To Blanket or Not to Blanket: Common Sense Approach

To Blanket or Not to Blanket: Common Sense Approach.

There are many, many, different voices weighing in on this debate in horse husbandry; many with very passionate arguments on both sides. While I hesitate to add my voice and muddy the waters further, I feel that I owe my clients a view on the blanketing issue so that they can make a decision based on facts and common sense rather than internet fodder rife with judgmental and often unsupported non-facts.

Horse husbandry has changed dramatically over the past 30 years that I have been a horse owner.  I remember as a young horse owner in North Idaho that most horses didn’t have barns.  Many felt that the cover of a good stand of trees was sufficient protection from the elements for all forms of North Idaho winter weather.  Barns were for show horses.  Blankets for horses were largely unheard of for back yard horses.  Most horse owners would have one or two moth eaten canvas topped felt lined horse rugs for emergencies.  Show horses, were of course blanketed more frequently but even those were rarely blanketed all year.  While our winters seem to be getting a little longer and a little colder these past 10 years, I don’t think the climate change has changed as much as the way we take care of our horses.

It’s not uncommon to see horses in my practice now that are rarely without some type of clothing.  From one or two winter blankets, fly sheets, stable sheets or coolers.  Some horses have more wardrobe options than a Reba McIntire concert.  How do you decide if your horse “needs” or could benefit from a blanket?  Are you doing harm to your horse by keeping that blanket on all year?  Are they better off being “all natural” and hairy?  Let’s talk about the pros and cons of blanketing in general and then you can decide if and when blanketing fits into your personal horse husbandry.

From a completely medical standpoint, there are a few reasons why a horse might “need” or benefit from a blanket.  Any horse that is under ideal Body Condition Score (BCS) of 5/9 cannot adequately maintain his body temperature in colder temperatures.  In our area I’ll define that as below 20 degrees F.  But there are other factors to consider.  Horses can deal far better with cold and dry weather than they can with cold wet weather.  Those fluffy winter coats insulate best when dry and long periods of rain and near freezing temps can significantly lower your horse’s ability to keep warm.  That’s where that extra layer of insulation of body fat kicks in and protects the horse from chill.  Even a well fleshed horse can become chilled in those late fall/early winter cold wet rains.  Be sure your horse has some ability to get a break from the constant wet so that the undercoat has a chance to dry.  Without some type of shelter from the rain, a waterproof blanket can provide a wonderful layer of protection. 

Here is one of the areas where you need to be conscientious, though.  A horse that is blanketed while wet can develop bacterial or fungal infections in the skin if they allowed to stay wet under that blanket.  Some of the new breathable blankets do a great job of both insulating and allowing a horse to dry while protecting them from continuing rain.  If you blanket your horse while he is wet, be sure to check under that blanket to be sure he is drying out thoroughly.  Some of the ways to aid in this is to have a cooler under the blanket to absorb the moisture (here come the wardrobe changes), replace the wet blanket with a dry one once the horse’s coat has dried a bit, or place terry cloth towel between your horse and the blanket to absorb the moisture.   As long as you are making sure that you aren’t creating a warm wet environment under that blanket you will be okay.  Don’t choose not to blanket a wet chilled horse just because you have heard you should never blanket a wet horse.  That piece of colloquial wisdom should be changed to “you should never blanket a wet horse and then forget about it for the next few days”.

Older horses, even in good flesh can have a very hard time regulating their internal temperatures during frigid weather.  I do recommend blanketing these older guys when the winter weather gets frigid to help them to not spend so many precious calories on keeping themselves warm.  Be diligent about removing that blanket at least once every few days to evaluate body condition and be sure you aren’t creating pressure points on these often bony seniors.  I’ve seen many oldsters that were blanketed through the cold months have their blanket pulled on the first warm spring day only to find an open wound or that they have lost 75 pounds undetected under that blanket. 

Weanlings are the other group that can often have trouble adjusting to our cold temps in the fall;  especially late in the year youngsters that were maybe weaned in late September or October.  Depending on your feeding program you may find that your weanling is all belly and little bulk.  They have a distinct ability to grow copious amounts of baby fuzz often disguising a lack of muscle covering.  Especially if you have one of the non-quarter horse breeds that doesn’t build blocky muscles at an early age, your youngster may be lacking in enough meat on his bones to keep him adequately warm.  Watch these youngsters carefully for signs of being chilled.   Be sure you have a blanket that fits your baby well as these little guys can get themselves pretty tangled in blankets that are too big for them. 

The other group of horses that are often blanketed through the winter are those horses that are being ridden.  Trying to work a horse with a full coat of winter hair can be difficult.  If you get any sort of sweat it can take hours to dry them off and they are at increased risk for being chilled until they do dry.  Not to mention the incredibly annoying prospect of saddling the wet muddy horse with 2 inches of winter hair.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with blanketing a horse that you are planning to ride through the winter just to help mitigate these issues.  I actually much prefer blanketing to body clipping if I had to choose one for myself and my horses.  But, often for horses in extremely athletic work a combination of the two might be necessary.  All of the internet rumors that blanketing ruins a horse’s ability to grow a winter coat or that it robs them of necessary vitamin D or that it creates horses who forget how to regulate their own temperatures is largely poppy cock.  The one downfall to keeping your riding horse blanketed through the winter months is that you will need at least two blankets, maybe a cooler and possibly an additional heavy insulated blanket if it gets really, really cold.  It takes more monitoring and diligence to keep your blanketed horse’s adequately protected from the unpredictable North Idaho weather.  I don’t recommend it for horses that are only being ridden lightly or are turned out in a typical treed and brushy North Idaho pasture and only being seen during daylight hours on Saturday.  Too many issues can arise with blanketing for those kinds of situations. 

So those are just a few of the situations in which you might consider a blanket for your horse.  Before you go shopping let’s go over some guidelines and pitfalls that may occur with winter blanketing.

1.  Wetness:  We’ve already touched on this topic with the blanketing when wet issue.  It’s important to note that waterproof blankets don’t always stay waterproof.  If your horse gets damp or remains damp under that blanket they can get chilled, or develop nasty skin conditions. 
2.   Sores or rub marks:  Some horses can be harder than others to fit to a blanket.  Be sure that your blanket fits your horse well with no pressure points.  Some common areas of pressure are the top of the withers and the points of the shoulder.  Even with a well fitting blanket, repeated wear can cause hair breakage just from rubbing.  Evaluate your horse while moving and with his head down eating to be sure your horse’s blanket fits well.
3.  Tangles:  Any horse can get himself in a bind while rolling in a well fitted blanket.  Obviously blankets with missing belly or leg straps or that don’t fit well are a bigger risk.  We once had a horse in a nice new well fitting blanket completely shred the blanket in a matter of 2 hours.  We didn’t see it all happen.  Just found a naked horse and a destroyed blanket 2 hours after turn out.
4.  Chilled horses:  This seems counterintuitive but for horses that have been wearing a big heavy winter blanket since November, that February sub zero cold snap can feel REALLY cold.  This is when you may need either a second blanket or a heavier blanket to help them stay warm when those temps hit. 
5.  Overheated horses:  Because our temps are unpredictable and often we see temperature swings of over 40 degrees in a 24 hour period it can be hard to find the perfect combination of insulation and breathability to keep your horse from sweating under that heavy blanket.  One of the ways to best deal with this is to keep the lightest blanket possible on your horse.  I prefer to let my horses develop a bit of a winter coat (even if I’ll be riding in the winter) before I start blanketing.  Then I use a mid-weight breathable blanket that mostly protects from wetness without completely compromising hair coat.  Then I can remove the blanket on the warmer days without my horse becoming chilled or developing a sweat under the blanket. 

So, I think it is obvious after reading this that most of the pitfalls with blanketing can be avoided by diligent husbandry practices.  A healthy application of common sense and responsibly checking your horse’s blanket fit and being sure there is no moisture or sores developing can help you avoid almost all of the common problems associated with blanketing.

We can’t complete a blanketing discussion without talking about shivering.  Shivering is the body’s way of creating heat through muscle contraction.  When the core body temperature drops low enough shivering will ensue in an attempt to warm that temperature back up.  Horses primarily heat themselves through the winter by fermentation of fibers in the hind gut.  Often times feeding a shivering horse a helping of forage will stop the shivering within a few minutes.  If that is the case then your horse is probably going to be okay without a blanket.  But if they are shivering so hard they won’t eat or if the shivering persists even in the face of a big hay breakfast then you need to take steps to warm them up.  GRAIN DOESN'T KEEP HORSES WARM in the winter, hay does and it’s one of the reasons that I recommend grass hay as your forage of choice when it’s cold.  Keep your horses munching throughout the day on those really cold days and they will stay nice and warm. 

In summary, blanketing your horse is often a personal choice though there are times when we may recommend a blanket for medical reasons (age or body condition mostly).  If you do make the choice to blanket your horse please understand that it requires diligent monitoring throughout the winter and that MOST healthy horses if provided adequate protection from wind and rain can survive our North Idaho winters just fine.