Blanketing Thoughts...

This may seem like a totally senseless topic to some but I'm curious on other perspectives...

It doesn't bother us if our horses get fuzzy.... what we are concerned about is their health in general.

We have not yet started to "winter" blanket the horses we're riding regularly (we have about ten blankets sitting in the basement yet to be used)...we work them, put a cooler on them to dry them off and keep them in at night if the winds are high... we worry about draft/breeze as opposed to actual temperature (Our barn isn't particularly warm). Although we haven't had very COLD temperatures yet...

A horse that is outside all the time and not being used... their hair stays puffy and filled with air which as far as I understand works similar to insulation keeping them nice and warm in the winter weather. The horses that are being worked regularly - still have the big thick coat but it tends to lay down a bit more (which in my mind means less insulation)... We handle all the crew that is being rode regularly and nothing is acting/looking cold or losing weight (we've had horses come in from warm barns and it is quite clear they're cold and they get blanketed).

Our horses live a pretty "outside" type life... we don't keep our own in (weather permitting).

Glenn has horses that come in for training for a month or more... we always worry about the risk of blanketing them and then they go home and blankets aren't an option and the owner may not realize even with our advise that their horse needs to be "re-aclimatized".

What are your suggestions? Experiences? Logic for blanketing? Whenever I go by/visit an indoor arena everything is blanketed and I understand the quick logic - they dry faster/don't work up as much of a sweat, they look pretty but is it a necessity? Do you blanket because everyone else does or does it have more to do with lack of insulation?

My 20 + year old gelding needs to be blanketed every winter. It's a pain in the you know what...but he truly does require blanketing. He just doesn't get plump like other horses do and his coat isn't very fuzzy (although this year for some reason he got more fuzzy and I was able to hold off blanketing alot longer--then again--the weather in November was amazing). If I didn't blanket him he would lose alot of weight trying to stay warm and we cannot afford this to happen. At nite he has a lighter weight winter blanket...and then during the day, when he is out, he has a variety of other blankets of varying thicknesses to wear (from a lighter rain coat type of blanket to a super duper thick warm winter blanket). But regardless of what he wears out during the day...he always gets changed back into his lighter weight winter blanket for when he is in at nite...so he doesn't get too warm. He loves being blanketed and does not mind them.

I have given him the opportunity to develop a coat each year (by NOT blanketing right away when it gets cold)...but this guy just doesn't have the means to stay warm.

I wouldn't blanket if i didn't have to...the only way to dry the blankets out is to drag them into the basement and hang them up there...and I really love the task in the spring of hand washing, scrubbing, and hosing off of all his blankets. But you do what you gotta do.

My mare is an easy keeper and she does not need to be blanketed. I did buy her a blanket though and put it on when she went out on an especially cold day and she did not like it--she rubbed against the trees.

I don't know if that helped you or not...but I guess in the end...if you don't have to blanket...don't.

I don't ride really this time of year...so it will be interesting to hear from people who do avidly ride their horses this time of year.

I find it neat to watch how the coat works...
On a cold windy day, it fluffs yup, on a warm mild day, or when the horse is worked, or just got finished a good run in the pasture, The hair lays down. In the rain, it clumps into individual "wicks" that wick the drops of water away form the skin. And if you stick your fingers in, it is actually warm and dry underneath.

In a snowfall, the snow actually becomes a "blanket" of sorts and doesn't even melt! That tells us right there, how insulating their coats are, because if their body heat was escaping, that snow would melt and drip off.

It was windy and yucky snow last night, I went to bed with wet horses...this morning, they are dried off, fluffed up, and icicles hanging from their long belly hair and tail, mane etc... lol

I worry, with blanketing, that if their hair does not get a chance to fluff up, would it be like us, wearing a downfilled jacket, without the down fill?

Or if I wore a winter coat in the house... got all toasty and warm, then went outside in the same winter coat, I would feel chilled.

Some folks layer their blankets,. When the horse is inside..they only wear one blanket, when they put them outside, they throw another blanket on.

This could have the opposite effect then we think, depending on the living conditions. Some barns are toasty warm, filled with horses, but what if the barn gets just as cold at night, inside, as it does outside.. with only one blanket, that still does not let the hair fluff up? the horse is unable to move around for warmth... They could just as easily get a chill...

That same horse goes outside with an extra blanket now, but is moving about, eating hay,...that horse could overheat... (Especially if the sun is shining and the horse is moving around)..again, catch a chill...

If we don't get it right, horses can then become sick... I can't blame the horses that want nothing to do with blankets at that point... :/ (not to mention the static electricity that can develop under those blankets on cold dry days... )

Of course, the horse has to have a healthy coat, healthy skin with enough oil to shed the water etc if it is expected to surrvibe the cold snaps without added protection.....

It comes down to common sense... If the horse is wet and chilled to the bone (which can happen if it is wet and windy and no shelter, and limited movenment..) then I would be enclined to bring the horse undercover, and throw a fleece cooler on to get the coat dry again. (right now, I bring the horses in the barn which is a run-in style...I tie them to the wall, let them eat their supper, have some hay and water...and leave them for an hour or so until the bulk of the wet hair dries... then I go back out and let them go again...). I think blanketing takes some thought and preparation... and it has to change with the weather... no different then us wearing different type of jackets and coats and layering, depending on the weather...

For your horses in for training...you can do your ride... and afterwards, use a fleece cooler or two to wick the sweat off... Do your chores or run back out to the barn an hour or so later and take the cooler off...fluff the hair back up with a brush..(I love dog slicker brushes for that) and then turn them back out...(Or leave them in, whatever nightly routine you have for those horses..)

That way, the horses go home, with the same coat thickness they showed up with... Might work?

I used to worry about Abbey being as old as she is about getting wet, cold etc........but she refuses to wear a blanket ever.......she is smart enough to come in when its really shitty out so I figure she knows best.........if I ever found her standing shivering and shaking I would tie her and blanket her, but so far......not!~ and I never worry about Buck, his coat is really thick and dense and he can come in when he wants also/....that I think makes all the difference in the world.

Some of mine are blanketed (mostly for my comfort rather than theirs) Ours have a shelter outdoors that they can access
if they want to and all are brought in if it's really cold/windy or that wet freezing rain mix that soaks them through.
I do blanket my broodmares and youngsters so they are able to use their nutrition for growth rather than expending extra energy to keep warm and the blankets make a windbreak on the windy days and water proof on wet days. My TB holds her weight much better when she's blanketed and this year with her being in foal it's even more important that she keep her weight. I also like having more of a showy coat which blanketing provides, ours still have some winter coat not blanketed to the point they dont grow any winter coat. Health wise all but the TB would be totally fine without blankets, the TB would just loose too much weight and doesnt put on much of a winter coat and minds the cold alot more than the others.
Mini will get a blankie for outdoors just because she's so tiny and young, small bodies dont have as much resources.

Personally I don't blanket any of my horses, nor are any of my boarders blanketed at their owners request. We have 8 horses here ranging from 7.5 months to 14 years and when given the chance they all grow beautiful winter coats and they all live out 24/7 and do just fine. Granted they are all in excellent health, good weight, great diets (they have access to 24/7 hay so by being able to eat all the time they are able to produce extra heat that they might need through digestion). I foolishly fret about them from time to time because the majority of the horses won't use their shelter on the gross days, but I don't think it is fair to my horse to blanket them for my comfort, what about their comfort? Shouldn't I be more concerned about how they feel then myself? Kinda selfish to blanket them because I am worried.

I would never blanket a horse that already had a winter coat of their own, if I were to blanket then I would start with a light blanket early fall to prevent their own winter coat from growing. If you think about it blanketing a horse that already has a winter coat would be like wearing two winter coats ourselves, you're goign to ver heat quickly, start sweating then get a chill, that doesn't sound appealing to me. When working outside I always dress in layers and I have the option to take a layer off when I get too warm, my horse wouldn't have that option, he/she would stand there sweating.

D-Clutch: What I would suggest for the horses coming in for training would not be blanketing, unless they had balnkets on at home. When I work my wooly beasts into a sweat in the winter time I put a cooler on after the ride and walk them out, you'd be surprised how quickly they would dry. If you have a bath stall in your barn you could also always do what we did when I worked wit hthe STBs, they would come in from jogging or racing in the winter, we would hose them off in the bath stall with nice warm water, get as much of the water off them with the slicker then bundle them up in a heavy fleece cooler until dry. Worked great, granted these horses were wearing blankets pretty much 365 days a year, but if you had a bath stall you could make it work for your wooly training horses, just going to take them longer to dry and you might have to change their cooler once the first one gets wet.