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Oops, meant to say that my vet told me research has shown
that they are most comfy at 18 degrees. Wouldn't surprise me, they love to
run and plan in cold weather!
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 7:37
AM
Subject: Re: [RC] How cold is cold ? How
fast do horses adapt to no stalls?
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 12:01
AM
Subject: Re: [RC] How cold is cold ?
How fast do horses adapt to no stalls?
I read some research once that said the most comfortable temperature
for a horse was about 50-55 degrees F.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002
1:23 PM
Subject: [RC] How cold is cold ? How
fast do horses adapt to no stalls?
I just had a very weird discussion this afternoon with my
buddy Babsi over
moving my horses from mainly stall living to paddock
living. She's convinced
that they are going to die of pneumonia or
something from the bitter cold of
the Egyptian winter. Here's the
set-up. I'd like opinions. Any vets?
I've recently invested in some
land next door to my friend Babsi's palace so
my horses can live in
paddocks instead of boxes. I would have liked to do
this over the
summer, but the opportunity came up in September while Kelly
was here.
We planted grass on two thirds of the land and the other third is
sand
for maybe a little house or something (and for a room for tack
and
groom, etc). Things have gotten a bit strange over at my old stable
(just
the OTHER side of Babsi's), so I plan to move the horses to
temporary
paddocks in the sand part until the grass gets settled. The
paddocks are
pipe and the area where I'm planning to put up a shelter
(just a roof for
shade and the every-five-years rain drop) will not be
ready for two or three
weeks. This year I haven't clipped any of my
horses because I figure that
the fuzz will help them get used to being
outside, and anyway, my life still
basically is far too-office oriented
for them to overheat from excess work.
<G> Even the month or so
they are on the sand, they will be getting a better
diet in terms of
forage than they have now.
Having grown up in the mountains behind
Ventura in California where it was
hot as Hades all summer and we would
really have the odd morning with ice in
puddles in winter AND most
horses were just pastured, I figure that the
horses will be fine. A
REALLY cold night here is about 10 C or about 45 to
50 F. I seriously
doubt that horses will up and die of shock from not being
in boxes at
night with those temperatures. The most exotic of mine is
the
Appaloosa/WB cross and he gets pretty fuzzy. The Arabs are baladi,
so they
are used to all sorts of things, but they do tend not to get
too fuzzy. I
figure it's just not cold enough for fuzz.
Don't
know if she will listen to outside opinions, but I hate to see
her
worry needlessly. (She'll probably say, "But they don't live in
Egypt!" like
she does to me. Virtually everyone keeps their horses in
stalls here because
land is expensive and they think I'm nuts to waste
it on leaving horses out
on it.)
Maryanne Stroud
Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.ratbusters.net
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