When Your Horse Doesn’t Need a Winter Blanket

Most equestrians when faced with blustery winter weather – be it a harsh blowing wind or freezing snow or cold pelting rain coming out of the Northeast – believe that the best thing that they can do is get their horse under a good equine blanket. If you want your horse to be safe and comfortable through the cold months, then horse rugs are the only way to go.

But it’s worth asking if that assumption holds true. Does it? For all horses all the time?

Well, the simple answer is that no, it does not. But if you want to start experimenting with it, you need to be smart. You need to keep a few important tips in mind about how horses handle the cold and related inclement weather. You need to know a bit about your horse breed and you need to also know how your specific horse or horses handle the weather.

Horse blankets are not bad ideas on their own. In fact, they can be very important. But the fact that so many smart horse people have more or less simply assumed that winter blankets are necessary says a lot about how human beings and horses relate to one another. There are plenty of assumptions at work, all of which need to be critically examined.

Although a lot of equestrians don’t want to admit it, we often do things for our horses that we would want done for us. Things that might not – from a horse’s point of view – be strictly necessary.

Always ask yourself what your horse would do – or want to do – if it was out in the wild. Not that you want your horse to have to rough and tough it unnecessarily, but you do want to keep in mind what its natural inclinations are. Horses are built for weather!

Take a look at your horse’s coat. You’ll notice that if offers the horse a great deal of natural insulation. For most horses, once their winter coat has grown in, they are more than ready for whatever wind and hail and snow that Father Winter can throw their way.

But there are exceptions!

First, if you clipped your horse – or had him or her clipped – just as they began to grow out their winter coat, then it might not have developed sufficiently to handle the weather.

Second, all horses – even those out in the wild – need a good windbreak to help them endure winter. Do you have one? We’re not talking about anything unduly fancy. It’s more like ensuring that there is some place they can go where the driving wind cannot.

If either of those conditions holds true, then you probably want to be sure that your horse has a decent winter blanket to help it through the cold season.

Finally, if your horse recently moved from a climate where cold is not a frequent visitor, then you should consider investing in a blanket.

Got more questions about horse blankets? Check out Jasper Bailey’s horse rugs website for more information.