To Blanket

As a first time horse owner standing out in the cold winter wind I wondered if my horse needs a blanket. After lots of research I believe for my horse in Southern California, (24°F or -4°C is around coldest it gets) he doesn't need a blanket. This flow chart is great in my opinion, if Ace didn't have the coat of a wooly mammoth, was super old or sick he would get a blanket.

According to most research as that's needed for Ace to stay warm is food. As the temperatures decrease, a horse's feed requirements increase. Increasing feed intake increases heat production in the horse’s body. This is connected to the fact that the process of digesting long fibers produces heat as a by-product. Allowing horses free choice hay is the surest way to keep them nice and warm.

So fluffy!

Blanketing can really upset the thermoregulation in a horse. The animal tries to warm up parts of the body left exposed to the cold such as head, neck, belly and legs, in the process they become over-heated in those parts covered by the blanket. A horse cannot increase heat in selected area’s of the body. The whole body cools or the whole body heats up. Sweating under a blanket is more of a problem metabolically to the horse than people realise. 

So no blankets for Ace, just some good hay to keep him toasty warm. This is my opinion and I know very person is different. I did a lot of reading on this subject and a Natalija Aleksandrova has written a great article.