Battling the ice

[Minouri]

I look at all of those horses in the snow pictures with envy. It's been a rough couple of days here as far as figuring out how to deal with the ice.

First (when it was soft) we tried to plow....but the water rushed in and filled in the areas with ice as fast as we could plow.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e48/RuthieBetta/ice022.jpg

So I put on my boots and ran around the paddock for about an hour as the slush began to freeze...and I tried to put as many footprints as possible in the slush. Scooter and Snowy just watched me from their stalls....laughing, I think.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e48/RuthieBetta/ice004-1.jpg

Then off to Home Depot for all purpose sand. (We didn't know about the cattle salt then...but I'll keep that in mind for next time.)

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e48/RuthieBetta/ice012.jpg

Gone is my clean looking paddock since we used soiled shavings to give the slush texture. That worked really well, though. It stuck right to top of the ice. Not pretty, but effective.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e48/RuthieBetta/ice026.jpg

You can see exactly where I stopped to take a break from spreading sand.
Those 50lbs bags look small but...man, they weigh 50 lbs...lol


http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e48/RuthieBetta/ice003.jpg
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e48/RuthieBetta/ice010.jpg
I didn't put the sand where the boys eat. I don't want them eating it and the snowy part had some grip to it. I might need to salt that area now as it melts and hardens every day and night.

All in all the horses seem to have pretty good footing right now. They aren't running around. They haven't wandered off the sanded area...which I doubled in size since these pictures. But if they head down to the old paddock it's still icy. We're going to try to put up some fencing between their high area and the lower icy part...but with the ground being frozen it looks like we'll just be hanging and tying.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e48/RuthieBetta/ice020.jpg

It makes me so nervous to have them out there, but our doors (pretty as they are) don't yet hold Snowy in. He can open them with a good shove.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e48/RuthieBetta/ice008.jpg
Oh well. Hopefully it will melt soon.

[jodiTowne]

I'll take snow anytime! I love it anyway. But....we'll get ice once ours starts to melt. Bet you'll be on trails a good month before I am!

[appyday]

Wow what a mess...good luck

[tinomino]

I hear ya!!! The paddocks here are nothing but ice!! We can't even get the horses out of the barn for the worry one of them will slip on the ice and break a leg. No turn out here til mon when maybe we can get the ice under control.

[Terri]

Yep, that looks familar. But it got into the mid 30s today and the sun was out, so we had quite a bit of melt. I had spread hay everywhere before it froze and then more on top so there was some traction and I got the the guys out. They even found some muddy spots to roll in. Boy, oh boy do they look ....ummm....good? Hopefully we will get more melt tomorrow.

[Carol Nelson]

I HATE ice...hate it, hate it, hate it!!!! But thankfully it doesn't last long usually. Good luck...and get some of that livestock salt! ;-)

[Minouri]

Everywhere I put the all purpose sand the snow melted away! Yippee!

Did I see in the news that it was rain/snow for Tues, Wed, Thurs? Tell me I did not just see that!

[motorgypsy]

I can picture your horses out there ice skating after you go to bed at night! ;-) ;-) ;-)

Really scary stuff though. We get ice storms here and they are sooo bad. I do hate ice.