BRRRR....

We are now on day 12 of below freezing temperature's. I think this is the longest stretch I have ever seen with this type of weather. It was getting into the teens at night for a few days and then it has been in the low to mid 20's since. It warms up to maybe 30 during the day. We had some snow a week ago and the last few days it has been extremely foggy. Now I don't have a problem with the cold. I can bundle up to do my horse chores and even use my hand and toe warmers. The problem is since we usually get rain, which causes extreme mud then when it freezes, well, the ground is impossible for the horses to walk on. A day or two of frozen mud I can deal with, but we are going on almost 2 weeks. A week ago I moved Chance and Brandy to the middle paddock. The middle paddock is actually a grassy strip approximately 120' long x 16' wide that separates 2 of our horse pastures and has gates at each end that we can close off to turn the horses out to graze in the spring and summer. We also use it in situations like right now with the frozen mud. But the problem is we also use the middle paddock to drive the UTV through to feed all the horses. So after a few days when the temps climbed out of the teens, we had to put the horses back into their frozen pasture. But this cold snap stuck around longer then what we all thought. The weather man keeps extending the cold snap. So we had to do something else. 

Last summer we had put in a new pasture after we made the decision to get another horse. We were able to fence off another section and we turned the goats loose to do what they are good at. Eating everything in sight. They did such a good job getting rid of all stickers, brush, weeds and leaves so this spring we will have a lot of work to do clearing out sticker vines, branches and everything they can't eat. We also will need to level out most of that pasture. There are some lumpy, bumpy areas that need to be flattened before we turn horses out in there, we never intended on having to turn horses out until we got all that work done. But with this extended cold snap we had to make the decision to open up the gate between Chance and Brandy's pasture to the goat (new) pasture. They can't be walking on the frozen mud and even though the new pasture needs to be leveled at some point, we had to open it up now. The horses knew what we were doing. They were so excited that they were running, snorting and blowing all over. I got a little worried because even though the ground is not frozen mud, there is plenty of flat ground for them to walk on, but it is icy and I did not want them to slip and fall. The goats do not create mud when they walk, so there was no frozen mud in the new pasture. So even though the new pasture wasn't quite "horse" ready, it was ready enough to use it temporarily. My OH and I walked around and cut branches that they could potentially poke an eye with and made sure it was as safe as it could possibly be during this cold snap. They still have access to their frozen mud pasture because that is where their water trough with the heater is. I only have a muck bucket for water in the goat (new) pasture and I break the ice in that a couple times a day. I have no way to get power up to the goat pasture to heat a trough so I watch and make sure my horses are going down to drink water, which they are.

Rio has flat ground in the lower part of her corral by her water trough and only has to walk through about 24' of frozen mud to get into her shed to eat. I couldn't move her anyways, but since she is in a smaller area, I don't worry about her as much. Fritzy is still on stall rest, so she is nice and cozy on rubber mats and shavings.

In times like these I really wish I had a barn. Something we can't afford to do and probably will never be able too. But I really just worry about the safety of my horses when it gets this cold for so long (a cold snap lasting this long is NOT normal here). I already have one injured horse (not from frozen mud) and one with pretty severe arthritis and I really worry about my young ones. Chance seems pretty sore on her right front. I can't find any heat or swellling, but I think walking on the frozen mud is taking its toll. I am doing everything I can to keep my horses as safe and comfortable as possible during this super long cold snap. I just hope they come out of it injury free. I worry every single minute about them.

It isn't supposed to warm up until later this week. It keeps changing though and the cold snap keeps lasting longer and longer. But I hear rain is on the way. I am actually quite excited about that. I don't think I have ever been excited to hear that rain is on the way. So this will probably be the one and only time you will hear me say this "Bring on the rain, baby!!"