Barn Hacks – Winter Edition

It’s that time of year when it all gets COLD…. so save some time, warm up, and do your horse a solid with these winter barn hacks.

Wear your horse’s bridle under your jacket to warm it up. Alternatively, a small heater in your tack room below the bridles will do the job for you. I also like to dunk my bits into some warm water, made by my instant hot kettle.

Invest in an ear cover. Thinner wool styles can fit under your helmet and keep your ears warm.

Use a crockpot to keep water hot for grooming, wiping stains, hot toweling, bit warming, and hand cleaning. Washcloths are the perfect size for all of these chores. You can also use an insta-hot kettle.

Instant hot water is also good for making soupy food.

Wear nylon pantyhose or silk base layers. They are thin enough to fit under breeches and help keep you warm! You can also find lined breeches – with some fuzzy inside layers. I have them in both full seat and knee patch versions.

Base layers or pantyhose are thin enough to allow comfortable movement.

Use Shapley’s No. 1 Light Oil to coat the bottom of your horse’s hooves to help prevent snowballs from forming. Incidentally, this grooming oil is great to also add condition and shine to your horse’s coarse winter coat.

Ski pants are light enough and baggy enough to wear over your boots and breeches when you are not riding. Zippers up along the outside making for easy on and easy off.

Cut static when vacuuming your horse by spritzing the inside of the nozzle with water. You may need to repeat for the other side of your horse. You can also cut static under blankets by rubbing the lining with dryer sheets.

No one wants to be zapped by the loud dirt-sucking machine.

Spray your snow shovel with your favorite horse shine product, like Magic Sheen, to prevent snow from sticking as you shovel around the barn.

Put your compost pile to work by spreading a thick layer over the ground that covers pipes. This keeps everything toasty if your pipes are not buried as deeply as they should be.

Give the poop a job over the winter.

Use mud knots, tail bags, or long braids to keep tails *relatively* free of mud. Mud knot instructions can be found here!

What’s your best winter barn hack?

If you are interested in the Shapley’s No. 1 Light Oil or a hot kettle for horse grooming and helping with snowballs, you can pick some up here. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, which are no additional cost to you. I greatly appreciate your support!

Shapley’s No.1 Light Oil – also good for dry skin and coat conditioning.

Hamilton Beach 40880 Electric Kettle, 1.7-Liter, Silver – for instant hot water

For previous barn hacks, visit these pages:

PART SEVEN – DOLLAR STORE EDITION

PART NINE – HORSE SHOW EDITION