From: Megan
Dear Jessica:
Thank you so much for the wonderful information that you provide for me and so many others every week! I clip my horse a little after Thanksgiving. I have had help from someone at my boarding stable as a guide for what he should be wearing outside. I live in Wisconsin, and the weather can be pretty unpredictable. My question is if you have any kind of blanketing guide for degrees Fahrenheit for what he should be wearing. Thanks! Megan
I can't provide you with a chart, or give you a hard-and-fast formula that would let you choose a specific blanket whenever the outdoor thermometer reaches a specific temperature. I wish I could, but there are too many variables. Many manufacturers of horse blankets will provide you with guidelines suggesting which of their blankets will be most appropriate at particular temperatures, and some will even offer different suggestions according to whether the horse is clipped or unclipped, indoors or outdoors, etc. Those suggestions can be useful, but there's no single guide that can tell you what blanket YOUR horse will need at what temperature, because there is so much more to the equation than temperature and blankets.
Depending on how much of a coat your horse grows and how much work you do with him during the winter, you may not need to blanket him at all. Some horses never grow a long, teddy-bear winter coat, and if you have the time and patience to walk your horse until he is cool and dry, or if your horse becomes sweaty only occasionally, you could probably leave him unclipped. This isn't something you would want to do all the time, but if most of your winter workouts don't make your horse sweat, you can accelerate the drying process when he DOES sweat by using dry towels and a horse vacuum cleaner set on "blow." However, sweaty or not sweaty, your horse will still need to be cooled out by walking, so that he will be completely cool and dry - that is, with his core temperature at its pre-workout level - before he can safely be put away or turned out... blanketed or not.
If you work your horse hard enough to get him sweaty during most of your winter riding sessions, then clipping and blanketing will be the best way to keep him comfortable and healthy through the winter months. In some ways, it will involve more work on your part, because you may need to change blankets periodically to reflect the changes in winter weather, and of course checking the blanket's fit and adjustment, and checking your horse's condition underneath the blanket, will be part of your daily routine even on non-riding days.
So - back to the question of which blanket to use under what conditions. The answer will depend mostly on the overall condition of your horse and the nature of your weather. Old horses, thin horses, young horses, and stressed horses will always need more protection than healthy, active horses that are in their prime and in good condition. Cold, dry weather is much less stressful to horses than cold, wet weather. Cold, wet, and windy weather is probably the most stressful of all winter weather, because horses that become damp - whether from weather or their own exertion - can become very cold indeed. Breaks in the weather - an unseasonably warm and sunny day or two mid-winter - can be hard on a blanketed horse, because the horse may become sweaty during the day and then become severely chilled at night, when the temperature drops again and the horse is still damp under its blanket. A vigorous run can have the same effect as an extra-warm day, so be vigilant about monitoring your horse. Moderate exercise outdoors in cold weather - even in very cold weather - won't hurt him, providing that the footing is safe. But horses aren't always moderate. Whether a horse goes for a jolly run with his friends or whether he is being chased by coyotes in the pasture, the end result is likely to be a damp, sweaty horse wearing a blanket... which means that he is likely to remain damp and therefore likely to become chilled. Someone (you) will need to remove the blanket and help the horse cool off and dry out before his blanket is put back on.
If your horse is clipped and you want to keep him comfortable both during the slightly warmer winter days and the much colder winter nights, a medium blanket for daytime and a heavier one for nighttime may be appropriate; alternatively, you could use the same medium blanket around the clock, placing a polarfleece blanket liner under the blanket at night and removing it in the morning. That said, I've never found it all that satisfactory to put layers of blankets on a horse; all too often, and usually in the worst possible weather, the horse somehow manages to show up in the morning with one layer missing or in shreds and the other layer hanging in a way that can't possibly keep the horse warm but can definitely interfere with its movement. I once, on an especially cold winter morning, found a horse standing very still and shivering in a corner with its blankets disarranged. The outer, heavy winter blanket was adjusted nicely and still in place, but the "no-slip" (ha) blanket liner that should have been providing invisible warmth under the blanket was all too visible and providing no useful warmth at all. Most of the liner was outside the blanket - and not just outside, but upside down and hanging over the horse's neck and head. The poor horse was standing on it with his front feet. His head was held down, he couldn't see anything, and he couldn't - as far as he knew - go anywhere. He was very grateful to have the blanket liner removed, and that was the very last time his owner used a blanket liner.
The key to successful blanketing is to know your horse well and check on him frequently. Whenever there's a significant drop or rise in the outdoor temperature, or a major change in weather, check him several times a day to be sure that he is warm enough - but not too warm. Cold alone usually doesn't present a huge problem, but the combination of cold and rain or cold and wind (or, heaven forbid, rain and wind followed by cold and wind) can make a horse miserable in the short run and ill in the long run. If you have months of cold, crisp winter weather, your horse will probably enjoy all of it - horses are much happier in cold weather than in very hot weather. But if the wind becomes severe (or comes from the direction of the open side of the run-in shed), or if the temperature is less cold but there is wet snow or sleet, be aware that these conditions will make your horse MUCH colder. If you find him standing with his head down and his tail clamped, and you then discover that he is shivering under his blanket, he'll need more protection and warmth. If you have a day or two of unseasonably warm days, don't relax and think that you won't need to check your horse - continue to check him because he may sweat under his blanket during the day and then become severely chilled at night.
Oh, and one more thought: Since your horse will be clipped, use a quarter sheet to keep the muscles of his hindquarters warm whilst you are grooming him AND and warming him up under saddle. If you remove it during the working part of your riding session, be sure to put it back on when you are walking your horse to cool him out.
Jessica
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