My arab mare shivers too when it is raining and in the upper 40's, low 50's.I live in Atlanta metro.I think it is the sudden changes that mess with them. If you lived up north where it was cold and stayed cold, no problem. But we get this 50-70 degree weather in winter then sudden drops with rain and sleet to 30's ,or a 15-30 mile hr wind with mid 30's in 12 hours. I get "light " waterproof blankets (with a poalr fleece or nylon inside with light insulation and that usually does the trick. But for the two we body clip, I use a heavydouble D (for my horse less $$)(my daughters has a weatherbeeta 100$) Got mine on ebay, although we have plenty of tack stores. My "shiverry mare has aWilsun closeout blanket (they are made inthis area, I got for 55$ and is waterproof). Also State line tack has their own brand of blankets that are pretty good 1000 Denier or more if they have to take pasture carnage and you want them to last. I have a light 600 denier sheet by State line that is dying (6 repairs on it, )and it is 3 years old.If you can afford it a 100-200$ blanket will last maybe 7-10 years. Hay helps to keep their fires going mine have hay 24/7 and an open barn, but I have to blanket them if it is under 45 or raining and under 50 and or wind. Or get a waterproof sheet and light blanket to put under it for colder nights. Yeah we got the rain for 12 hours at 50, then within 6 hours it dropped to 30's with a cold wind. Glad I was home to care for them. Getting them dry to blanket is the trick sometimes. Oh yeah here is a tip. I had a cheap nylon blanket (35$ from the ol' guy who buys closeouts and works out of his trailer)It has lasted 3 +. If you buy the the Nix 's line of waterproofer for fabrics (Galyans here has it) and wash you water resistant blanket in it and seam sell the seams ,it acts as if it were waterproof. (well pretty close). You must not wash in detergent and you have to prewash in non-detergent first or it will cancel it out. We use dish soap or shampoo rather than their 10.00 bottle wash. Also He told us that if you wash your polar fleece jackets and vest (I make and use alot of these riding for layering here and my blaze orange ones) it makes them windproof and pretty water resistant. It did make a difference , no more chilly winds thru it on windy days , but breathes better than a windbreaker. Just no detergent. He says it makes it like the new "windblocker" fleece , alot cheaper. Runs about 10.00 bottle retail and will do one blanket(horse of course) or up to 4 garments. We are going amuck waterproofting everything. Laurie and Rascal,cozy in his blanket. ----- Original Message ----- From: Patti Pankiewicz-Fuchs Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 5:32 AM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] Brrrrr in sunny(?) Florida I feel as if have no right to complain about the cold, being in South Florida.....but, it has gotten down to 47 degrees here, and was in the high 50s and raining all weekend. Which is *very* cold for this area. My old pony and my TWH/QH were just fine through all the rain and are now fluffy and warm. However, my 4.5 year old Arab mare (future endurance horse) is shivering! I found her shivering Saturday night when it was still raining....so I put her in her stall and locked her in for the night. Btw, they have two stalls that they can go in and out of at will, none of them were using them at all throughout all the rain. Then, this morning it's perfectly dry out, though colder, and she's shivering again!! She is my first Arab, are they all like this? I grew up in NJ, where we had *real* winters and we never blanketed. Sooo, short story long, can anyone suggest a good, waterproof and rugged blanket? My pasture is very....um, natural so it'd have to be a blanket that could stand up to the branches and such. Cheers! Patti F. and the freezing Serendipity
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