Blanketing horses for winter

[Lynette Helgeson <helgeson@lansford.ndak.net>]

Hi everyone,
I was just asking a question about beet pulp and keep weight on
my 21 yr. old arab gelding. I got some great suggestions and one
of the suggestions was to keep him blanketed to conserve body
heat.  He gets very thin during the cold North Dakota winters.
This winter I have started him on grain, soaked beet pulp and
hay cubes, oil, vitamins and probiotics. He is doing better then
last winter at this time, but he is still thinner then I would
like to see. You can see his ribs even with a winter coat on. I
have never blanketed horses before and was wondering if this
would be a good idea. He is getting a good winter coat, but the
temperatures have still been in the 50's and 60's. Last sunday
it even got up to 79 degrees. So I do think the horses do not
have full winter coats yet. So what do you think, should I start
blanketing him? Maybe just at night or all the time. Will
blanketing interfere with him getting more winter hair. I really
need your help on this subject because no one blankets there
horses around here and we can get weather that is -20 to -30
below in January and Feb. Or course we can also get weather that
is in the 30 to 40 above range in those months too. So should I
just blanket him when it gets cold, or since he is already thin
would it help to blanket him all the time. or maybe just at
night? I can put him in at night, but i think that horses need
each other to keep warm. What do some of you think.
Thanks for any help on this subject. 
Lynette


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