A friends horse came to my place 3 months ago. She was telling
me she was always shivering in the winter and wanted to put a blanket on
her (she had shelter for her) but she didn't want her to get it hung up in
something. So she took the worst of two evils and let her
shiver. She fed high quality timothy or orchard grass. The
horse was fat and she said she would only feed her a flake in the morning
and a flake at night.
When she came to my place she continued to shiver. I was kind
of bewildered by her shivering because it hasn't been that cold of a
winter. I noticed when I was brushing her, her hair seemed oily and
flat. I had read where a horse needs their hair to be fluffy in the
winter. So I brushed her hair backwards to fluff it up. I also
read somewhere about how horses stay warm and it has to do with being able
to graze 24/7. I feed blue grass straw 24/7 and supplement with
first cutting alfalfa. She quite shivering after being at my place
for about a month. I figured between her being able to eat
constantly and fluffing her hair (which doesn't seem oily anymore)
that was what stopped the shivering.
If they pretty much have feed most of the time to munch on, fluffing
the hair may be worth a try.
I am so glad this discussion came up, as it is something that I have
been struggling with this winter.
My 5 run on about 15 acres during the winter. Unfortunately,
this doesn't have any trees or a run in for them -- thus, they come in
when the weather gets *really* bad and also at night during the
winter. One of my mares, a Canadian-bred horses, never even saw a
stall until she came to my place. She seems perfectly happy being
out 24/7 365 days a year for the most part. she never had shelter of
any type before she arrived at my place -- not even trees. Now one
of my horses was bred in FL and spent the first 2 years of her life
there; 5 years later, after her move to NY, she still doesn't
grow much of a winter coat. Because our winter was so obnoxiously
harsh this year (tons of snow and tons of sub-zero days and nights), she
is freezing! I've tried lack of blanket to encourage a coat, but I
just don't think it's going to happen. So, I do blanket her on those
days/nights when it is sub-zero because she will just stand there and
shiver -- no matter what.
I would like to hear from those of you who do 24/7 in harsh climate
on the following topics, as this is something that I have been trying to
hash out in my brain these past months:
1) dealing with frost bite
2) natural shelters -- what types of trees do you prefer? if
it's pine/fir, is there any issue with sap getting in the horses' manes
and tails, and, if so, how do you deal with it?
3) run-in sheds...how big and how many for 5 horses?
4) keeping water unfrozen
And finally (at least for now), I was reading the article in Equus
this month about horses and sleep. Did anyone else read this?
How does being out 24/7 in deep snow affect this "lying down" to sleep
issue? Do you see any affects?
Thanks!!!
Mary Golden
Northern New York
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