Horse Care tips : Winter time edition.

click here for more training tips Good Morning Everyone, I thought that since we're in the middle of fall here in the Ozarks of SW Missouri , headed to winter, I would go over some tips and tricks for horse care for this time of the year. 

First of all lets talk about whether or not to blanket your horses or not. I am not a huge fan of blanketing horses myself. Horses in my opinion can survive just fine with the fluffy , natural fur coat that the good Lord gave them. Of course that being said, if you and your horse just moved from somewhere like Arizona to somewhere like say Missouri or Maine, yea a blanket in that situation may be a necessity. So the general rule of thumb is if your horse is standing out in its stall or pasture and has snow on its back , then it has an adequate winter coat to sufficiently keep itself warm. If the snow on your horses back is melting, that simply means its coat isnt thick enough to retain the body heat and its escaping. At which time I would look into getting a winter blanket. But first if you have access to a stall I would use that first. Sometimes just keeping that horse in a stall that stays dry is will keep your horse warm enough. I will post a few links about Horse winter blankets here. Click here for what my horses sometimes wear. 

        Now lets talk about housing. Do horses honestly need a barn? Yes and No! Again it all depends on the situation. It depends on the health of the animal , how much weight is on the animal,(if you get a rescue horse that needs weight put on it will more than likely need a stall) . Horses eat more hay in the winter . Its actually what keeps them warm, through digestion. so where my horses usually get fed 2 - 3 times a day in the spring and summer , they may get a couple extra when its really really cold here. Conversely they tend to drink more water as well , so a good stock tank heater is always a good idea as well. I would say water is just as important as hay in the winter. A horse thats not drinking can colic quick from an impaction. Basically the horse is eating all of this dry matter ( hay ) but not drinking an adequate amount of water to allow it to pass through the hind gut and basically get stuck. Horse will keep eating until it gets too full and gets a belly ache. Here is a good option for keeping your horses water tank free of ice .click here .    

        So in conclusion, I would have to say just simply let your horses be horses this winter. I know , I know its sometimes hard to do . These awesome animals are like our family, and we worry about them . I am guilty of it too. We think that if its cold outside they are cold. But we have to remember that God created them, and he created them to survive. Something that helps me ( coming from Arizona and Southern Nevada) I remember and think of all the mustangs that are roaming the west. They dont have barns, no blankets, No grain , no shoes and they survive on a heck of a lot harsher conditions than our pampered backyard babies. 

        Again, as always I hope you all are enjoying these blogs and are learning something about horses. I if you can like , share and leave a comment on the Blog with any questions you may have or any suggestions on future training topics . Maybe something you just always wanted to know. Feel free to ask down in the comments below. Happy Trails and God bless.

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