We have three very different horses with three very different sets of needs. While I would prefer NOT to blanket and clip (because let’s face it, when you do self-care at home, you’re the one pulling blankets on and off twice a day!), the reality is that I do both.
Cash
Cash is 25, and while he started out the year in great weight, he’s steadily lost it since September. He’s not as interested in eating as he used to be, and it can be a real struggle to get him to finish his 2 scoops of Senior twice daily. And yes, his teeth have been checked, he’s UTD on wormer, etc. Older horses just sometimes don’t eat as well, and for the first time, he’s showing his age a bit.Cash grows a thick winter coat, but because he’s not as fat as usual and is not eating well, I don’t want him to waste a single calorie on staying warm. Therefore, he gets blanketed when it’s below 50, and below 40, he gets a liner plus his blanket.
Eat, liebschen, eat!!!
Red
You’d think that Red, with his pony-esque stature, would grow a winter coat like a yak. In reality, he grows less hair than most OTTBs I’ve met, so he gets cold pretty easily. And while he’s in good weight right now, toward the end of last winter I had to switch him from his usual Lite feed to Senior to keep the pounds on. Given that, I also don’t want him to burn any calories staying warm. He usually gets a sheet around 50, and below 40 gets a blanket. If it’s cold/windy/rainy, then he gets a fleece under his blanket too (his blanket is older and not as warm as it once was).
I prefer my fleecy jammies when it's below 40, tyvm.
Paddington
Paddington was all set this year for a Michigan winter, and then he moved to Texas. He’s got a coat about like a woolly mammoth. Unfortunately, last week it was 82 degrees, and the poor guy was drenched in sweat just standing there in the shade. While 82 is not the norm for winter here, mid 50s to mid 60s is, and even that is too warm for the amount of hair he’s sporting. A clip was in order, but I wanted to take off as little hair as I could get away with.I started off just clipping the underside of his neck, his chest, and part of his belly, but he was still sweating buckets. I ended up doing what’s called a blanket clip, and that seems to be working really well for him. When I’ve ridden him, he’s gotten a bit damp on his back but dried and cooled quickly, and he’s stopped sweating when he’s just standing around. Since he’s clipped, he gets a blanket at around 45 or so, although even with the clip he could probably do without, or even with just a sheet. His ears and sheath have been toasty warm despite the near-freezing temps we’ve had here – it hasn’t gotten above 40 since Friday! And I certainly don’t mind if he burns a few hundred extra calories keeping warm!
I must eat moar to grow moar hairs!
I used to not clip, but I used to also have infinite amounts of time to properly cool out and groom, also Carlos was a lot like Red, nice fine coat. I only started clipping for winter clinics/shows. This year I clipped Ramone because he did grow a yak coat blech!
ReplyDeleteHaha, I would not have expected Ramone to be a yak!
DeleteQ and Griffin both don't wear blankets unless cooling post-workout. Both have been clipped down the front of their necks and center of chest. Both are fatties who frequent the free choice hay in the field. Both know which places to go to get out of the wind. So far the minimal clip seems to be the perfect thing to keep them cool when working out and still allow them to manage temperature when its cold. I'll be buying a heavier turnout sheet this week for use at COLD endurance rides when my horse cannot get out of the elements. But for now, no blankets for these two! They're young, fat, healthy, and happy. And both came out of winter like chunks last year! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI've done the neck/chest clip for less fuzzy horses and it seems to work great. Nice that your guys can be out with lots of hay, shelter, and erm, an "extra layer" of insulation without the blanket. ;)
DeleteI clip because my time is really valuable, and if I don't clip my heavy sweating horse needs about an additional hour of grooming and cool down time. Also, he's in moderate work and the temperature is so all over the place I don't think it's fair to ask him to work hard on an 80 degree day when he gets all sweaty from his coat.
ReplyDeleteIt can take FOREVER to dry a wet, sweaty horse, and those 80 degree days in the middle of December are murder on fuzzy horses. Sometimes it just makes good sense to clip!
DeleteI do not clip, mostly because my mare lives outside at this point and I don't want to take away any of her natural defenses, but she does get sweaty easily. But I'd rather take the time to cool her down after a ride than risk her being cold out in the pasture. She becomes a little poof ball in the winter, so I don't need to blanket as heavily. I usually do a sheet between 25-40 and below that 25, she gets her medium. Below 0, she gets a light liner plus her medium. She's a hearty New England girl, so now that we're in Maryland, I think she will be fine.
ReplyDeleteBwahahahaha, so funny to hear the differences in temperature between Down Here and Up There! A sheet at 25, mine would FREEZE, even with their hair. Of course, it pretty much never gets to 25 here, except very rarely on the coldest nights in January. We have delicate little flowers down here! ;)
DeleteShy grows a coat like a yak, and it is much needed here in Michigan. I think she actually prefers the cold, the only reason she even bothers coming in at night is because she knows there is hay in her stall. She refuses to drink water from a heated water bucket and would much rather smash her face in a frozen bucket to drink. She's weird. . . I do not blanket or clip her. But then, she does not get worked hard (or even moderately) and she hardly sweats. And if she had a blanket, she would probably destroy it.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I think the choice of clipping or blanketing is totally up to the owner, horse, and workload. The only time I really disagree with blanketing is when a person has a healthy horse, not in work, that blankets because they think the horse is cold.
The yak coat must be a Haffie trait! If it weren't for the warm days where Paddy sweats to death, he wouldn't be clipped. SO much easier to deal with an unclipped horse.
DeleteBashing a frozen bucket to get a drink? Shy needs to come give my guys lessons. They just stare at the trough and bonk their noses on the ice. Geldings, sigh.
In general, I leave my horses naked and unclipped. They have access to shelter 24/7 and grow thick winter coats. They are not in heavy work through the winter and rarely go hard enough to get sweaty. Horses are designed to live outside and to deal with cold temperatures. In fact, studies have shown that they are happiest at MUCH lower temperatures than we are. For those reasons, I find that blanketing is mostly for the benefit of the humans in the equation. People frequently wind up over heating their horses by blanketing when it's over freezing, etc.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, I think there ARE horses who need to be blanketed. Horses who are underweight or don't grow thick coats, for example.
Horses who are in heavy work all winter long often benefit from being clipped, then blanketed.
With THAT said, I think the biggest mistake people make when blanketing is not blanketing ENOUGH when a horse actually needs it. Horses keep warm by trapping air in their coats. When we blanket, we flatten that hair, so it's so important to put on enough blanket to make up for that. Nothing makes me mad like seeing someone put a lightweight sheet on a horse with a thick winter coat. Congrats, you've just made your horse colder than he would have been with no blanket at all.
My rule of thumb for my horses is that I don't blanket unless I see someone clamping a tail or shivering. Last year, I blanketed Dancer because I got him in January and he had been living in a heated barn. He had NO winter coat. This year, he's been doing well so far. Even in the sleet, he's fluffy and warm. I'll continue to watch him, but I'm hopeful he won't need a blanket at all!
Dom, good point about putting on enough blankets when you do blanket. I always stick my hand in about an hour after blanketing - if they aren't toasty (but not sweating, obv), I'll add another layer.
DeleteOne thing that we struggle with here is that when it's cold, it's also often raining. A wet horse has a hard time staying warm in 40 degree temps with 20 knot winds, so I blanket to keep them dry as well as warm. Sure, they have access to shelter, but they don't always stay in it! Go figure.
I clip because unfortunately, I just don't have extra time to cool down and groom as much as I need to. Plus, Miles hates to be brushed which makes the struggle that much more difficult.
ReplyDeleteI am lucky in that the barn staff is very accommodating and will change blankets twice a day. Plus I have enough friends that will switch them out if need be. Post-clipping, my regimen is:
50 degrees to 40 degrees - Light Sheet
39 degrees to 20 degrees - Medium Blanket
20 degrees to 10 degrees - Heavyweight
Less than 10 and I'll double up.
SO nice to have a barn staff that changes blankets accordingly. And you make a good point - one of the benefits of a blanketed horse is that they stay remarkably clean! When I lived up north I loved winter because Cash was almost always spotless under his blanket - made grooming a snap!
DeleteI blanketed Ashke last winter, just because he was underweight and still being underfed (which we didn't recognize until we moved barns). This year, I will only add a blanket if the temp is under 10 degrees and windy and he is in turnout. He runs so hot that even a fly sheet is too much during the summer and I run the risk of colic from him being too warm. He loves being out in the cold weather, now that he's getting enough food, and his coat is thick but not too shabby.
ReplyDeleteWow, if Ashke runs that warm, maybe you should bring him inside and use him as a space heater! ;)
DeleteI clip.. Henry and I work hard in our lessons/rides and I have a full time job so I ride at night most days. I don't have an extra hour to walk him each ride and I don't want to risk my horse getting sick.
ReplyDeleteI do my own blanketing, I don't have the extra $100-$150 a month to pay someone and I like to have a light grasp on what layers my horse has on :)
Karley, it takes forever to dry a damp horse, doesn't it???
DeleteNice that you are able to do your own blanketing! I agree it's good to be able to keep tabs on what your horse is wearing, but it does turn one into a weather-watching fiend, doesn't it? I swear I check the weather hourly.
$150/mo to blanket?!?!? WOW, that's expensive! Maybe I should start charging that much to blanket/unblanket mine... ;)
As an aside, now that I have my horses out with hay 24/7 it's been REALLY interesting to watch how much/little they consume hay in relation to how warm they are... the morning the really awful cold front blew in, they were not blanketed (well, O had a sheet on) and they were all SUPER fluffy and had gobbled EVERY scrap of hay out of every net. When they are warmer, they don't eat half that much!
ReplyDeleteHay consumption is directly related to temperature, isn't it? That's something I never realized when I boarded. We definitely give the boys a little extra on nights when it's going to be really cold (for here) - if there's a little left in the morning, we know we got it right. They definitely eat way less when blanketed!
DeleteAll my northern ponies get blanketed 24/7 since sweet itch is so rampant. And if they don't get effected by 'the itch', then the mosquitos, buffalo flies, march flies, bot flies and normal flies will bug them so much it's almost cruel. Tropical paradise can suck.
ReplyDeletePonch was rugged in the winter nights since he wasn't really that shaggy, and it was getting close to freezing at night! However we don't have bug problems down here (just normal flies- so fly mask all day!) so he's naked right now. Besides, he's a baby in a group of a hundred or so horses.... all summer rugging attempts thus far have resulted in shreds of material. Sigh.
We have bugs BAD in March and November, our wettest months. This fall the mosquitoes have been LEGION since it's been so wet (no complaints though, we need the rain desperately). Luckily in the heat of the summer it's super dry, so that means the flies aren't very active. We keep sheets (when it's not too warm) and fly masks on most of the summer just to keep everyone more comfy.
DeleteI'm in California so our winters barely get down to the high 30s F (although sometimes we get into the 20s). My two old guys aren't clipped and they grow hair like yaks so I rarely blanket them. My horse gets full clipped since he's in work and pretty sure that he still lives in Germany so he grows a huge coat (already clipped him twice this year and have another clip coming up). He gets blanketed when it dips under 55-60 because he runs around when he's chilly and risks re-injuring himself.
ReplyDeleteYour winter sounds like ours! I wish I didn't have to blanket the old guy but I'm afraid he'd just lose weight if I didn't. And I hear you about clipping often! I think I may have to clip Paddy monthly - he's already got 1/2 inch of THICK hair, and I just clipped 2 weeks ago! Good thing the fuzzy teddy bear look works for him, lol!
DeleteHarley grows a lot of hair and, in general, my philosophy is that horses do not need blankets as long as they are healthy and allowed to acclimate to the seasonal changes with regular turnout. However, my horse is also a hardkeeper and my barn does not provide round the clock hay. I started blanketing at night a couple winters ago and it helped tremendously. So now I blanket conservatively and he is the only horse on the property sporting a winter blanket. So far, my barn owners have been very nice not to charge me for removing his blanket in the mornings, but if he needed regular changes for months, I would expect a blanketing fee.
ReplyDeleteLast year, he wore a medium weight blanket for parts of January, February, and March. My vet recommended not blanketing until the temperature dropped below 20 degrees F, so that is what I did. She is more worried about horses overheating than getting too cold.
I used to ride hard enough in the winter to get his coat sweaty, which was no fun to cool and groom. It took forever! If I rode regularly and that happened, I might consider clipping the chest and belly and blanketing accordingly. There is no way that I would have time to brush and buff him dry these days!
Heehee, I like your "brush and buff" comment! Makes me think of a beauty salon.
DeleteI'm glad your barn is OK with you blanketing Harley when it's super cold, especially since he's a hard keeper. Blanketing definitely makes a difference in keeping the weight on!
jenj--Thanks for this post. My 33 year old Gunner is having a hard time keeping weight on right now. I don't clip and he has a thick winter coat. I blanket him when it is rainy and cold, but not otherwise. I'm afraid he'd be too hot if I blanketed him in our normal (60 something degree) winter days. After reading your post, I'm wondering if I should blanket him at night. I had never noticed that blanketing made that much difference with keeping weight on--but then, I don't, in general, blanket my horses.
ReplyDeleteLaura, I also worried about Cash getting too hot. My vet told me that "toasty" under the blanket is fine, sweating is not. I just stick my hand on his chest under the blanket for a moment - if it's warm, great! If it's super hot but not sweating, I'll pull a layer. I also blanket mostly when it's cold and rainy - keeping them dry is key to keeping them warm, as you know. Finally, Dom had a really good point that you flatten the hair out when you blanket, so putting just a sheet on a fluffy horse will make them colder than if you just left them nekkid. That's why I go to a medium weight blanket, even when it's not that cold out - I figure if I'm going to flatten the hair, I need to make up for it with some fill.
DeleteMostly I'd say just trail and error - keep checking Gunner's temperature, and he'll let you know when he's comfy. And I swear, blanketing really does help prevent the hard keepers from losing weight!
I'm trying blanketing Gunner every night. So far I have to take the blanket off every day because its been in the 70's mid-day. But I'm not complaining. We'll see how it goes with his weight--thanks for the tip. I only own mid-weight blankets--I don't have any use for sheets in my current horse life--so no worries there.
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