Windchill
For many of us, the weather is rather inclement at the moment. In many parts of Europe snowfall has given a very wintry vista and the wind has also started to get up. The combination of low temperatures and wind has given us a new addition to our vocabulary in the past thirty odd years […]
Back outside
Having been kept indoors the past few icy days – horses can’t walk on hard icy ground – the local horse-community is back outside and naturally well wrapped up in their jackets! After all, it is still cold. It is always a wonder to me that so many “knowledgable” horse owners seem to think that […]
Oh dear…!
Having posted the photo yesterday of three horses well wrapped up against the warmth cold I thought no more of the article – until I was confronted by this sight this afternoon: Just what use this jacket is, I don’t know – it certainly doesn’t do what it is “intended” to do. But even more […]
What’s wrong here?
So, what is wrong with these pictures? It seems a perfectly normal scene – horses grazing in a field, jackets on to protect against the cold. To all intents and purposes, the horses are doing alright – but the temperature is nearly 10˚C. Why then, do these horses need jackets? They have a perfectly natural […]
Transhumance
It’s the last week before Christmas and once again I am spending the week in the Pyrenees in the company of seventy-plus horses and a smattering of people. We are taking the horses from their summer grounds, some 1800 metres up in the Pyrenees to their winter grounds some 1400 metres lower in the Aude. […]
Winter is here (on paper!)
So the winter has begun; well, according to the meteorological calendar, at least. Our weathermen mark the change of seasons on the first day of March, June, September and December – it makes it easier on the statistics than the infinitely variable 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd or 23rd of the month 😀 Our horses (were […]
Keeping Warm
I got home yesterday afternoon to see two horses in the field next to the house wearing blankets! It was 15˚C… Why on earth anyone should put a blanket on a horse when it is that warm is beyond me. Even Full-blood Arab horses are quite capable of withstanding temperatures well below freezing (it gets […]