Boots and Winter Turnout

We can't put Lotties boots on in the field to bring her in now the winter is here...

When I try to explain this to our trimmer it sounds so lame... "We can't put boots on all through winter, it's too difficult!" (whinge-whinge, moan-moan!). I know I sound selfish and lazy but it really is borderline impossible! Maybe this is where you find out how committed you are to being barefoot. My thoughts so far...

• It's too dangerous to boot her in the field, wind and rain, when the horses are literally knocking each other over to get to you.
• The horses come out of the field onto hard/sharp gravel and Lottie won't pick up her feet up on there.
• We thought about taking a pilates mat but the other horses can and will reach over the fenceline to bug her while you're trying to lift her feet. It's also impossible to hold a mat still in the wind while managing the electric fence AND leading a horse.
• She's also been stood knee deep in mud so it's very difficult to apply her boots without cleaning her feet. Idelaly you need to bring a bucket of water and a hoof pick to swill them down and clean them out so they'll even fit in the boots.
• By the time you get her off the mat she's on easier ground and only got about thirty metres to walk to the barn.
• Once in the barn the boots have to come off so that her legs and feet can be washed properly before she can go to her stable and have her white line balm applied.
• This process is impossible on your own in the dark. You can't even carry all the stuff down to the field that you will need, nevermind bring it back again while leading a horse!

Okay so this is not completely impossible, I agree... I guess the truth is I don't want to spend more than half of the time I have with Lottie at the end of a long work-day with my backside in the air, getting frustrated by gates swinging at me and horses fighting over me and the rain pouring down the back of my jeans while I transfer mud from one place to another in an attempt to keep her/the boots/something/anything clean. Meanwhile, poor Lottie has to stand & wait quietly for ages getting impatient and justifiably nervous of the other horses and by the ham-fisted nature of the whole thing.

Right enough ranting! Lottie isn't 100% without her boots on across the yard (and the rant is probably a response to my own guilt about this) but we're just going to have to take it slow and deal with it without the boots for turnout over winter.

Before we took her shoes off I'd have read similar to the above by other owners on forums and things and thought 'god, stop exaggerating and put your horse first'... I apologise for those thoughts :-)