Blanket spinoff

[Hayburner]

How warm do you want your stabled horse to feel under their blanket?

Still a little cool, not feel any real warmth. Your just trying to keep the chill off?
Slightly warm
Warm
Toasty


My old guy I like him to be warm, but I watch he doesn't get sweated. My young horse, I like her to be still a little cool, unless it's really cold out low teens or single digits then I want to feel warmth under her blanket.

I know some people that want theirs "toasty". As in so warm a few more degrees and they'd break into a sweat.

IMHO, I think toasty is a bit much unless the horse is very old,underweight or ill.

[DJR]

I think it depends on the horse somewhat.

My big black beast, Jet (17.1h thick Friesian/Percheron) gets warm easily, so I like him to feel cool to touch just as my unblanketed horses feel. He is clipped right now so I look for cool to warm, not cool to cold. Today it was -10C in the morning and with only one layer of medium-weight blanket & neck-warmer, he was fine.

My 18 yr old Welsh pony has a thick hair coat so her blanket is just to help deflect the wind as she chills easily in wind or wet. So I like her to feel a bit warm under the blanket but never hot or toasty (I don't want her sweating as it would just make her colder).

The rest of my crew (Shire mare, 3 warmblood-X youngsters ranging in age from 2 to 5 yrs, a Fjord-X and a donkey) are all naked and live out 24/7 with access to good, deep & wide shelters. They do fine even when it's an icy -25C out.

[Minz]

My mare is a weenie when it comes to cold. She doesn't grow enough of a coat on her body to clip which is funny because her legs and face constantly need trimming and I call her the hairy German woman. I aim to keep her warm. If she is too toasty, she gives the barn workers a hard time catching her, so it is easy to tell what level of blanket she needs based on her manners. I don't worry too much about her. If it is too cold or windy, she will go in the back of the shelter and then line up the other horses as a windbreak on the open side. She does the same thing when it is raining, so she is almost never wet.
The Newfoundland pony (aka mini musk ox) is naked. His coat is really long and kind of waterproof. Water seems to bead off without ever soaking into his coat. I have a lined rain sheet in case of freezing rain, but with the shelter he never gets wet either.

[PaulaO]

I'm a blanket novice. Tuesday night Ariel was slightly warm under her blanket. Not hot, but body temp. That's how I want her. Not toasty.

[Quelah]

Slightly warm, definitely not toasty. They're horses after all, and I live in California where even in winter horses prefer to stand in shade

[piedmontfields]

Know your horse! I have a wimp. In winter, she is the horse in the sun with the blanket weight of the day---while her herd mates are in shade.

I feel silly saying "put something on my horse if it's below 59F" but she loses weight otherwise. While other horses are useless when it's 90 F plus my mare rocks. Depends on the equine.

[heddylamar]

Definitely listen to your horse.

That said, I am not a fan of toasty. If the horse gets chilled, they need to be able to move about and warm up. If the blanket normally keeps them toasty, it's not going to take much movement for them to get sweaty and, quickly thereafter, chilled. Unlike us, they can't unzip their coat or roll up the sleeves.

Middle mare runs and plays, a lot. The whole herd does. BO keeps most of them in mid-weight blankets mid 30s - teens. Heavy blankets come out in the single digits.

After 10+ years in NH, the departed oldster learned to grow a coat and turned into a yak in the winter. She was blanketed similarly to the middle mare the last few years after I moved her back to MD.

I aim for slightly warm to warm.

[Chisamba]

It depends on several factors, your goals , the horse, and conditions.

If your goal is to keep the horse in a short coat for safer winter riding, or if you have clipped, then you have to be more pro active in keeping the horse warm. Just using logic and observations Horses that grow yak coats actually need heavier blankets if clipped. A healthy horse grows as much coat as it needs to keep its metabolic balance. If they make their own heavy coat, and you interfere with that, you have to provide a heavier cover.

Gorses that run hot metabolisms keep finer coats and do not need as heavy a cover.

If I do not interfere with their natural coat growth, I just put wind proof water proof sheets on.

[khall]

I have to be careful that my horses don't sweat under their blankets even my clipped guy. They are big muscled horses that sweat easily, which is why I love the Schneiders techno fleece 80 g blankets for them. It rarely gets cold enough here for even a medium weight (20's and lower) for my guys so the Schneiders gets lots of use. I had even tried the SMartpak 100 g because I love their blankets, but nope my big guy will sweat in it. Only Anna, the mare I lost to colic in Oct, would be comfy and not sweat in her blanket. Hoping Jo, her filly, will be the same. So far she seems to be! She also has much less of a winter coat than all my others, who give yaks a good run for winter. I do want to feel warmth and not a cold horse under a blanket, but not hot and sweaty.

[Hayburner]

The way I use to and sometimes still gauge which blanket is : 30's but damp - so it feels colder, a light sheet, below 30 to 20's I used my 100 weight, 20's to teens I use 200 weight, single digits 370 weight. Give lots of hay on those colder days - which keeps them a lot warmer.

They are inside the barn most of the time, but the barn can be very cold and damp. Also, when the barn staff comes in the morning they open all the doors and most of the windows, which makes it even colder in the barn. My old guy has a window and is next to the doors so I try to keep him in a bit heavier blanket, as the doors are not tight, nor is his window.