So many winter accidents (both 2 and 4 legged) are avoidable and doesn’t take much planning or time to make it safer all round.
If you live in an area where it freezes make sure you check regularly for holes, hollows or just where horses stand. Any dips should be leveled out or filled in so that any rain or water that settles doesn’t turn to ice making it a slippery hazard.
A horse can seriously hurt itself if it slips and then tries to get up on the slippery surface. If the ice doesn’t break then a horse runs the risk of thrashing around trying to regain his footing and could quite easily break a leg. If the ice does break it can have the same effect as glass and cause some serious deep cuts.
Granular salt can help roughen up slippery surfaces but do so sparingly or only in extreme circumstances as it is caustic and irritating to their hooves and legs and winter and all its elements all ready put enough stress on them. Clean and dress their feet daily to keep them in good condition, it only takes a few minutes to do.
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Useful tips, thank you
Putting vaseline or another kind of grease on the soles of the feet can also help as it helps to prevent snow balling up in the hores’s hooves which is another cause of accidents in winter.