10 Things To Do With Your Horse During The Winter

  1.  Spend down time brushing up on basic ground work.

  2.  Practice "Stand Still".  This will help in the spring when you want to easily mount your horse.

  3.  Practice "Come Around".  Teach him/her to swing their hind quarters toward an object you want to mount from.  There are a lot of videos on this.  Click here for just one of them.

  4.  Practice backing if your horse isn't as good at it as you want them to be.

  5.  Teach your horse to come to you when you call.

  6.  If your horse isn't as good at picking his/her feet up as they should be, work on that all winter.  Your farrier will appreciate it.

  7.  Teach your horse a "fun" trick like saying yes or no or smiling.

Our horse Haffy smiling on cue.

  8.  Give your horse a simple massage.  It's a great way to bond with them.

  9.  If you don't already have any, take pictures of your horse from all sides and extra pictures of any scars he has.  Even if you have those pictures taken in the summer, your horse can look quite different in the winter.  It could be important if he comes up missing or is stolen.

10.  If you don't have one, take an fun Christmas picture or an artistic picture of him in the snow.

Christmas Cassie

"How to's" of all of these ideas can be found on the internet.  Youtube is a great place to look first.