[Amyrides]

Hi all! I need help figuring out gloves for winter riding/tacking up!
ive seen a few other threads about this but none were specific to my circumstances.. so I figured I’d start my own.
so I ride English/jumping, so I need to be able to handle the reins and small tack fairly easily, and with my gelding I need to shorten and extend reins pretty regularly.
i also (yay) raynaud’s syndrome, thankfully pretty minor, but my hands get cold pretty easy.
i ride down to like 20F, and we have an indoor so it’s not wet or anything, but waterproof is always a plus

has anyone tried heated glove liners? I like hand warmers but doesn’t really help my fingers.. they don’t need to last more than like 3 hourse at the most, an hour or two at the least..

 

[COWCHICK77]

I haven't tried the heated gloves yet.

These are the ones I mentioned about Raynauds in the other thread. But I thrash my gloves, I have a hard time spending the money and I'm skeptical.

Toasty Touch Ultra-Thin Heated Gloves

The heat you need without the bulk. Warm your hands for hours and keep using them too with the thinnest heated gloves ever created. "I've finally found something that helps my Raynaud's!" "Life changing!" "Game-changing!" "No more white fingers!" "I've been waiting for these gloves to be...

toastytouch.com

Over the years I found using wool is the best. It's warm if it gets wet and it's breathable.
I do like my BOT gloves to use as liners in my thicker gloves because it promotes circulation. (And it seems to help with my mild arthritis)

 

[ACinATX]

I believe I have Rayanaud's also. I am not out in the 20s, but I am out in the 30s, and I have a sort of weird suggestion. I think, for me at least, that some of it is mental. If I feel like I am cold, then my fingers start wanting to shut down. If I feel like I am not cold, they don't. This is in the same exact temperatures.

So what I have found helps is I turn the heater in the car all the way up all the way out there, and frequently put my hands in front of the vents. By the time I get to the barn I am, if anything, overheated. If I get to work quickly enough, at least so far the last couple of years, my fingers don't shut down.

I wear simple wool "glove liners" that have holes up and down each finger due to wear. If I'm between doing things, I shove my hands into my coat pockets.

 

[Acadianartist]

I live in a cold climate and ride in weather up to -15C or so (5F). I like men's T-Max heavy duty driving gloves from Mark's Work Wearhouse. For some reason, the exact same gloves in the women's section are not as thick (???). The problem is, they don't often carry then in a size small which is what I would need in a men's, but sometimes I luck out. So maybe check stores for men's gloves in smaller sizes.

I do not, however, suffer from Raynaud's but I don't have good circulation. I have BOT liners which I will wear under these gloves when it's really, bitterly cold, but they only make a tiny difference I find. And the result is a lot of bulk. I'm ok with that because my horse is not exactly hot-headed, but it's not the same as riding in a thin riding glove.

I bought my daughter some heated gloves because her fingers swell when they get cold. She likes them, but they're very bulky so she doesn't ride in them. I think it's hard to get heated gloves that are not bulky. I clicked on the link shared above by @COWCHICK77 because they look very intriguing, but if you read the description, it does say that in colder or windy days, they should be worn as a glove liner because worn alone, they may not be warm enough.

I find that the best solution is to wear my BOT glove liners with a heavy, wool mitten for chores, tacking up, etc. Sometimes I'll quickly remove the mitten for things like tightening the girth. When I'm ready to hop on, I remove the mittens and replace with gloves.

The SSG Ten Below gloves are good for weather that isn't quite so brutal so maybe worth a try for you. I do wear them to ride until we hit really cold temps, and I like the fact that they have an elastic to keep them on my wrists if I need to take a glove off for a minute and don't want to lose it.

 

[tinyliny]

what about getting those little heat up pads, you know, the ones where you take them out of the packet, shake them to activate them, then insert one in each glove. they last for hours and you can get a package of about 50 or so at Costco.

 

[Acadianartist]

what about getting those little heat up pads, you know, the ones where you take them out of the packet, shake them to activate them, then insert one in each glove. they last for hours and you can get a package of about 50 or so at Costco.

They don't keep fingertips warm. Heated gloves have heat running along each finger. It helps a little, but doesn't completely solve the problem. They do work well for toes though, you just put them at the end of the boot, on top of or under your toes.

 

[Woodhaven]

I don't have Raynauds so I don't know if this would help you but when getting ready to ride, I put the saddle on first to let the saddle pad etc warm up a bit before getting on then put the gloves I will be wearing under the pad next to the horse's skin to warm up then finish brushing the rest of the horse, feet etc.
Then when it's time to ride I switch to the warmed gloves. When riding I also keep my hands close to the horse's wither, at times resting on the wither to warm my fingers with the heat of the horse's body. It gets pretty cold here in Ontario but doing this really keeps my fingers warm unless it is severely cold with a good breeze.
For me keeping the feet warm is my problem.
I also got a pair of battery heated gloves for barn work (that's where my hands get really cold) they are bulky so not good for riding and they mainly warm the palm area and not so much the fingers.
I hope you find something that works, I have a friend with Raynauds and she suffers with cold hands in the winter so will follow this for ideas

 

[QtrBel]

I've had several ads for gloves by a company called Losark pop up. Maybe something to look into or perhaps someone here already has them and can let us know how they perform in the biting cold.

 

[Knave]

I have raynauds. I have to work in some pretty cold conditions. Sometimes the drive we do tomorrow is -20. So, imagine being on your horse all day in that. You have to have decent gloves.

Yet do I? I don’t like my heated gloves, and I am a big heated things fan girl, but when the battery runs out on those gloves they are miserable cold. Also they are really bulky (mine). How can they be so bulky and retain no heat if the battery dies? I just don’t know. They are like $300 gloves, and I am done wearing them.

So, I wear high quality gloves and throw a hand warmer in them. Yes, the hand warmer does not extend to the fingers, but you can pull your fingers out of the gloves and wrap them around the warmer.

As far as simply putting a ride on my horse or doing chores, the gloves I have are good. I wish I knew the name of this set, I’ll look. It is good as far as feeling reins and holding them, and keeps fingers warm too! I don’t know how it manages without the bulk, but the one issue I have is that the temperature has to be extremely cold, or you do very little physical activity, because your hands sweat. I’ve never had a set of gloves that make my hands sweat. Wet=cold

The tag says 3M thinsulate, but not a name brand. Here they are if you want to search.

 

[Amyrides]

Seems sort of ironic that so many horse people end up with raynaud‘s 😂😂
my trainer told me Sunday when i was thawing my hands on the space heater that she also has it.
maybe people who don’t spend their life outdoors just don’t realize they have it, and it’s actually common among everyone? lol

 

[COWCHICK77]

I wonder too. I didn't know about Raynauds until a couple years ago. I thought it was "normal".
A friend was visiting, we were outside getting her horses unloaded and setup in a pen, it was pretty cold and the windchill. We get inside and my fingers are purple, white and wrinkled up and she says, "oh you have raynauds too".
-"whaaat?!?"

 

[QtrBel]

Not everyone with circulation problems has Raynauds but if you do and you work out in the cold you'll know it. This would be one of those take pictures, slowly warm and call your doctor things.

 

[Knave]

It doesn’t have to be cold for mine to show up @QtrBel. I’d show a picture if I thought to take one. When my autoimmune was bad I would notice the raynauds randomly, and then sometimes it would proceed a seizure. When I get it I rush to fix it. You can end up with frostbite over it, even without it being cold!

It’s only sometimes caused by cold for me personally. I would say less often.

 

[QtrBel]

Stress is the big one for a friend that has it. She has scleroderma. But when it's shown up with cold she's ended up in trouble.

I mention that not everyone with issue because it seems quite a few (especially women and more with those that have or are around horses) that I know jump to the Raynauds conclusion on their own and without a diagnosis when the reality for them is they were underreported, over exposed and usually water was involved.

 

[Amyrides]

mine Gets really bad before having stomach sickness and sometime colds too. Not to mention in the cold 🥶
my trainer said she first noticed it in the middle of summer in her house as a teen. The doctor looked her straight in the eyes and said move to Arizona. She promptly moved to Colorado where we are going to have a balmy 0 degrees all week!! Lol
my small toe sometimes takes hours to return to normal, in my warm house. Sometimes I swear it will fall right off!

 

[Knave]

Do you ever try hot water @Amyrides? Jumping in the bath will almost always turn it around for me.

 

[Amyrides]

Do you ever try hot water @Amyrides? Jumping in the bath will almost always turn it around for me.

Yes, I do usually try to get in the shower pretty quickly, or I walk around with a hand warmer by my foot When I can’t shower right away.