Tips to keep your horses warm during the freezing cold

 The first thing is to know your horse. Does your horse lose weight easily? Is there origins Siberia or the hot desert? My gelding is easy. He likes to be blanketed under 50 degrees and he runs standard heat wise. He’s a fairly easy keeper. My mare on the other hand loses weight very easily and runs cold. Both are full blood thoroughbreds.

All horses should get 24/7 access to forage in the cold. If your horse is a fatty mcfatty pants then probably through some sort of hay net. I have 2 medium easy keepers and 1 hard keeper so I do not ration access to hay. If more gets wasted that way I am ok with it knowing they can eat their hearts out safely.

The next tip is grain. I bump up everyone’s grain during a cold spell to make sure they don’t drop any weight as horses burn more calories in the cold. A pro tip is to soak your feed to get more water in them if they aren’t drinking enough.

As always, safe clean drinking water should be provided as well to ward off any of the C word episodes.  If you don't have access to electricity I've seen people insulate their water troughs to help them stay unfrozen longer. they insulate in many ways (poop is quite warm and free).

Just make sure you check frequently.

always touch your water source to make sure it's not shocking your horses. Either from an electric fence touching or the heater not properly grounded

The next thing is shelter. Shelter can include: a group of trees, a run in shelter, a stall, an indoor arena AND it also includes blanketing.

If you’re new to blanketing I would get a 100g fill blanket and a 200-250g fill. If it gets cold enough and your horse is cold I will put both blankets on to get a 300-350 g fill which is a heavy weight blanket.

The biggest game changer in keeping my mare warm is throwing on a neck wrap. You can pick these up pretty cheaply from marketplace or smartpak for about 30 bucks. They all fasten a little differently but you can make it work (even if you have to use some baling twine) and they work just fine!

she doesn't match but she's warm!

If you look at your horse and they have snow piled up on them this is a good thing! It means their coat is insulating them very, very well. Likewise if your horse is wet on their undercoat get a blanket on them ASAP.  And I know this is obvious but if they are shivering they need a blanket. I had an actual horse person tell me once shivering was alright because it’s a natural mechanism that’s how they warm up. Um absolutely not ma’m.

Always check under the blankets to see if the blanket has soaked through or if it’s too heavy and they’ve sweated. Sweat should be avoided at all costs. If they’re very sweaty from over blanketing don’t just rip the blanket off. Make sure to take them into the shelter or even better through a microfleece or wool cooler on them until they dry and then either leave a layer off or no blanket.

I have found that horses do a lot better in the cold than the extreme heat.

happy cold weathering friends, may your pastures stay dry and your ruts small this winter.