to a lightning rod installed at least 2 feet into the ground.  Sometimes heaters can malfunction and charge the water or worse leak enough electricity to give your grounded horse a lethal dose of electricity.  I've never had this happen but every winter I have seen articles about this from various equestrian newsletters and post, so we've decided to be extra cautious. 

In the same theme of protecting my silly Seamus from himself, I have another PVC pole to cover up the lightning rod so he doesn't accidently gouge himself while trying to play with it on the other side of the fence.  

Oh that boy, he just looks for places to cause mischief!