Socks pulled over a horse’s forefeet give grip on refrozen ice

Evidence

The snow which had melted in the sun had refrozen, and was one sheet of smooth ice. Birdie slipped so alarmingly that I got off and walked, but then neither of us could keep our feet, and in the darkness she seemed so likely to fall upon me, that I took out of my pack the man’s socks which had been given me at Perry’s Park, and drew them on over her fore-feetan expedient which for a time succeeded admirably, and which I commend to all travelers similarly circumstanced. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 194

Categorization

• CANDY: A solo woman traveler socking her horse’s hooves to cross glare ice in pitch darkness is a perfect elevator anecdote.
• SHARE: Send to the horse-packing or endurance-riding friend who’d immediately want to try this on a winter trail.