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RE: [RC] Cold and blanketing horses - heidiOh, I am familiar with weather extremes (from recently been living in Fairbanks, Alaska) and the hunt regime of blanketing (grew up in the midwest in the hunt and dressage worlds). Frankly, I stick wiith blanketing; especially during extreme weather. Horses are mammals and the physiological effects of cold/wind occur in them as well as any other mammal. Further, blanketing helps to reduce, at least some, calories needed during extreme weather too. I'd rather buy a blanket that I can use over and over again then having to buy more feed and hay in order to sustain the horse through bad weather. And horses start to lose body heat around freezing temps and even slightly higher temps if there is wind/rain etc. So, blanketing can and does make sense; physiologically and economically. And that's my 2 cents worth! I'll take the opposite tack here. While I agree with you at temps near freezing when the horses get wet and lose the insulating capability of the hair, when they really do get cold, in my experience at colder temps, blankets just mash down the hair and often are not as efficient as the hair itself is in extreme cold. A healthy horse with a good coat is sufficiently insulated that the snow will actually build up on them when they are standing still, as not enough body heat gets through the hair to melt the snow. And even if you blanket, they STILL need the extra calories--all you've done is replace one good insulating system with another. So no, I don't see that you save a thing. And yes, horses are mammals--but they are far more efficient at staying warm than we humans are, and are quite happy in subzero temps, provided they can stay dry and do have enough to eat. The way I look at it, you'll have to feed extra anyway--and even if you save a tiny bit on feed, the extra that my unblanketed free-feed horses eat would not pay for a really top quality blanket for each of them anyway. (Never mind you couldn't pay ME enough to try to maintain and monitor blankets on 48 head of free-roaming horses that run out on 15 or so acres in the sagebrush all winter!) Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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