Winter is here!
Along with good quality hay and grain, another important part of winter care is making sure your horse has plenty to drink. A horse can survive much longer without food than he can with no water. Keeping water pails and tubs defrosted can be a full time job. This is an area that is easy to forget about if you are used to depending on automatic water feeders. Keep a close watch on them to make sure they have not frozen up. Investing in an electric coil used to heat water is money well spent! Look for one at your local feed store.
A horse with a nice (expensive) winter turnout blanket looks very well cared for. It also makes us feel good to go out and “bundle up” our horse in a nice warm blanket. But be careful about using blankets, as overuse can be more harmful than helpful.
There are two main reasons for using a blanket during the winter. The first is to keep show horses from growing a winter coat. Blanketing is not always enough to keep a horse from growing a winter coat though. The shorter daylight hours also contribute to the horse’s natural instinct to start getting “fuzzy.” Remember too that if you do prevent the winter coat from growing in your horse will be completely dependent on you to provide the warmth he needs. It is much healthier not to interrupt their natural adaptation to the colder weather.
The second reason for blanketing a horse is to protect them during severe weather conditions. What constitutes “severe weather” will depend on where you live compared to what constitutes “normal” weather for your area. If you live in an area where temperatures regularly stay below 20 degrees (or even below zero degrees) Fahrenheit for weeks or months at a time, your horse will probably be fine with this weather. However, if you live in an area that rarely gets below freezing and the temperature suddenly drops to the single digits for a few nights, your horse may do well with a blanket on for extra comfort. Horses that are turned out in the rain or snow may also do better with a blanket on, since wet hair loses its insulating properties. Horses can get phenomena just like people.
Blankets are most harmful when they are left on all day and all night. When the temperatures warm up during the
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