Horse IQ

A few days ago, I shared an article with you about the tradeoffs between clipping and blanketing your horse in cold winter weather. If you’ve decided to clip your horse in the winter, you’ll need to put a blanket on him at night if it’s cold enough. But how cold does it have to be before you must before you get out the horse blanket? Here is some advice from some people whose advice I respect.

Joanne Meszoly of EquiSearch.com says blanketing in the daytime is blanketing can get a little tricky. If it’s one of those “clear and cold” days, the sun can be out even if the temperature drops and there’s snow on the ground. So if you blanket round the clock, you could even risk overheating your horse. In this case best time to begin blanketing when nighttime temperatures hit 50 degrees. That’s when a light blanket makes sense.

Of course, when that happens depends on where you live. Veterinarian Duncan Peters says “When I was in Montana, we had 60-degree variations where temperatures went from 85 to 25 degrees in a 24-hour period,” says Peters. “Anytime it gets down to the low 40s, especially if you have a major daily temperature fluctuation, it’s a good time to start blanketing. In Montana, that can be late September, early October or even August. In California, you may not blanket until November.”

Horse & Rider Lifestyle editor, Juli Thorson, had some good insight to share:

“Provided he has a good winter coat, a horse doesn’t actually start to lose body heat from cold until the air temp and/or windchill temp reaches 14 degrees. That’s the temp at which I blanket my old guys (pushing 30), and up their hay rations. Internal body heat goes up with more hay to digest, as fermentation in the hind gut produces heat. Or, you can add 2.5 lbs of oats per 1,000 lbs of body weight as a way to replace energy lost by cold.”

That brings up another good subject: older horses and cold weather. Is there anything special the average horse owner should know about caring for older horses in cold weather? You bet, there is. And I’ll be sharing it all with you in another post. So keep your news reader pointed to Horse IQ. And keep those horses warm!

Yours For Better Horse Care,