It's About The Horse

creekwood · Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2011 12:33 am Post subject:

Jeez, I already bib clipped Ziya (two weeks ago!). Mine are blanketed in winter. I went "all natural" for blanketing two years ago. No thanks. I'd rather have shorter haired clean horses that don't take an hour to cool down. Quinn is getting a low trace sometime this month. I don't think they're too tortured

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ErinR76 · Member Joined: 12 Aug 2011 Posts: 506 Location: Austin TX

LOL. Yes I think if I had to deal with cooling out a hairy horse I'd clip and blanket too

Somehow they survive!
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PasoBaby_CarolU · Site Admin Joined: 31 Jan 2009 Posts: 9038

Well, if I clipped, I'd certainly blanket a horse, and to be honest, I have some hairy horses I don't ride hard in the winter at all...drying out is too much work. But, my shorter haired horses do fine all winter, with no blankets and no clipping. Thank you LORD!

I have to body clip Zar each summer, usually twice. THAT is something you can KEEP. YUK
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Carol Nudell
Corazon de Oro Paso Finos

"The path to your horse's heart lies through your own."

Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots. - Words of Wisdom - Mhar

‎"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss activities; Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt

CoolsLadyInRed · Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 2:10 am Post subject:

I know some horses are wooly bullies but my horse has short hair compared to most. If she can get out of the wind and rain she is outside with never a blankie. Except once when some one forgot to open the barn and it poured rain and was windy. I threw a shipping blanket on her til she stopped shivering.
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beth

Clarissa · Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 12:54 pm Post subject:

‘the ability to loft and lower their coats to 17 different levels’

That’s great. But what if the horse has such a slinky soft thin coat from fine breeding that there is no longer any under or over coat (the fluffy stuff)?

‘when the air around them is between 26 and 38 degrees’

Is that centigrade or Fahrenheit?

‘because the horse has opted to shiver to warm itself, instead of using the option of moving’

I often choose to use the option of shivering too but I am far more comfortable with a jumper on!!

‘Molasses are high in iron, and make a good supplemental addition’

Yes & far too high in sugars to be of any real value. Better to exercise the horse to make it thirsty. I don’t drink as much in winter either but after almost 56yrs I’m still here in average health.

‘do not need more feed in the winter than in the summer’

I can only assume these trials were done at a place that had even rainfall, even temp & even pasture all year round. So if you follow this advice & don’t supplementary feed in which ever is your dry season & your horse falls away to nothing & the animal cruelty people get onto you, you just hold up this piece of advice & say you were following this person? Saying a horse doesn’t need supplemental feed in the winter is asking for trouble because in at least half the world the winter is also the dry season with lack of quality pasture. So a horse is not only scratching for a bite to eat, it is also using what little fat it has on board to keep warm until it’s use of energy exceeds it’s intake of energy. If the horse isn’t fed in advance of this moment occurring it drops away in condition too far to get the weight back on in time without doing damage healthwise. Not only is it stored fat that is used to produce warmth in winter, it is the continual intake of quality energy that holds a certain muscle mass on the horse’s frame to create a sufficient volume of size.

Of course the horses used in this experiment might have gone into winter far too fat for their own good & in that case getting some of that weight off by using it for warmth in winter is not a bad thing.
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gaitinalong · Member Joined: 29 Jun 2011 Posts: 81 Location: Tennessee

PasoBaby_CarolU · Site Admin Joined: 31 Jan 2009 Posts: 9038

Interesting. I have dealt with a lot of shivering horses over the years. They usually stop shivering within 5 minutes of being fed. The parts I would disagree with are that horses don't need to be fed more in the winter. I feed more in the winter and feeding additional hay is pretty much SOP from every vet I've ever talked to.

I don't feed molasses or any molasses containing feed. I even quit using horse treats that contain molasses. Too much sugar. I use hay cubes for treats now.

I find "chooses to shiver" an interesting choice of words, and perhaps a poor choice. I am not sure that it is a conscious decision of the horse's. In humans shivering is pretty involuntary, but I've seen dogs who do learn to shiver to get let inside. Funny to watch a dog shiver when it is 90 degrees outside.

Horses will and do move to warm up, and in fact NEED to move to increase their blood flow. We take this choice away from them when we confine them in stalls and corals, which is probably why some of us do/don't see shivering, and I see it more in older horses who tend to stand around more then younger horses who run and 'play' on cold mornings.
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Carol Nudell
Corazon de Oro Paso Finos

"The path to your horse's heart lies through your own."

Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots. - Words of Wisdom - Mhar

‎"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss activities; Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Chablis · Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 11:50 pm Post subject:

Good points, ladies.

If I let Minx shiver and also did not provide her with more food in winter than summer, she would end up skin and bones.

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sebocat · Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 10:23 pm Post subject:

I've pulled horses through Alaska winters for about 10 years. We've done warm and wet winters, and bitter cold (-62 is the coldest temp I recorded) all with wind.

Horses DO need more forage when the thermomter starts to dip. I add 20% to their rations during winter and they go free choice at 20 below. My vet told me a horse gets his heat from digesting forage. The fermentation process in the hind gut produces a large amount of heat. The only grain I give in the bitter cold is hay pellets made into a warm mash with warm water and sometimes beetpulp. Right now, I am feeing about 1 cup of a complete feed so they gobble up their vitamins e and a and glucosamine. They only get the hay pellet mash at 20 below.

We dont get to 40 below where I live now, but when we did, I gave the warm hay mash with beetpulp 3x a day then. The steam from the mash melted the iceballs in their noses.....and made mommy feel better without it being bad for them

And blankets? every horse is different. I do not agree that they are unnecessary, and I firmly beleive that a shivering horse is a cold horse and a cold horse needs a blanket.

That said, I have never blanketed Bob or Paco (draft and 1/2 draft respectively) but I did blanket my son's QH, Sky and I am blanketing my QH/Arab, Ty since he shivers in the rain. I have never had a horse that shivers in the autumn rain before. Poor guy is such a sissy!
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