winter conditions

["Beth Glace" <lb@nismat.org>]

I live in eastern NY, where we have wide seasonal variations in 
temperature.  In the dead of winter day temps are around 30 [0 C] and 
nights are generally in single digits [-18 to -13 C].  I do not 
blanket my horse [inside or out].  She is outside from 6 am till 6 pm 
in the winter months, with a large run in shelter and in a group of 6 
other horses to huddle with if needed.  If it is a freezing rain or 
lots of  ice on the ground she stays in.  Otherwise she is outside in 
the snow.  Although the horses can go into the shed in bad weather I 
rarely see them do so unless conditions are really miserable.   At 
night she comes into a box stall but is not blanketed.  The barn is 
an old low roofed dairy barn that generally stays above freezing 
with horses inside at night.  In the heat of the summer our high 
temps are in the 90's [32-35 C] and humid.  We then keep her in for 
about 8 hours during the day to be fed and to avoid the hordes of 
flies that torment her outside. 


Beth Glace and Klass Act 
New Paltz, NY