Keeping Horses Warm

The recent cold snap across America has a lot of folks scrambling to cover pipes and protect pets from the unusually low temps.  I am one of those folks, with nearly 30 animal outside that are hostage to my efforts to keep them safe.

I've been asked sometimes about blanketing horses and feeding extra grains and corn during cold spells.  Um, no, that's not the best course of action in most circumstances.  Of course, an explanation follows!

Here in Las Vegas we have pretty mild winters, and are not generally set up for snow, or even much rain for that matter (less than 4 inches per year average). We are set up to combat heat and sunlight, with shade and misting systems, and we are usually set up for wind, being a desert it is usually windy here if nothing else.  Shade covers sloping west or south west, pvc and brass mister systems, and five foot high solid or semi-solid panels on the north side are the usual protections.

For horses over 20, and temps that go below freezing, I will use a blanket that is not for Alaskan winters but has a light to medium poly-fill and a water resistant nylon outer, or even a heavy canvas rug if the horse has a good winter coat. My miniature looks like a bear and will never need a blanket in any Las Vegas winter unless he was clipped, something I have no need to do for him.

My Tennessee Walker mare, however, is 23 years old, and although she grows a decent coat, I hate to think of her leggy ectomorphic frame shivering in the cold, so the lightweight blanket goes on in the evenings, and it comes off in the daytime.  We have yet to experience a daytime high of less than 32F so given that's my criteria, if the sun is out, the blanket comes off. I remove the blanket so she is not "acclimatized" to wearing it.  It's the body getting used to a temp and then adjusting its personal internal thermostat so the environment.  If she wears the coat all day, it will not generally keep her "as warm" than if we remove it for part of the time. When it goes back on, it resets the thermostat to keep the cold away better.

I have a hard time explaining it, but that does seem to be how it works.  If you wear a coat in the house where it's warm, it doesn't help as much when you go outside - you need a heavier coat. If you walk about your comfortable house, you put on a coat to go outside and it keeps you warm. Of course, if the horse has a heavy coat, you can't do this, but nature gave the horse what it needs for the climate it's genes hail from - Shetland is cold, Shetland genes grow bigger coats, American minis have Shetland genes, thus - you get the idea. Arabian horse blood will not give a horse nearly as thick a coat, being a desert creature from the equatorial latitudes.

The same goes for a horse clipped for winter time shows.  Put that blanket on because you've removed the weatherproof hairs and left only the fuzzy stubs that will dry quicker after a ride but won't do anything more than a T-shirt would for you.  A barn should not be closed up and hot, it should be in the 50F ballpark, and a blankets on clipped horses.

The other thing people often will do in an attempt to keep their horses warm is to increase grain. Please don't increase your horses' grain rations.  Continue to feed the same amount of grain as always, if any, and increase the hay and roughage.  Grain simply encourages founder, and the bacterial flora will have a party and send their waste products straight to your horses' feet. By the time winter arrives, it's too late to "fatten up" your horse for winter. That is supposed to happen in the wild during summer when food is available.

 

Alfalfa on the left, Orchard-Timothy on the right

Increase hay rations by about 25% for every 10 degrees of F temp below normal.  If your normal winter is 30F at night and 50F in the day, and it's down to 25F with 40F daytime highs, give an extra 2-3 pounds of hay at night.  This should be a high quality grass hay like orchard or timothy, not a legume like alfalfa.  Alfalfa has a high percentage of calcium which can cause an imbalance in potassium and other electrolytes.  When water intake is reduced, as it will be in the winter, it is easier to become dehydrated and in imbalance.  If temps are staying below freezing, don't be afraid to increase grass hays by 50%.  It creates much more heat to digest the hay and roughage than it does the corn and grains, and won't contribute to hoof maladies.