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Juli, I can give you my personal input given to you IMHO. I live at 
9,600ft, 8 miles up a jeep road so I kinda know what "Being in the 
middle of nowhere" means. I have wintered my horses up here and though I 
don't have a barn shelter for them I do have some tall pines, cliffs and 
scrub brush, for the ponies to get into a protective area to get out of 
the really bitter winds. Though back in 89 I built a shed for them, It 
seems that my guys are pretty hard core and that winter, they refused to 
go into that shed and if you led them in, they immediately  ran back out 
and preferred to be outside. They had beaten down paths in the snow 
within the pasture. I never put winter blankets on them unless we ride 
and they had gotten sweaty with their heavy winter coats. Then I would 
unsaddle and immediately threw a fleece on them to wick up the moisture. 
Then I  throw a winter blanket over that & turn them loose. I would 
check on them three or four hours later. When the moisture from the 
sweat was gone and when I felt that their bodies were dry and warm, I 
take the fleece off. I leave the winter blanket on them for another hour 
then remove that. That's when they loved to roll and shake off the snow. 
I usually ride three or four times a week during the winter. I try to be 
saddled up and and be back home after a three or four hour ride. I wear 
full coverall Carhardts, boots and mittens with those little packaged 
hand and foot warmers in both. I wear  a hunters wool hat with the long 
ear flaps so my head is warm. Then I finish it off with a neck warmer 
that I could pull up over my mouth and nose to protect from frostbite. 
Yes I know this sounds like I must look like the Michelin Man. But I am 
always toasty and warm. The most important lessons learned, I WON'T ever 
ride with steel shoes. Even if you spray Pam on the underside of the 
foot inevitably it only lasted a short time before painful icy snowballs 
would build under the hoof sticking to steel shoes. A couple of years 
ago I did the Ducks 5 day 250 mile North Rim of the Grand Canyon  I rode 
for two of the 50 mile days with another girl who was riding a horse 
with steal shoes. It was the worst weather the ride had ever 
experienced. It rained the first day and then started to snow for the 
remaining days. All the rigs & trucks back at camp, started to sink in 
the deep mud. The Forest Service thought that all the damage being done 
by trying to winch these rigs and trucks out, was going to result in the 
meadow sustaining untold damage and it was possible that we would not be 
able to have the ride the following year. Dwayne burnt out two winches 
trying to get the sunken trucks and rigs and trucks.Camp was at a lower 
elevation than the ride trail and it rained there but didn't snow there 
much. On the trail, there was a lot of rain and snow. EVEN Naked Dave 
Rabe had full pants, gloves and a jacket. That's saying a lot if you 
know Naked Dave and his daisy dukes and wife-beater muscle shirt, that 
he rides in at most of his rides. Several days we rode with goggles, 
etc, we'd be covered in several inches of snow. On that trip I DID 
blanket Cabo every night for the entire night, knowing that we had to 
ride another 50 miles the next day, (always with a rump rug) And had his 
winter blanket and supplies brought to the next check or hold. Annie 
always had hot coffee and hot water for hot chocolate. SOoo, I added 
bran to his grain and diced apple and diced carrots and soaked the whole 
thing in hot water and then I mixed it up well. When the mixture was 
cool enough to still be very warm but not hot, Cabo would chow down and 
have warm food in his belly for the next stretch. The girl who had the 
horse wearing the steel shoes, did not have an easy time getting on and 
off her horse. So it was me who would get off my horse and dig the snow 
balls out of her horses hooves. On the other hand, I had my horse 
wearing Christoff Schork's great equiflex rubber (not sure whether they 
are really flexible Rubber shoes or a different flexible plastic) with 
his pads and barium cleats for the ice. I highly recommend them and I 
also have ridden with them at every 100 miler on Cabo. (Check out 
Christoffs web page that describes these Equiflex shoes at Global 
Endurance .com) Cabo was pulled at mile 48 on day three, on the Grand 
Canyon Duck ride as he was a bit stiff. But he was sound the next day 
and ready to do more. At the end of this last day I developed really bad 
blisters and chapped skin from riding with the canvas Carhardt seam 
rubbing on the inside of my upper thighs. 248 miles in my Carhardts! (I 
learned that I needed  two pair of winter tights with no inner seam, 
UNDER the Carhardts when riding a 50 miler or more) I'm attaching a few 
pics to show where we ride in winter at home, as well as conditions at 
camp on the Grand Canyon ride.  You need to press the following link, 
when the single picture appears, you need to go to the top of the page 
press the tab that says Melissa Margetts, another picture will apear and 
you just scroll down and highlight the" riding in winter" album and then 
all the pictures apear. Touch each picture to make them larger, Whew!r 
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=125750&l=ba6b8&id=1428832070  So 
in summation, IMHO I think you can ride in winter, & comfortably toasty. 
Take care of your horse, and condition them all winter (here winter 
starts with snow in September lasting until late May.) Good luck and be 
prepared. The more you ride them in snow, they develop and add another 
level of conditioning and ability to pace themselves in these conditions..
Melissa Margetts

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