Mud mask anyone?

What happens when it just turns winter and the days are as short as ever...........the horse's have a full winter coat. Some say they grow their coats by the length of the days and that does seem to be. So, for a while they will have a very thick coat, then once the days grow longer that will slowly shed. They start shedding their summer coats in August. It seems to be so.

Then we get a year like this one where the weather gets cold. Cold enough to freeze the top, um, maybe 6 inches of ground. Then it thaws, about 2 inches and rains and rains. That rain just sits on the ground that is frozen beneath. And that just means MUD.

I am thankful to have a slope and fairly nice drainage around my barn. Notice they are not sinking into muddy "moonscape"? Most barns around here do not have such slope and drainage and the horses are all getting "scratches". A term used to label a crusty bacterial ick that affects a horse below their ankles. It gets crusty and hard and sore. None of my horses have that.........yet.
Today it is 19 degrees. No mud today.