From: Vanessa
Dear Jessica,
Thank you so much for your wise, practical advice; I'm hoping you can help me and others put together a safe, sensible plan for those times when it gets so cold, even the mercury in the thermometer scurries indoors!
I live in the northeastern United States, and last week we got a real cold snap - temperatures out our way dropped into the -30s, not taking wind chill into account. At the barn where I board, on the coldest days, the horses were blanketed, stalled, and the owner even had an industrial-sized heater warming the barn. But at the barn a few doors down, blanketed and unblanketed horses were left outdoors in their individual paddocks, each with a 3-sided shelter. Both sets of horses had plenty of hay and access to water and none of them, as temperatures rose, immediately seemed any worse for the wear.
I understand that horses aren't people, and that they are comfortable at much colder temperatures than most people will tolerate. However, at such low temperatures, exposed skin can freeze - and while my horse is doing a marvelous impression of a polar bear these days, the tips of his ears, his nostrils, his lower legs, and his genitalia do not have a thick covering of hair to protect them. Also, wouldn't little bitty foals or horses with arthritis be especially sensitive to such cold?
Everyone I've spoken to has a different opinion. What course of action do you suggest when temperatures drop into the -20s/-30s and below?
Thank you so much for your help!
Sincerely,
Ima Popsicle and her Polar Bear :)
I understand your concern, but don't worry - horses are very good at handling cold temperatures, even VERY cold temperatures. 20s and 30s are temperatures that seem very cold to humans, but not to healthy horses. I've seen horses come in off the range after winters involving temperatures between -10 and -30, happy and healthy. My Canadian friends have told me of horses that cope well with even lower temperatures (would you believe -35!) during Calgary winters. These were horses of all sizes and ages. They had good winter coats and lots of good hay around the clock, and access to water, and they were fine.
The way horses are managed in winter has to depend, first and foremost, on the educated eye of the horse owners and/or the barn manager. Horses are indeed much more comfortable than humans when the temperatures get cold. Healthy, well-fed horses with good winter coats will come through even a vicious winter in fine form, provided that they have quantities of hay to keep them fed and warm and occupied, water to keep them hydrated, salt to keep their body chemistry in balance, and some sort of shelter or windbreak, whether that takes the form of a three-sided shed or a thick stand of trees. Horses are good at conserving heat - winter is usually easier for them than summer, when they typically have much more trouble dissipating heat.
It's natural to worry that horses' ear tips, eyes, nostrils, lower legs, and your gelding's external genitalia would all be at risk, but if the provisions in the above paragraph are met, that just doesn't seem to be a problem under normal circumstances. If you watch horses that are outdoors in very cold weather, you'll see exactly why. Horses are very good at protecting themselves, and unlike humans, they're well-designed to withstand cold weather. Those lovely furry eyelashes, and the thick hair that grows in and on their ears - including at the tips - in winter are quite effective at protecting eyes and ears. Plus - and this applies to genitalia as well - those bits are kept well out of the way of the wind. If your prevailing wind is from the west, look at your horses in their field. If they're in a shelter and out of the wind, no worries. If they're outside IN the wind, they'll have their backs to the wind - you'll find all of them facing east and standing with their heads low. This posture causes some people to exclaim "Oh, the poor horses!" but there's nothing pathetic about it. Standing this way effectively keeps their necks and heads, and the geldings' sheaths, OUT of the wind. If you walk behind horses when they're standing with their backs to the wind, you'll see just how nicely their tails serve to protect their rear ends - the shorter hairs on the dock fan out and deflect both wind and snow. The lower legs don't even feel the cold particularly - a horse's lower legs are primarily bone and support structures, and don't require much in the way of winter weatherproofing, even if the horse stands and walks around in deep snow for weeks or months at a time.
Tiny foals shouldn't be out in extreme winter weather, because foals shouldn't BE tiny and new during those months (and nature does her best to arrange things so that foals are born into the late spring and early summer, NOT in winter - that's why it's so much easier to get mares in foal during the summer months), but well-fed weanlings with thick coats do very well indeed. Arthritic and/or elderly horses can certainly be brought into stalls if the winter weather is extreme, but most would do just as well, and be happier, if they could remain outside with their friends. With a good winter coat covering a layer of winter fat, even an old horse can enjoy being out in the cold. Just like young horses, what old horses need in winter is access to water - warmed, if necessary - and full-time access to hay, for warmth. Many owners like to feed grain because it conjures up images of bowls of oatmeal and makes the owners feel warmer - but the horses get their warmth from the process of digesting hay, so hay is much more valuable. And unlike grain, hay won't challenge the horses' digestion or promote the development of gastric ulcers. So when winter weather becomes extremely cold, and you want to help your horses stay warm, resist the temptation to blanket the horse and lock him in the barn with a feed tub full of grain. None of that will help him stay healthy or happy. Instead, check the pasture water tank to be sure that the de-icer is working, see to it that your horses have hay around the clock, and save the oatmeal for yourself.
As at any other time of year, it's the horse-owner's responsibility to pay attention and take action if and when action is required. WATCH your horse. Do you have a wet horse? Sick horse? Thin horse? Shivering horse? Blanket it - or bring it in, dry it off, give it warmed water to drink, check its vital signs, feed it, and call the vet if necessary... in other words, be sensible and careful and do what you would usually do if there were something wrong with your horse.
If, during a hard, cold winter, a horse doesn't have a good winter coat - if its coat has been clipped, or if it has just arrived from Florida - then if it's turned out, it will need a suitable blanket to replace its own coat. If a horse is ill or thin or weak, then it will probably need to be blanketed so that it can stay warm without using up so much of its own energy. But all of this is just common-sense horse management.
If your horses don't have access to any kind of shelter in pasture, and need to be brought into the barn during extreme WET winter weather, you still shouldn't need to put a heater in the barn. Or, more accurately, when you shut your horses into the barn, you're effectively using the horses to heat the barn. Just don't close the barn too tightly - horses need fresh air, and no barn should be closed to the point where fresh air can't get in. Healthy horses with free-choice hay produce quite a lot of heat, and do a very good job of warming the air around them.
This doesn't mean that you'll NEVER bring the horses in during the winter. There may be times when bizarre weather conditions can make it a very good idea to put even the most tough and self-sufficient outdoor horses indoors for a few days. People who don't keep horses often laugh at the attentive way that horse-owners track the weather - they find it funny that we are constantly preoccupied with precipitation and wind direction. But if a freak winter storm produces enough freezing rain that blows INTO the horses' outdoor shelter, or if that same freezing rain coats the paddocks and walkways with sheet ice, bringing the horses indoors for a few days may make them cranky, but it will protect them from breaking their legs.
Last week, for example, we had just-above-zero temperatures, high winds, and heavy snow. My windows were rattling, snowdrifts were rapidly blocking my driveway and making local roads impassable, and MY idea of comfort was to be indoors with a blanket and a hot drink. My horses had other ideas - from the kitchen, I could see three of them in the turnout paddock. The barn door was open and they were free to walk inside at any time, but they chose to spend their time outside. All had heaps of snow on their backs. The one that loves to eat snow had a white muzzle; the one that loves to roll in snow had white sides. They weren't soaking up the sun because there wasn't any - the day was dark and overcast and very cold, and from their point of view, entirely enjoyable. I let them spend their time where they wanted to spend it.
This week, the temperatures are much higher - just below freezing and beginning to climb. The sun is out. The horses, on the other hand, are IN - not because they want to be, but because their turnout areas are unsafe. Last week's snow was followed by freezing rain, and the turnout areas and walkways have all become ice rinks. The horses would much prefer to be outdoors, but turnout is simply too dangerous right now. When the footing is safe again, they'll go out, no matter how cold it is - and they'll be fine.
Jessica
Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org
Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.