A Delicate Trail Issue

Monday February 2 2015

Let’s be frank, and address an awkward trail riding issue.

When the weather gets cold enough to form ice in water troughs, when it’s snowing and sleeting and blowing so hard that the wind chill freezes your eyeballs as you’re on the back of a horse, *it* will happen.

Your nose is going to run.

It will form little snot droplets that will hang, then drip, or fly away in the wind, or worse, land on your clothes unless you do something about it. This is precisely the reason why you must have the right kind of winter gloves - to wipe off the snot. Come on now, admit it, you all do it.

(Perhaps other less-rugged disciplines, say proper dressage riders, carry nice hankies or tissues in their pockets, but I venture to say that most endurance riders really aren’t that concerned with conventional snot protocol, and often don't have the spare hands to find the hidden wadded up tissue in some zipped-up pocket while handling a fresh snorty horse on a cold windy day.)


I have some nice riding gloves I use when it’s cool (others might say “cold”). But they’re useless when my nose starts to run.


I have some nice warm Noble Equine gloves that I picked up on sale. I thought they’d be the perfect winter gloves. They are indeed lovely and soft, and they do keep my fingers warm, but I discovered the one thing they aren’t good for is wiping and absorbing the snot off my nose. They just smear it.


My riding partner has the perfect gloves. They are warm and the perfect softness, so they keep her fingers warm and absorb snot. By the time you alternate gloves to wipe the snot, the first glove has dried already. She got them for $1 at a discount grocery store.

Inexpensive warm, soft, absorbent gloves are a great gift for the cold-weather endurance and trail riders on your list!