Cold Weather Question: To Blanket or Not to Blanket?

This time of year when the leaves start to fall and snow is in the forecast, horse people all around start to panic on whether or not they should blanket their horses. In this blog post, I wanted to dispel some common blanketing myths and talk about what types of blankets are best for different weather.

Source

Some people choose to blanket their horses as soon as the temperature drops and their equine partner is dressed head to toe in a more expensive outfit than anything I have in my closet. On the other hand, there are those who choose to throw Brownie some hay and call it good and there are also those in between who only blanket occasionally. Is one specific group right? Well the answer we have is no. Here at Han-Ney Equestrian Center we choose to keep certain horses who live inside most of the time blanketed when they're outside due to the fact that they don't have a full hair coat. Others who live outside most of the time only get blanketed when it rains or sleets so that the under-layer of their hair doesn't get matted down.

This may not seem like the perfect answer you were looking for, but every horse is different and it is up to the owner to decide what is best for each individual horse. Below is a picture of a blanketing chart which is helpful when it comes to making the decision on whether or not to blanket.

Source

We also invite you over to our Facebook page for our No Shave November contest! Post a picture in our status update to be entered for a chance to win a cool prize!