Reining in the Winter Blues
by Stephanie Hackett,
January 13, 2011, page 12.....

The days are just starting to brighten up earlier, yet many people are already feeling the blues. Two people with the same passion push aside their blues by horseback riding during the wintertime. Marley Donaldson, a 2008 graduate of CVU, brings light into her winters by riding in her backyard. Mindy Hinsdale grew up riding throughout the winter as well. Both people share the same love for horses and determination to keep trotting through the winter blues.
Marley Donaldson, now 20 years old, has been riding since she was three and said that riding has been “passed down in the family. My grandfather owned a horse barn in upstate New York; he’s ridden all of his life. My mom rode when she was younger, and it was something I picked up because I love animals.” When Marley was 3 years old she was coordinated enough to ride on her grandfather’s donkey, Fuzzy. Later, when she was 5 or 6 years old, Marley started taking lessons. Marley and her family own three horses, which are stabled in their barn behind their house on Garen Road, on the border of Hinesburg and Charlotte.
Responsibilities come with owning horses, especially during the winter to keep them healthy. The Donaldson family takes extra precautions to make sure the horses are properly fed and have enough warm water. They use a submersible water heater as well as bucket insulators. Marley explains, “Horses don’t like to drink water in the winter. That is something we are always trying to combat because if the horses don’t drink water, it leads to colic. So we try and keep the water as warm-ish as possible.” Horses tend to lose weight during the winter, so feeding them more hay, as the Donaldsons do, is helpful, because of the lack of grass in the fields. They also keep track of the temperature in order to switch the horses’ blankets up. Marley explains, “My mom’s pretty good; she waterproofs the blankets almost every single year, so horses are not standing outside in the cold.”
Marley rides for pleasure up and down hills as well as concentrating on her own technique during the winter. She sums up her winter riding experience through four and a half years of Vermont weather as “relaxing to get out there with your horse on the back dirt roads, which are so silent. It’s very therapeutic.”
On the other side of Charlotte, Mindy Hinsdale, owner and trainer at Steeple Ridge Farm, tries to keep things upbeat during the gloomy winter times. Mindy gives a past example of nicknaming the month “Jumper January,” when her students learn the necessary tactics and rules of jumping. When the ground is fresh with fluffy white snow, she takes some riders outside bareback and watches each horse and rider make fun patterns.
Mindy talks about years of winter riding traditions in Charlotte: “When I was a kid, we did Christmas caroling on horseback, which was a lot of fun. We would dress up in costumes and go down Spear Street to Marble’s Store (now Carrie’s store) and back.” Although that tradition has passed, many riders enjoy the horses’ company during the winter at Steeple Ridge Farm.
There are also some precautions Mindy takes during the winter. She cautions, “If people call wanting to start riding, I usually put them off until March or April when the weather is warmer and horses are more predictable. In the wintertime, it’s really about keeping the horses we have here going and customers having fun.” Many of the horses and ponies have more energy, so there is a lot of lunging before riding them to keep the riders as well as the horses safe. Layering horses and riders with appropriate clothing and blankets is very important to keep both warm and happy; local tack stores help with both of those needs. Despite the cold that chills many Vermonters to the bone, Mindy has kept up with training riders as well as horses throughout the long blue months of winter. She has been hooked on the equestrian sport since she was a little girl.
Many Charlotte children, young adults and even older adults enjoy mounting a horse or pony, gathering up the reins and going out for a leisurely walk up their dirt driveway or exercising daily at a barn during the winter months. Both Marley and Mindy have had the pleasure of growing up with winter riding and have fallen in love with this passion. Whether bareback or in full tack, Charlotters are braving the cold to brighten up their short days.
Stephanie is a Charlotte resident and a junior at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.