[ezduzit]

Here's a couple of things I got to keep warm. A balaclava to wear under my helmet and insulated Kerrits riding tights.
http://www.rei.com/product/725892/ou...tion-balaclava

I'll admit it takes a lot before I get cold...my fingers are a problem. But with these on, I don't feel any wind or cold at all.

[goodhors]

I don't focus on it, because doing so makes things MUCH WORSE when you think about them. Kind of like that drippy faucet driving you crazy, instead of just shutting the door!

Winter comes to MI, nothing you can do to change it. I like how it looks, though working out in the cold can be tiresome with temps and windchill in the minus zero range. I have the clothes, thick blood, jobs STILL have to be done whatever the weather!

I just plan on things taking longer in the cold, doing them safely. Snow is GOOD because horses roll in it and are mostly CLEAN. New snow layers cover nasty looking dirt. How we have things set up here at home, is lots better than how it was when I rented barns!! I had to haul ALL winter water at one barn, pump froze and NOTHING would keep it unfrozen. I have tractors with a FEL, or blade behind, so things are EASY to clear if snow gets deep. Manure spreader instead of tubs!! So MUCH easier than shoveling EVERYTHING like in the past.

I like snow actually, such a NICE change from being too hot, like this past summer. Day or night, it was ALWAYS too hot to do things I enjoy doing if it involved physical labor and sweating. I could never live down South, where it is REALLY hot, I would melt away or have heatstroke.

The other comforting thing about winter, is SO FAR none of the snow storms, cold spells, have equalled what the records set in the 1970s for our area got. I like to just think that having got thru those storms, dealt with that kind of snow, what happens to us NOW is NOTHING. It could ALWAYS be worse! I am not skiing 5 miles to care for horses twice a day, because all highways were closed for DAYS. My truck is not stuck in the center of the County road, nose-to-nose with a car, both buried in a 12ft drift with no way to move it. LUCKILY my friend with a Front-end loader in his gravel pit drove over and pulled my truck out by the trailer hitch, before it was hit by the snowplow trucks after those 5 days. He just put a cable on and pulled the truck to the highway corner and I got it there.

What we have now is pretty much nothing. My brother? He LOVES snow, lives up near Traverse City. His front yard it FILLED with snow from snowblowing the driveway out all winter. Some years he can't blow over the piles of snow beside the drive way, they have gotten so much. His friend comes over and they fill a truck with snow and haul it away. He had to dig his windows out on the house last year, one-story, because his wife couldn't see out. Mostly they enjoy going out in the snow for winter sports. Always attend the dog sled races downtown.
A bit too much snow for me, but they like it.

Doing the "not focus on it" method, lets me enjoy our winter, get thru the outside jobs like cleaning barn, dumping the spreader with no issues. Being unhappy about dealing with it makes ANY situation harder, worse. Like when you keep checking the clock on nights you may not be resting well. Keep thinking, "ONLY been 5 minutes! Seems like an hour. I am NOT getting any rest, will be so tired." Do the "not focus" thing again. I refuse to look at the clocks, get out a book and read while warmly wrapped up. I usually get sleepy again, go back to sleep. This works, while tossing and turning, clock checking doesn't, in getting any rest. I can ALWAYS put a load of laundry in, run the dishwasher if I need activity on those restless nights.

You can't MAKE yourself sleep, any more than you can stop winter with cold and snow. Just work with winter, don't let being angry about it rule your life.

[Griffin]

i really hate winter, but this year I am embracing it... I am leaving our lovely insulated indoor with perfect footing, to plod around the fields in knee deep snow. and am loving it. The scenery is lovely, water on one side and ski hills on the other amd me in the middle

[Melelio]

I moved us AWAY from winter, only to have it follow us to Texas! A friend who was born here said she has NEVER witnessed a white Christmas in her 40 years here! So what did we get this year, my first winter here??? We need the moisture, but the ice was not fun for someone trying to escape that...

At least I have faith it'll warm up to riding temps (for me, around 55) again fairly soon, and spring temps come early here...

[partlycloudy]

Wow, I didn't think I'd get so many replies....but I think winter is one of those things you either love or hate...no middle ground. I'll admit, I liked winter a whole lot better when I lived out west and went skiing every chance I could. Equestrian sports and winter really don't mix all that well. (unless you have a sleigh)
I do think that your mindset has so much to do with how you fare....hating it just makes things worse. Just try to remember how hot and sweaty you were all last summer. At least in the cold, you can bundle up!

[Miss J]

If ya can't beat 'em, join 'em!! I am so excited to go ice fishing for the first time this year, this weekend and bonus is that it's only going to be -2ish, that's tank top weather here lol.

Layering is key, and honestly, my favorite article of clothing(including my 'nice clothes) are my insulated carhart bibs, and my super insulated sorrel boots. Yes I move slower and I look like a man from afar, which probably has my nieghbors wondering when my SO and I give a hug or kiss to each other LOL, but dang it I am warm and toasty!

I do love summer and fall, but I just love it when there is a huge dump of snow, it's so beautiful outside my dogs(lab and shih-Tzu) love the snow!

[JackandMo]

I hate winter. It typically remains in the 50s here during the winter, and that's too cold for me.

[NBChoice]

I enjoy winter. I enjoy all the seasons really... so I look forward to each one. Our summer here was brutal, so I welcomed the cooler temps.

Winter is a nice break from 5-6 days of training a week and it gives me (and the horses) time to regenerate for show season. I'm sure once end of January hits I'll be ready for warm... but for now it's okay. The only thing I really don't like is our cold northern winds. Cold temps are okay, but add the wind and I'd rather just stay inside all day.

[bauhaus]

I loooooove winter. But I'm from Nashville and doubt that most of you would think our winter counts.

We don't get much snow but we get lots of cold rain with freezing temps at night and I even love that... dark melancholy weather seems to suit me, and I love that the barn is so empty when it gets nasty outside. I have rubber boots, plenty of warm layers, and all the arenas to myself.

[Wayside]

I started out pretty optimistic this year. Lasted all of a couple of days after the temperatures dropped, when I developed Raynaud's syndrome and got chilblains on my toes That sort of put a damper on my enthusiasm, to put it mildly.

[islgrl]

I would embrace winter if I had an indoor, but I don't and right now we are fairly iced over and horses don't yet have snow shoes on so they are all rotating through the one paddock that isn't iced over so they are down from 10 hours of turnout to about 5 and no work. We're all a little stir crazy...

[trafalgar]

i love the winter...the colder the better. I love love love snow and hate hate hate mud....so muddy winters I detest. I wear Sorrel boots,snow pants and long underwear (good ones) and stay warm as toast. I think that is the secret...if you are warm and cozy it is wonderful to be out and about. My most favorite thing is getting to the barn in the early evening when all the horses are in and munching on their hay....and if it is snowing and the horses are out in the pasture, that is truly lovely!

[Vesper Sparrow]

I wouldn't mind wnter if the temps would stay around freezing or drop down to -10 at the worst. But I hate -20 for riding and horses, although it's not too bad for walking or skiing.

[Chief2]

There is a wonderful travel journal through the US written by Edwin Way Teale titled, Wandering Through Winter. He and his wife started by car on first day of winter on the west coast, and kept a journal of their eastward travel until they reached Maine on the final days of winter. Once you have read this through the winter the season takes on a new meaning. You feel like they are keeping you company through the months, and that you are looking at things with them in a different way. There are three other books in the set as well, one for each season. If you want to purchase one, buy them used, as they are becoming collector's items now that the couple have both passed (http://www.amazon.com/Wandering-Thro...through+Winter).

I love winter and snow. My Percheron loves it as well. When I first got him a few years back, I went out into the yard after a snowstorm and the requisite plowing had taken place, and found him splayed our on a three-foot high snowbank. I steeled myself to come up upon a dead horse, when about 10 feet from the bank I heard the most atrocious snoring coming from the bank that I had ever heard in my life. And there he was, happily off in dreamland, snoring to beat the band!

Winter, spring and autumn are my favorite seasons. Summer is my least favorite. Here are the other three books, in case someone is interested.
http://www.amazon.com/North-With-Spr...dwin+Way+Teale

http://www.amazon.com/Autumn-Across-...dwin+Way+Teale

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Summer...dwin+Way+Teale

And my all-time favorite, A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm, http://www.amazon.com/A-Naturalist-B...dwin+Way+Teale