Dr. Bob Coleman, University of Kentucky and former Canadian, shares tips on continuing to ride horses through the winter or those cold snaps the southerners are sometimes are exposed to.
Dr. Bob Coleman, University of Kentucky and former Canadian, shares tips on continuing to ride horses through the winter or those cold snaps the southerners are sometimes are exposed to.
Kris Hiney: Welcome to extension horses, tackbox talk series, horror stories with the purpose. I'm your host, Dr. Kris Hiney, and today we are going to be talking about
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cold weather, but riding in cold weather. So often we talk about horse care, and how much hay they eat and how much water. But we haven't really addressed the
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Kris Hiney: is it okay to ride? How should you ride, and what considerations do we need for the horse?
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So we thought we would ask one of our our favorite guests back to the program, Doctor Bob Coleman, from the University of Kentucky, and former Canadian. So if somebody knows about cold weather riding it is. Gonna be our friends from the North. So welcome back, Doctor Bob.
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Bob Coleman: Thanks, Doctor Hiney. It's glad to be here. I guess I'm still a Canadian, but now transplanted to
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Bob Coleman: Kentucky, where supposedly it should be warmer. But
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Bob Coleman: well, I think we can say it's warmer than Canada.
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Bob Coleman: Yes, very much so very much so. Yeah. And sort of the the weather changes and sort of the conversation about. Now, what do I do with my horse has been.
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Bob Coleman: you know one of those things that it sneaks up on us.
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Bob Coleman: you know. I think we we live in a world where oh, it's not going to get that cold. I know
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Bob Coleman: I used to be that way, and probably still am that way, as you know. Yeah, you hear the forecast that it's going to be
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Bob Coleman: so minus 25 overnight, and and it only gets down to minus 20. And you think you've dodged the bullet.
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Bob Coleman: cause it's it's not as cold as they said, It is. Is it still cold? Well, yeah.
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Bob Coleman: it's purely a mind game. And and I think sometimes we have to watch our mind games so that we do as you said in the intro. Think about the horses.
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Kris Hiney: -
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Kris Hiney: Well, and I think you know, when we we're gonna do this talk today. You know, if we're talking about exercising the horses, the reality is oftentimes the horses are gonna be better off than the people, and the humans can get themselves into trouble pretty easily with the cold weather. So those little delicate hands and feet sometimes
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Bob Coleman: don't really like the outdoors. Well, in faces, noses, ears. You're right. I mean.
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Bob Coleman: we have to plan. and I know, growing up.
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Bob Coleman: We sort of had a bit of a breakpoint So
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Bob Coleman: minus 10 Fahrenheit. We was probably still work courses. but we did it differently. We probably went
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Bob Coleman: a lot slower, maybe not as long sort of made sure that
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Bob Coleman: we were thinking about them.
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Bob Coleman: but also
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Bob Coleman: because of. And there's climate change, and and we know that. But you know, when you.
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Bob Coleman: when the cold weather kind of sets in and lasts a little longer. There's that whole acclamation that goes on, and and I think the horses do acclimate. But we also have to think about it. So
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Bob Coleman: I know when I talked to some friends in Canada recently, you know, and asked, so you guys race horses there in the wintertime.
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Bob Coleman: At what temperature do you stop racing?
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Bob Coleman: And it was a very extension answer.
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Bob Coleman: It depends. It depends. It was like
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Bob Coleman: II needed, you know, cause. We want it to be a black and white answer, because that's a lot simpler. But you know, you add in things like wind chill, you have to add in
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Bob Coleman: exactly the temperatures and a lot of the conditions, both
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Bob Coleman: pre exercise and post exercise that you got to think about. And I think a lot of times we kind of forget about that. So
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Bob Coleman: you know, if the horses are out there, certainly race horses are probably going to be clipped in some form or fashion.
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Bob Coleman: So that helps to to dry them off and cool them off.
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Bob Coleman: It probably also keeps them from getting as hot to a degree. But you know, what are we doing afterwards? So you know.
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Bob Coleman: what we used to do is, yeah, we went out and we would work
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Bob Coleman: at some point.
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Bob Coleman: Because, growing up, we had an indoor arena at our fairgrounds that we could go over and use, so that actually took walking over there
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Bob Coleman: to use it, but we would walk over with our horses. They would have blankets on
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Bob Coleman: tack, would be underneath the blankets, so
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Bob Coleman: we felt it was safer to walk them because of the footing conditions. So we would walk.
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Bob Coleman: That probably helped me a little bit. But you had to be careful, because toes would get very cold
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Bob Coleman: and then we would work. But we were working inside out of the wind. Was it still kind of cold in there. Yes, it was, but he would work a little bit, probably make sure they didn't get
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Bob Coleman: hot enough to start to sweat, and then you would walk back
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Bob Coleman: when we got home. Then we spent a lot of time getting them dry.
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Bob Coleman: and and that becomes the issue. I think in a lot of cases you've got to dry them off. and it's not. you know. I see people every now and then. It's like, well, they're sort of dry. They're not completely dry. We'll just throw the blanket on them, and then they'll be fine. Well, no, they won't
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Bob Coleman: they gotta be dry when you put the blanket on, and I think even in a barn.
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Bob Coleman: make sure there's pretty dry before you put the blanket on, because you're just gonna trap that moisture, and they're gonna get cold.
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Kris Hiney: Yeah? Cause then I mean that wet hair doesn't have well, blankets kind of smash their hair down. But if it's wet. It's even going to be yeah, less insulation there.
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Kris Hiney: So I think, you know, if we're we're gonna make some, maybe kind of some guidelines or recommendations for people. I think one of the things that you said is worth reiterating, like you have to plan your work
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Kris Hiney: so that you don't get them sweaty unless you are willing to put a lot of time into drying them off. And it's not a fast process at all, especially if I mean, we talk about coolers. Maybe we can talk about what coolers actually do, or a few, you know, some farms have, like the heat lamps over the top of them like we're a grooming bay that will help dry the horse off, but
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Kris Hiney: but it can take a long time to dry them off with just a towel right?
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Bob Coleman: Yep. We used to use bran sacks, the old jute sacks, and
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Bob Coleman: it was you rubbed them till they were dry, and you're right. It took a long time particularly, and again it depends on how you're keeping your horse
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Bob Coleman: a horse that goes in at night, but stays out all day long is probably gonna grow some hair
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Bob Coleman: and a really good hair coat that keeps them warm will be a good hair coat that will really keep them wet so, and even with the heat lamps, if you're not looking at something, and certainly preparing for it where you have enough heat lamps
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Bob Coleman: properly wired
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Bob Coleman: electrical system can handle that
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Bob Coleman: and
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Bob Coleman: that they're not so high that by the time the heat generated from those infrared lamps gets to the horse. There's nothing there. So II think a lot of times we have those.
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Bob Coleman: because if you think about it in the chicken house where you put the brewer lamp in. Those chickens get pretty close to the lamp.
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Bob Coleman: Yeah stable.
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Bob Coleman: So if it's gonna do any good, it's gotta be reasonably close. So I think you have to be concerned about that.
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Bob Coleman: And II think you're right. I mean, you can put coolers on them that helps a little bit.
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Bob Coleman: but generally I mean my experience with coolers. They work really well to wick moisture away. When we were walking horses to cool them out at the racetrack.
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Bob Coleman: No.
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Bob Coleman: it's
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Bob Coleman: it is going to help. But it's not.
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Bob Coleman: I mean, it's still a long, slow process. I mean, you gotta groom them really good to get them dry. Keep that, you know. Get that hair
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Bob Coleman: Fluff back up so that it does dry.
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Bob Coleman: your comment about the
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Bob Coleman: you know the blankets, and it smashes the hair down. I mean, think about that wet spot underneath saddle pad, I mean.
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Bob Coleman: even in the summertime it takes a lot of work to get those saddle pad marks to disappear without washing them off, and Heaven forbid you think about
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Bob Coleman: bathing one in the winter time.
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Bob Coleman: so you may be right, a little shorter
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Bob Coleman: that has a benefit. So they're not going to get as hot. You are also not going to get as cold thinking about
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Bob Coleman: little things depending on how far north or how cold it is. I mean, 5 degrees doesn't seem like very cold, but it is
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Bob Coleman: Oklahomans that seems real cold.
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Bob Coleman: You get out there and you're riding and doing things, and you've got gloves on.
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Bob Coleman: my guess is probably at somewhere between 15 and 20 degrees. By the time you're done, whatever it is you're doing, your fingers are gonna be
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Bob Coleman: pretty cold.
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And it's gonna be number one
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Bob Coleman: hard to maintain good contact on the reins.
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Bob Coleman: The worst of it is, when you get to the barn, and I'll promise you do not need to experience this. You can learn from my mistakes when your fingers warm up, they really hurt.
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Bob Coleman: Yes, yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. And you're standing there waiting
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Bob Coleman: till your fingers warm up enough so you can actually take the tack off the horse, whatever it might be. and I'd kind of forgot about that a little while back I got the
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Bob Coleman: yeah. So drive for a Sunday afternoon. It wasn't that cold, but it was probably in the low twenties, and when we got back to the barn in that painful finger. Sensation hit. It was like, boy. This just took me back
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Bob Coleman: decades, and it was not a fun trip back.
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Bob Coleman: So yeah, think about that. You know your feet are gonna get cold. You bundle up enough so that you don't get cold. But then how effective one are you on that horse? I mean? Well, you look like the Michelin man. You're warm, but
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Bob Coleman: flop around like a sack of potatoes that might not be the best.
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Kris Hiney: Yeah. So I kinda think about.
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Kris Hiney: you know, one of the considerations of what are you gonna do with your horse is exactly, you know. Is he
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Bob Coleman: a woolly mammoth? Is he a slick haired show horse in a heated barn that's blanketed, is he clipped? You know we haven't talked about. I think it's more of an English thing, oftentimes with the trace clips and how they clip the horses for
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Kris Hiney: winter. I don't know why we don't do that with Western horses. We just don't. But how your horses is managed is going to dictate what you actually can do with them in the cold weather
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Bob Coleman: exactly. And you think
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Bob Coleman: you know it's a good point, you know. Why don't we all use that trace clip the race horse people do it. The English people do.
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Bob Coleman: but certainly that may also have a little bit of an impact. If the horse has got less hair and you're out in a colder climate.
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Bob Coleman: particularly if there's a bit of wind, you know, and you will see
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Bob Coleman: some disciplines ride with a quarter blanket. Because they're keeping their horses, you know, from getting cold. They're allowing them to warm up properly, but also not then
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Bob Coleman: having issues with that. So I think there's some things that we probably could look across disciplines and say, Why do you do what you do?
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Bob Coleman: And if it makes good sense.
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Bob Coleman: maybe we should be. Maybe more of us should be doing it. But
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Bob Coleman: you know, I think then, yeah, you're gonna maybe dissipate some of the heat, and they maybe aren't gonna sweat and get as wet.
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Bob Coleman: So there is a lot of that. But I think in a lot of cases we can still get out when it's cold. but maybe the intensity.
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Bob Coleman: and it also relates to you know how acclimated they are to, and I think a lot of times we sort of forget
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Bob Coleman: that. Oh, well, we're indoors. Yeah, but it's not heated.
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Bob Coleman: So here
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Bob Coleman: you're out of the elements, so to speak, and it might not be quite as cold, but in some cases it might actually be colder
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Kris Hiney: right? And you know in those indoors that they're often pretty cold. Those covered pens that aren't heated are often really cold. And then the other thing to think about then, which people may not put in their head is, what about if what's your ground like, right? Is there freezing happening? Is that surface too hard for that horse? Exactly. And I think there's and we get that question a lot, you know, it's gonna get cold.
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Bob Coleman: What do I do for my ground? Well, one of the things that a lot of people will do is you work it more because you're trying to dis, you know. Disperse the water that's there, and it maybe keeps it from freezing quite so hard.
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Bob Coleman: But when you do that. Then it dries out. So now it might be a little softer, but now it's going to be dustier. So now we're riding in a dusty arena. It looks like
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Bob Coleman: it. It becomes, you know. Well, II need to water it. Well, if you water it, it's gonna freeze. If you put some of the products down. It's gonna affect the horse's feet might not freeze. But what are you doing to make sure you're cleaning their feet and not drying them out, or
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Bob Coleman: are you paying attention to that? So I think there's a lot of times it's
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Bob Coleman: staying simple. Maybe we don't ride quite so long. We watch a little bit about how much we work the ground. But you're exactly right. I mean, a lot of those
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Bob Coleman: grounds depending on how they are constructed can get really hard and be interesting to really look
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Bob Coleman: love, to do some work with some of that
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Bob Coleman: footing that has the fabric in it, and the oil.
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Bob Coleman: and then makin it cold like making it
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Bob Coleman: below freezing for
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Bob Coleman: a week. And just see, what does that footing actually do? How does it change, and it's like it might not freeze.
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Bob Coleman: But I'm not sure what congealed wax does to the
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Bob Coleman: quality of the footing. I mean. we hear that for the racetracks that have put in the the peeta and the other synthetic surfaces is that you had to be really careful how you worked it to keep it consistent
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Bob Coleman: cold and hot, so
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Bob Coleman: there's no panacea. I wish there was. But II think a lot of times it's just thinking about what it is you're doing
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Bob Coleman: maybe take a step back. If we can't ride as much.
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Bob Coleman: Maybe we can't ride for a few days. Then when we start back up.
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Bob Coleman: You know. It's glorious weather. The sun's shining. It's got closer to 0, and off we go. And I was like, yeah, but
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Bob Coleman: ole Nellie's just had a week off.
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Bob Coleman: She's just had a I mean, slow down starting back up.
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Bob Coleman: and Maintain, even when it's cold. I mean, I think a lot of times people. We're not going to warm em up cause it's cold out. I don't want to be out for that long. So now we're gonna ask them to do things, and they're not properly warmed up. That's not very good.
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Kris Hiney: What I would, you know, echo it. I think people have to think about is alright. It's cold. So you probably have this amount of window of time right? And you
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Kris Hiney: can't get the horse sweaty. The warm up. Time probably has to be longer, right? Because of stiff muscles and being cold.
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Kris Hiney: So you really probably need to focus your efforts. And what am I gonna work on with this horse this day. Maybe I could do some suppling, trotting exercises across all disciplines. Right? Do you have to be going high intensity and then being smart enough to like this is my plan. Don't
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Kris Hiney: you know how people will get? They get down a rabbit hole or start picking on them, or like something's not going right like you can't do that because you have sort of this. This is my allotted time that I've gotta warm him up, cool him down, and get him prepared to either go back in his stall, or wear his blanket or go back outside.
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Bob Coleman: Yep, no, I think you're exactly right. And and maybe we think about. Okay, it's the warm up. But I think it goes to your point. Maybe some of those basic exercises. We build them into our warmup.
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Bob Coleman: And when we get the response we need and want.
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Bob Coleman: we're done.
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Bob Coleman: It's like, boy. This was really good. We had a great warm up for 15 or 20 min.
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Bob Coleman: and we're done. Yeah.
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Bob Coleman: And now he's a little warm, and that that tiny bit damp. But we have another 15 or 20 min, so we can
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Bob Coleman: do a little cooling down. I mean it's hard to get them dried out when it's when it's
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Bob Coleman: 20 degrees out. But you're right, then I still have my time. So
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Bob Coleman: if we have our 2 h block to ride our horse.
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Bob Coleman: figure out what you're gonna do in the 2 h, because
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Bob Coleman: preparing, warming up, cooling down, drying them off, getting them ready to go back wherever they go. because even if your barn is not heated, there's a
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Bob Coleman: you know, it's gonna be warmer to a degree, depending on how many horses are in there than outside. So you can take advantage of that. But
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Bob Coleman: I think the idea that we have a defined period of time per horse.
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Bob Coleman: We need to remember that and embrace that. And just say.
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Bob Coleman: Yeah, it's cold.
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Bob Coleman: Don't think you're bein a wimp because you didn't go the whole length o time.
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Be comfortable.
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Bob Coleman: be comfortable for you, be comfortable for your horse, and I think there's both of that. and I know I would worry a little bit. I read about them. I don't have them. Actually, there was an interesting post on Facebook that somebody
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Bob Coleman: wasn't sure what they should put on their feet.
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Bob Coleman: I don't think they were riding. I think they're doing chores, but they found that their cowboy boots, their feet got cold.
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Bob Coleman: Looks like, oh, yeah.
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Bob Coleman: don't wear cowboy boots. That was my first thought, but it was just like,
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Bob Coleman: Wow! Okay, but you know. And then somebody said, Well, there's like the hand warmers, and there's foot warmers, and there's heated vests, and there's all that sort of stuff.
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Bob Coleman: I would caution a little bit with that, because if you're not getting cold you might not stop when you should.
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Bob Coleman: It's kind of like it's really nice as I'm driving across Oklahoma in July, in my air conditioned cab, forgetting that old Nellie's in the back where it's 98 degrees.
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Kris Hiney: you know. It's like
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Bob Coleman: Our creature comforts
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Bob Coleman: sometimes can cloud our horses. Creature comfort., it's not that bad. It's not that cold. My hands are all right. Yeah. Well.
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Bob Coleman: let's think about him. I guess the other thing I think about, too.
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Bob Coleman: and you can see them. You can buy them. But
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Bob Coleman: even when you go to tack up and everything, so we've kind of got them warmed up on the lunge line a little bit. You know. The bridle's now been hanging in the arena for 10 min. Hold on to it for a while, please, before you stick it in old Nellie's mouth, because that bit will have got cold.
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Bob Coleman: Could have been cold coming out of tackroom, depending on where you keep it.
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Bob Coleman: and just be thoughtful. It's like. I can't imagine what that would actually feel like, and I'm not going to try. I'm not going to put a bit in the freezer and then
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Bob Coleman: lick it, cause then your tongue will stick to it
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Bob Coleman: and we all. We've all Christmas story. When the Kid stuck his tongue to the light post. That's exactly what happened. It's like. Don't do that, and don't do that to your horse. So I mean, do you need to buy the electric bit warmer?
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Bob Coleman: I don't think so. I mean, if if you really want a cheap way of doing it.
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Bob Coleman: wrap it with a heating pad.
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Bob Coleman: or lay it on a heating. Take the chill out of it.
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Kris Hiney: and another point like that I wanna make sure. You know, if you are working your horses in the winter
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like you may not see like that the same workload. But right work increases water requirements, and if you're not
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Kris Hiney: providing a source of water that they're willing to drink right because cold weather they dropped. It is amazing just to watch with my horses, you know.
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Kris Hiney: though, that are housed outside, the amount of water they drink depending on the temperature is really remarkable. And so if you're putting that workload on them, and they're not having a, you know, a warm, tepid source of water. We might
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Kris Hiney: not be doing the right thing
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Bob Coleman: well, and be careful. Don't make it too hot.
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Bob Coleman: No boiling water. It's I've actually seen that where somebody decided that they didn't want their outdoor automatic waters to freeze. So they crank the heater unit up.
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Bob Coleman: You could see
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Bob Coleman: steam like a lot of steam coming off. That water was really hot, and it was like, well, they're not drinking. It looks like
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Bob Coleman: I mean, there's a lot of those sorts of things. Is that
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Bob Coleman: what are we doing to make sure that they're comfortable in. I mean.
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Bob Coleman: because we're gonna spend less time or try to be more efficient because it's cold, and we don't want to be out in the cold. I appreciate that not all of us have the luxury of a heated barn.
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Bob Coleman: It's interesting, even in some barns. How
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Bob Coleman: the fact that the horses are there can't help just raise the temperature enough. It mean, it might not mean that we're gonna take our coat off, and just.
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Bob Coleman: you know, have our down vest on, but it will be a little bit different.
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Bob Coleman: But it's still
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Bob Coleman: yeah. The water's not freezing, but it's not a balmy, you know. 68 degrees. It's gonna be 4 to maybe 8 degrees warmer than outside
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Bob Coleman: in in the barns that we've measured.
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Bob Coleman: And I guess the other thing is that think about. So the horses are out all day, but they go in at night.
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Bob Coleman: so the first
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Bob Coleman: I don't know how many hours it would take for them to warm up their space, because it's been empty all day. and it will have cooled off. I mean.
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Bob Coleman: even if you've you know you could shut the barn door. But the heat's gonna leave it, it just is. And so
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Bob Coleman: you know, thinking about that thinking about, you know, blanketing the
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Bob Coleman: the right way to blanket putting them on. I actually had somebody that had a full, fully clipped show horse.
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Bob Coleman: and
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Bob Coleman: I could have never thought of this, or had it happened? But she got criticized by the people in the barn because she put too many blankets on her horse.
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Bob Coleman: It's like it's cold in this barn, is. It? Was not a heated barn.
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Bob Coleman: of course, had no hair, that's like, and she had a sheet and a
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Bob Coleman: probably a medium to not quite a heavyweight blanket on them, that's all he had on wasn't accessible by any stretch normal
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Bob Coleman: that have hair. That's what they were in. And it's okay. But if it was interesting that people would look, you know, you're going to be
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Bob Coleman: viewed by your peers of either not doing enough or doing too much welcome to the horse world.
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Bob Coleman: Make sure your horse comfortable. Make sure that you're happy with how your horse is being cared for
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Bob Coleman: and be done.
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Bob Coleman: The other thing that then again, not to forget about it is again depending on where you're riding.
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Bob Coleman: make sure that you're doing a good job cleaning. Feed out. If you have to go through snow to get to the arena or get to where you ride.
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Bob Coleman: watch out for snowballs. They will.
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Bob Coleman: they will happen
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Bob Coleman: probably happen more often. Horses that are shod. But
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Kris Hiney: well, and again, really reiterate, if you're gonna do
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Kris Hiney: winter riding the footing.
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Kris Hiney: you can't have rough, frozen ground and expect them to be okay, like and like, who is? I mean, it's typically it's gotta be an indoor. That's drug regularly right. I don't know. Do you know a lot of people that will still drag their outdoors in the winter? Nope, and they they the ones I see they just they don't do it. I mean, if we were gonna work outside it, we went where there was snow
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Bob Coleman: and
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Bob Coleman: tried technique because we were used to hit the best part about winter work growing up. Is that? Then I could get my sleigh out, so
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Bob Coleman: I worked mine by driving them
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Bob Coleman: for 2 reasons one. It was a little easier. We could go different places. Then I'd have to worry about the ground quite so much. Plus. I also could bundle up more
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Bob Coleman: because I wasn't having to get on. Get, throw a leg over. My just was sitting in the sleigh so
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Bob Coleman: I could wear a lot more clothes and much warmer boots. So it was better. But I think, you know, there's a lot of that.
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Bob Coleman: Be careful. I think you also, you know we're worried about the ground where we're riding, because you, you know, once it freezes. Unless you have.
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Bob Coleman: I can't imagine the drag you would have to have to get that work right. I mean. I just don't think it would work. but also think about where you're turning them out.
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Kris Hiney: Yeah.
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Bob Coleman: because even just their turnout, even if it's for a couple hours. Those paddocks get really rough and torn up and
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Bob Coleman: and again
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Bob Coleman: pretty hard on their feet, cause that ground is
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Bob Coleman: really hard, and if you live in places where you have a lot of clay.
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Bob Coleman: it can be really hard. When it's dry.
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Bob Coleman: It's a little wet and then freezes. It's gonna be really hard. That's like turning out on rough pieces of concrete. I mean, you might as well be in a Rock River bottom.
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Bob Coleman: And we need to think about that. So
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Bob Coleman: you know, where are we going? What are we gonna do? And because you could write on it yesterday doesn't mean you could write on it today.
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Kris Hiney: Yeah, and I, would, you know at least for us down here, I mean at the easy answer for us is, wait 3 days. You'll be fine, right? Just yeah. I won't kill your horse and not be ridden for 3 days. But for you guys, you know our more Northern colleagues like they do have to think about how to do this.
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Kris Hiney: And yeah, how to do it. Well.
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Bob Coleman: and I think you're right. I mean, that used to be the joke in in Alberta is that
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Bob Coleman: wait an hour. The weather will change.
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Bob Coleman: and sometimes that was true. Sometimes it got better, sometimes it got worse. So
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Bob Coleman: yeah, I think in, are there some things you can do? Maybe you can get them out if if you can't ride, but you can get them out of the stall and lunge them for 10 min at least. or turn them loose in the indoor arena for to let them roll and blow off a little bit of steam and stretch their legs. I mean.
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Bob Coleman: that's what
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Bob Coleman: that's okay. I think
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Bob Coleman: we get so hung up on. We have to ride on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Well. that's great.
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Bob Coleman: but it's okay. If you can't it? It it really is, don't beat yourself up over a missed something.
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Bob Coleman: It's like.
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Bob Coleman: Think about your horse.
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Kris Hiney: yeah.
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Kris Hiney: And I, you know, I would say, maybe this is an opportunity, you know, just like we were talking about with the warming them up and the supple. Maybe it's a time to look at fundamentals. When have you revisited their groundwork. When have you made interesting tasks for them to move their feet? And you know proprioception, like, I think there's always a lot of things you could do that don't involve the normal, like.
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Kris Hiney: you know. We gotta work on our, you know. Jump in 4 foot fences, or you know your spins and rundowns like, I think there's other things that can add value to that animal for. Yeah, it's not forever, but for a few days, so that they're still mentally getting some work.
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Bob Coleman: and probably I don't think so. We kind of went. But that's it's kind of the way I mean. It seems like we were
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Bob Coleman: we winding our way down a path. But I think it is a path that you wind your way down, because.
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Bob Coleman: you know, you might be able to do this, but then you might have to turn and do that. And I think there's a lot of
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Bob Coleman: it's been
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Bob Coleman: being aware of what's going on and just being thoughtful about how you're gonna deal with it, and
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Bob Coleman: stay safe for you and your horse. I mean. we hear about that all the time, you know, when the road conditions like. If you don't need to go, don't. It's like, Well.
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Bob Coleman: you don't need to ride at this. You don't have to jump that 4 foot pins today. You just don't, because the ground isn't gonna allow it. And yeah, it's too cold.
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Bob Coleman: So be thoughtful and be flexible. Okay?
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Kris Hiney: Now, II do think before we go, we're gonna do 2 little vocab breaks down breakdowns because I'm not sure everybody has these solidly in the vocabulary trace, clipping.
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Bob Coleman: trace, clipping. It's wonderful when you basically take you. You've the way I look at it is you leave the top half of the horse covered in hair and the bottom half. You clip it all off so that
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Bob Coleman: from his chest all the way back and his underline back legs. It's
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Bob Coleman: the hair is removed. It's a wonderful pattern. If you're a good clipper you can make it look
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Bob Coleman: wonderful and be very simple. If you're not. You'll have clipper tracks everywhere. But that's okay. Yeah. You don't have to be perfect. Essentially, the idea is that you're removing hair over where they typically sweat the underside of their neck, which we all know gets really sweaty. And so you're allowing them to dissipate a little bit of heat and and speed up the drying process, and a lot of people will leave sort of the knees and the hawks down.
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Bob Coleman: particularly if you're going out, and there might be snow or something, you know. Leave that hair for a little bit. Extra protection.
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Kris Hiney: Yeah. Okay. The last one we're gonna add in is what is a quarter sheet.
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Bob Coleman: Oh, it is. It is a sheet that basically goes
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Bob Coleman: from under your saddle, but goes back over the hind quarters of the horse. the.
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Bob Coleman: There's also some that you can see out there that it would be really nice if you want to ride outside, that you can actually have them where they cover your legs as the rider. Yeah. And so you're
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Bob Coleman: so the English people would do that. The Western people, I would think we just put chaps on and call it good, right? I think so, but putting chaps on doesn't keep your horse warm, but there are, but it does keep them, and that leather will break a little bit of wind. So. But yeah, it it's just that it covers the hind quarter of the horse.
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Kris Hiney: so if anybody hasn't seen him. You can google it. There's various ways that again. They're blankets that essentially help keep those large muscles of that horse
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Bob Coleman: warm. When you're we're if you're riding outside, you don't see a lot of people use them indoors, but you do see it quite a bit ridden outside in in the English world in the English world. Yeah, they do in. We all do interesting things.
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Bob Coleman: I know it's so funny how like standards of care is so different between like culture. And it's the same animal, Yup. And for all intent purposes
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Bob Coleman: it's a very similar activity.
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Kris Hiney: Oh, well, well, yeah, I really appreciate your time. And this was a timely episode, since we're, you know, again, ice on the road here in Oklahoma. I think everything is in a bit of a polar plunge right now. And just because it's January doesn't mean it's over forever. Right? February can come back with a vengeance, too. So in warming up from 20 to 25 is
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Bob Coleman: a warm up, but it's a minor one. Yeah, yeah, no, it matters so alright. Well, thank you very much. And if anybody is interested in other cold weather advice for their horses, you can visit us at extension horses.com or listen to some of our episodes on our Tackbox Talks. So it's been a pleasure, and with that we will sign off. Thank you, Dr. Bob. Thank you.