In northwestern Mass. we had 5F above for a high yesterday and 15F below last night with wind chills near 30F below!! My horses are out hairy and unblanketed but I am not riding at the moment, just feeding tremendous amounts of hay!! We have snow banks about 8 feet high too!! Anyway, IF I were consistently riding and/or competing at this time, I would do a trace clip and blanket. I did that with one of my horses who I used the board at an indoor facility during the winter.
We use rump rugs here in the NE when the temp. is either very cool or especially a cold rain, even with my big butted Appaloosa who overheats easily in warm weather...I did the 50 endurance at GMHA in 2006 where it was sunny but about 20F at the beginning of the ride. He wore a rump rug for all but the last loop of that ride.
I will put a rainsheet on my Arab/App X Stetson pretty much anytime of year when it is a cold rain because he has much thinner skin and shivers if he is wet. He can take cold and wind, his coat fluffs right up, but as soon as he's wet, he's cold!! Of course, some of that is because big butt Hammer won't let him in the run-in when it's raining!! I have to either put Stetson in his stall or put a rain sheet on.
I was always under the impression that one should not pour cold water on a horse's rump either.
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