Winter Driving Tips

[MajorClementine]

For those of you who brave the elements and drive in the winter, do you have any tips? Do you clip your horses at all to help them dry out after a drive and then blanket them? Do you blanket them after a drive until they are dry? Do you use boots for traction and do you add studs?

Clementine gets soooo hairy (think yak) in the winter even when she is down south and when we go out driving she gets really really sweaty under all that hair. Then she gets mean. She gets uncomfortable and that's when she turns into a jerk-face (technical term, hehehe). Should I just clip her and blanket her all winter? Or if she's down south just blanket her at night or bad weather since the good days are 50-60*F? I'm at a total loss. Last winter I just didn't drive her much because the winter before it was such an issue. Then I have to re-train her to not be such a grumpy pain in the butt the next spring because she re-associates driving with discomfort.

So tips for driving in the snow and super cold temps AND tips for driving in more mild winter temps. I'm not asking a lot here am I?

 

[Cayuse]

I did a trace clip on Cappy last year and kept him blanketed. We have pretty bad winters here, but late Fall can be warm and he was overheating with a full winter coat. I just did his sides from above the hock to say below the point of his haunch along his sides and his chest to where his neck ties in. I did his barrel starting about 3/4 of the way down and the line sort of naturally ended up at the level where the neck tied in. I clipped the under belly. And front legs just about two inches below the elbow. Then I messed around with blankets all winter .
I have since seen a cool clip that is just the chest and shoulder area with a swath of side done with a graceful swoop ending at the.bottom of the flank. Rump is left fuzzy. I'm not good enough to get a "graceful swoop" or I'd give it a try!
Are you going to keep her home this winter? I wonder if you clip her now if she might hair up just enough to be OK in Arizona (?) without a blanket for the winter.
Peanut hates going out driving in the winter. I think the harness (girth) pulls on his hair and he is most offended by it.