Black Ice...what to do?

Question

all over the property, some of the horses are in the barn, but the others are up the back and we can't walk them up for risk of them slipping, although their paddock is covered aswell...what to do?

Answer 1

if you are having a problem with ice then you should get salt to put on it. it will melt the ice away.

Answer 2

Any way you can get some tire chains on and get a horse trailer up and haul them home?  Just an idea.

Answer 3

Try to put Ice down on the salt as that stops the slipping.  Also  if you have hot water available try to melt some away if its not very thick.  But yea be careful with the horses.  But try to put salt down on the ice.

Answer 4

rock salt will help melt it. Some would say hot water but I fear the water will eventually freeze up so yea.. salt.

Answer 5

This last winter was pretty harsh for us this year so when everyone ran out of salt... I heard people were using kitty litter it works really good and sand will work good too. Where I live the county used a lot of sand and beet juice... sounds weird but it works wonders for the bad roads (besides turning roads red lol)

Answer 6

We went through this last winter when a salt shortage hit our area.  All we could do is go around and break it up with ice choppers...it was tedious hard work and I hope we never have to do that again...good luck...I hope you can get salt for the job.

Answer 7

use tons of the rocksalt stuff for roads... or maybe make a pathway with some plywood or something...

Answer 8

if its that much of a problem (like the horses need to come in) get rubber stall mats, or old rugs (real rugs, not horse blankets, lol) and lay them on the worse part.  if its not a slope it should work (if its a hill then i have no idea!!)

good luck !

EDIT: putting salt, then sand, then shavings would also provide more traction.. and in the future you can get your horses hooves done with borium "spikes" that help dig into the ice/snow, they're more expensive but the last longer (ours last all winter, the farrier just pulls them off, trims the hoof and puts them back on)

Answer 9

I wish I had some advice, but I live in Florida and know NOTHING about snow...

The only thing I can suggest is moving your horses some place else if possible.

Wasn't much help...

Answer 10

Salt, as suggested.

When it's gotten really bad here and the horses cannot take being in another day, they will put shavings/sawdust down atop the ice so that there is traction.