Winter Equine Camping

putting of several degrees of heat to make it nice and toasty in that all steel trailer. The next morning it was still snowing and I called home to pass the word that there was not any point for any day riders to come up due to the dangerous road conditions. But after a hearty breakfast we saddled up and went for a very nice couple of mile ride (that started out in blowing snow) that looped from the camp down to the lake around the mountain and back to the camp. All of the horse were very well behaved and did not display any of the problems that I had thought they might have. Everyone had a great time and we took lots of pictures. We also saw a flock of wild turkeys and a very large herd of deer that had several of the biggest bucks I have seen in my life; it was a real treat. That night the clouds finally blew through and the skies cleared which set the stage for a truly unbelievably cold night. The 6 quarts of water in my Dutch oven was a solid brick of ice as was the coffeepot of water on my Coleman stove. The tires of my truck were frozen to the ground as was all of my firewood, nothing quite like having to pry your wood up from the ice just to get a fire started. I would also like to point out that my prized cowboy hat, which had been soaked by the snow the previous day, had literally frozen solid. I was very concerned that I might break it, so I did the only thing I could think of to thaw it out. I put it on. It was shrunk down and felt like I was wearing a frozen crown but as the morning passed and it slowly dried out I just kept pulling it down tighter and stretching it out till it finally came back to life, and I am happy to report that the frostbite to my forehead has now completely healed. It was a truly great adventure and we learned a lot about cold weather camping and travel."

I asked Jay, since he now is the “cold weather” expert what three pieces of equipment did he deem most important for winter camping. Keep in mind snow and winter camping can be extremely dangerous due to hypothermia. Check with your doctor if you have any known medical conditions and of course always let the rangers and your family/friends know where you’re going and for how long.

“…with the very

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