Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

As someone who spent 15 years in the Great Northwoods of Wisconsin, where it got below zero by Thanksgiving and stayed that way for months, I have learned a few things about cold weather dressing!

 

You are on the right track, but if your feet got that cold , it's likely  you had TOO MUCH stuff on. Yup. You need to make sure your toes have lots of room. If you put on too many layers, then your toes are squished and will get colder faster. the key to layering is to have some air between the layers. Maybe just wear the wool socks. Cotton socks actualy can be much colder than synthetic socks. If you can't wear wool against your skin, there are some really good synthetics.

 

Find someone who hunts and ask where he or she buys stuff. You can get some great cold weather gear in a place like that. We are fortunate to have a Cabela's store nearby. I have been buying my cold weather socks there and wow, what a difference! I ride now in sneakers with my cold weather socks and I'm warmer than I was in tight boots.

 

Also, get "hoods" or someting like a covered stirrup cage to protect your toes. These keep the wind off your feet and help a great deal.

 

As for fingers, I like good quality polar fleece gloves and will ride one-handed, with the other hand in a pocket, or with my fingers of one hand out of the glove fingers and wrapped up inside... mitten style. Mittens are much warmer than gloves, but they are hard to ride with, so I alternate hands on the reins.

 

I wear polar fleece breeches and layer clothes on the top of me. I wear a polar fleece headband under my helmet, and if necessary, a neck wrap.

 

Hope this helps! Oh, and keep a thermos of hot cocoa or coffe in your truck for when you are through riding... warms your hands!

 

chris

LTYearwood@xxxxxxx wrote:

Hi,

 

Okay. I figured out what to do for Vashka in the cold wheather, thanks to you guys and your recommendations for wool coolers and fleece blankets and the idea of layering (it really works).

 

But in our continued saga to transition from Miami wheather to Oregon wheather, I am at a loss as to what to put on my feet and hands when I ride and muck out, ect. Yesterday I rode and I got so cold my toes turned yellow and I couldn't bend them till I got home and stuck them in warm water. And mind you, this was with two pair of socks on, beneather shoes that were sgupposed to "wick" the moisture. One pair of socks was wool, the other cotton. And the scary thing is that it's supposed to get COLDER.

 

The gloves were that thinsulate stuff. Uh, I felt like my fingers were going to fall off.

 

So what do you guys do that works?

 

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

 

Lori and Vashka and Harley, too (Harley is Vashka's mini.)

 

 

"A good horse makes short miles," George Eliot

Chris and Star

BayRab Acres
http://pages.prodigy.net/paus