Kyra Kurklund’s tips for coping with snow

For Scandinavian-born dressage rider and trainer Kyra Kyrklund, the recent bad weather has been little more than a walk in the park.

Kyra’s yard is based in West Sussex, where they had 30cm of snow last week.

She says: “I’m from Finland, where we get a lot of snow in the winter. I’m completely used to this and knew what to do straight away.

“As soon as the snow began to fall we started shovelling it away and creating pathways for the horses, because once people walk on it, it becomes compact and difficult to move.”

Unfortunately once the snow struck Kyra was low on staff, with one groom ill with the flu and another stranded in Finland, unable to get back due to the closure of Gatwick Airport.

However, she remains unfazed by the weather, which has been grabbing headlines across the country, “Learning from experience, when you get weather like this you have to prioritise things, like making sure you have enough feed and shavings.”

Luckily, her yard has the benefit of an indoor school, where she has been exercising the horses in hand for half an hour each day, but she has been wary about turning them out.

“I haven’t turned them out as they are very fresh and young and would get over excited at the sight of snow. It would just be too risky.”