Pedigree Query

Hello
In our Dec month we have experienced -15 w/o windchill in the last week. usually around Late January it gets very worse,
What does anyone recommend for to keep a horse warm in these Negative degree weather-with windchill
They are blanketed, fed well.
Karen

I think as long as they have good shelter out of the wind and weather they should be ok. All of mine are blanketed. If they are cold then they will shiver.

Read on Thehorse.com that hay at night provides the best internal heat when being digested.

Keeping a body hydrated is very important. Most people will waste the add-in supplements by adding them to the water, but put it in the feed to encourage the horse to drink.

hay, hay and more hay!

I let mine get exposed to the cold in Dec so they grow a good coat. No need to blanket here in Va since they aren't doing much, as long as they have a wind break, rain shelter. Am more concerned about icy footing.

They get free access to hay, which really helps, but they drink a lot of water. They do best when it is warmed a bit.

Precipitation, wind, cold. One of 3 no problem, two of three uncomfortable. All three, miserable and dangerous

jm

Like Joltman, we don't blanket here. But they have huge alfalfa round bales and access to heated troughs of fresh water, and we up the grain to three times a day. I put electrolytes in the water. We also have salt & mineral blocks out, and they have run ins. However, our coldest is still quite a bit above zero.

We have ridiculously cold weather here and our biggest problem most of the time is windchill. A few nights last week we were around -35 because of the 20+mph wind. Lovely.

Our have access to a run in shed and a gigantic windbreak across most of their winter paddock. Heated trough. We don't blanket. Used to let them have free access to round bales of grass/alf mix but they were getting obese. Also strange that one of our horses alone could eat an entire 1300lb bale in less than a week if left alone (gluttony at it's finest). Now, we feed twice a day and the amount we feed depends on the forecasted temp for the day or night.

We had two at the vet yesterday and were told they were in great shape and maybe a little pudgy. IMO, a healthy horse doesn't need much more than GOOD shelter and GREAT hay to get through a hard winter.

If you have a special needs or geriatric horse, that changes everything. At the moment, we have a pretty easy bunch.

What Im concerned about now, is that they are loosing weight. Im trying to think of more I can do.
They have: A nice THICK coat- you can actually grab it and hold on to it. But about Thanksgiving they would start to shiver around 8pm. ( when we would go to check up) so we put the storm sheilds on.
Heated water - all the time
3/4 Ton alfalfa Bale there
A carport ( two Car) so they can get inside- its has the woodsides- three sided covered and another stall and run open.
Grain twice a day- Im using rice bran, beet pulp and equine junior - Puina for all three. My geriatric horse maintaines his weight well- he doesnt concern me that much.

opps sorry double post.

Wow, dunno. YOu seem to have your bases covered. Heat lamp in the carport? A couple of heat lamps in the carport? It won't really make it tropical but it will take the edge off. The only problem with that is the constant light, I suppose.

You don't sound like a person that would have deworming issues.

The reason we don't blanket is because I have been told for years by various people (vets also) that blanketing a horse that HAS a winter coat decreases the horse's ability to keep itself warm. It flattens the hair against the body making it less effective at trapping body heat - and I don't think I am explaining it right.
That being said, we WILL blanket when there is freezing rain. That stuff sucks.

OHH DOESNT IT THOUGH!
and it sticks to their coat too!
But you know it just dawned on me what Im not doing - which was like a duh for me. I noticed the horses laying in the hay and the ground was warmer- I SHOULD HAVE thrown out a bale of straw- I just cant believe I didnt think about it sooner.
Karen

HI KarenKarenn!!!

How are you? Hope this finds you doing well.

We only blanket ours that are in Lexington when it is as surprisewind says, the freezing rain!

Imperative to make sure the blanket is waterproof or don't blanket at all. If they walk around with wet freezing blankets on them, you will have some sick horses.

Where I'm at in far NE IL it seems that only the horses that get ridden on a regular basis in arenas get blanketed from what I can see. When Emmy was up with me, if it got to our horrible below zero temps, we just made sure they had the run in that allowed them to get into their stalls as they pleased. We gave them their choice. Most of the time, they chose to be outside unless it was really wet out. And like all others say...plenty of good hay.

*my computer crashed on me...I lost all my addresses/emails, etc. if you can send me your email I'd love to tell you about our new Keeneland sales babies we have!

Happy Holidays to you all, and may you all have a blessed New Year with healthy happy foals, mares, stallions, geldings ....and on and on and on!

OHHH COOL

surprisewind wrote:

You don't sound like a person that would have deworming issues.

.

hi KK

With recent research de-empahsizing rotational deworming and moving toward fecal egg counts, perhaps there is something in the deworming routine you have that might be missing something, so they don't process their food (especially the hay) well. My vet has said that he knew of horses being rotationally dewormed that had serious worm problems nonetheless due to resistence.

Another aspect is that sometimes (I seem to recall) antibiotics kill the good bacteria in the gut which, in this case, would limit the ability of the bacteria to help create body heat through the digestive process.

jm