Being in Maryland, our winters are obviously much like yours Bevann.
We don't do a whole lot different in the winter versus the rest of the year. All horses can be stalled if necessary but are generally left to choose where they want to be (in or out). I would like to get a couple of small run-in sheds for the dry lot and the pasture but that's not in the budget (hopefully we can do that next spring) so we just watch the weather and move 'em around as required. It might be a bit trickier this year with our new colt. I hope to have him gelded before winter sets in but his dangly bits may not cooperate (the farrier could only find one yesterday). The vet will be here on Wednesday to check. If he's gelded and recovered, he'll then run with the girls and they'll all come and go as they please. If I have to keep them separated, there may be extended stalling times for everyone, but only if the weather requires it. Our first year with the girls (2009-2010) was the year of the 3 blizzards, we had the hurricane last year, so we've had a lot of learning in the last four years!
I have blankets for everyone but I don't think I put one on any horse last winter except for the hard keeper (not as much body fat). So I make sure to get them out, cleaned/repaired, and put where they are easy to get to.
We'll put away the regular muck buckets we use for water and set out the heated one. I'm not sure we'll do the 50 gallon trough (with heater) this year. They really didn't use it much. I may buy another 16 gallon "muck bucket" sized heated one as they much prefer it. There are no heated buckets in the stalls.
I try to do a good "fall cleaning" of the stalls, including the walls and the tack rooms. We also clean up any areas around the barn where things may be lying around that really should be put away (i.e., some left over fencing from the last fencing project we did late this summer). That way, if and when it snows, there won't be any hidden "treasures" that will come back to haunt us! We already keep the fenced-in areas cleared of such things.
We've already laid in our first supply of hay bales in our hay tackroom (60 bales) and it's full. We're experimenting with a small round bale of the same hay. I think we'll likely get another one when this one is done. That's another purchase I had hoped to make this year: a bale buddy slow feeder net. I may still try to squeeze the budget to get that yet. In fact, I just decided I'm definitely going to go ahead and bite the bullet. I really like having the round bale in the dry lot and I think it's a smart purchase despite it's cost. Hubby will grumble when UPS drops it off but I'm used to that.
