Horses in the snow

[oldmangunner]

How well do horses do in the snow? Do you must have special awareness of snow and ice or do horses have good traction with these things. I figure they must do pretty well because people used to use them as their main mode of transportation.

[Pathfinder1]

Hi...


When it comes to draft (or draught) horses, they didn't wear smooth horseshoes, like a riding horse might. Their shoes had metal extrusions on the shoe, called corks (or caulks) which were "non-skid", and were good-gripping shoes. They were usually worn year around.

[dinosaur]

My horses all do well in the snow. Of course, one has to be careful when drifting is a problem. Once the horse is chest deep in snow, it has the same problems a human has. Aside from that, horses are great to ride in the snow.

[ppine]

Pathfiner is right. Riding horses have also used corks in snowy country. I used to run my riding mules barefoot which is also better than regular shoes. Untracked snow is a lot of work for horses over about a foot deep. I have been over some mountain passes early in the year when the snow depth was still 4-8 feet. Thawed corn snow holds their weight fairly well, but sometimes a foot will disappear and you have to roll off and get them to their feet. If they aren't used to it there is some panic and flailing around. Much like riding in a boggy area or wet aspen stands. Get them used to it ahead of time if you can.

Deep snow really wears horses out in a hurry. There was a famous string of mules than ran the mail route in northern California that actually wore snowshoes to make it through deep drifts. Mules are better suited to unusual stuff like that than most horses.

The famous 20 mule teams in Death Valley had several teams 2, 3,and 4 step over the pull chain, and pull against the others on steep curves. It is hard to get horses to do such things.