How to Use Snow as a Horse Management Tool

Photo at right: Tiffany meets her match, with snow.

In the midst of our travails with extra- ordinary snow, the date finally came when for Tiffany, our yearling filly, to be allowed out of her post-surgical stall confinement. She's been stuck in that stall for over three months, so you can imagine how worried I was about finally turning her out to a bigger space, where she might get explosive and hurt herself.

Mother Nature handed me a solution: Put her in a stall that opened to a snow-filled run. I'd heard stories of how the area's native Americans had captured and tamed wild horses by herding them into deep snow. Why wouldn't that work for Tiffany?

That turned out to be a brilliant thought. She surged out the open door, only to land chest-deep in snow. Shocked and surprised (she hadn't even seen snow until this point), she floundered back to the stall and its familiar footing, and gave up any further tries at going wild with freedom. Instead, she settled for making friends with her new neighbors, enjoyed standing with her head out in the sunshine, and gradually made her way out into the run as the snow melted down on the barn's south side. No bucking, no frantic running, no twisting on her still-healing stifle joint.

How's that for turning weather-lemons into lemonade?!