My horse is a retired show horse who has lived his entire life (since he was 4) outside 24/7. He was pretty much always blanketed to protect him from the elements in the winter and from the bugs/sun damage/dirt in the summer. He's been retired for a few years and he's still happily living outside but the new place we're at is fussing a little at the amount of blankets he has AND the fact that's he's usually wearing something. Some of the people there have told me that it's unnatural in the summer for him to be wearing his "clothes".

The bad thing is, Virgil is now used to wearing his blankets/sheets almost all the time after 10 years of it. If there's a temperature change, he's waiting at the gate for me to appropriately blanket him differently (or in his shelter if it's cold).

Anyway, I was wondering what you guys have for your horses and why? I've been told his "wardrobe" is a little excessive. The rest of the boarders seem to have one winter blanket, maybe two and that's it. I'm not sure if it's different since I come from a show barn or what the deal is...

Can you guys say what blankets you have and when you put them on? I'll list Virgil's stuff first off and WHY I have it.

Summer Clothes - Rarely gets hotter than 29 degrees C and usually gets down to 8-14 degrees at night

- Cotton summer sheet - for chillier summer days (it's already getting down to 8 degrees at night)
- Bug sheet with neck
- Regular cut bug sheet - for emergency
- Nylon sheet - doesn't really wear this one anymore - used to be for getting his coat super shiny before horse shows

Winter Clothes - Winters are snowy, windy, and freezing. Sometimes get down to -40 degrees before windchill

- Light winter blanket: used for 0 degrees (32 F) to - 10
- Heavy winter blanket: - 10 to - 20 degrees
- Liner: by itself, it's good for - 5 degrees so it usually gets layered under his heavy winter blanket for really cold days
- Rain sheet: gets used by itself if it's raining in spring/summer and gets put over winter blankets when it's snowing out to keep the blankets dry
- Light hood: for -10 or colder
- Heavy hood: for - 20 or colder
- Rain sheet with fleece lining: great fall/spring blanket. Used for wet, chilly days 10 degrees or cooler.

I think it makes sense to have all these blankets since our winters can be so brutal and they last SO long. There are two shelters in the paddocks and two horses, but Virgil's paddock mate gets brought in at night during the winter so Virgil's by himself to stay warm. One winter it was (with windchill) close to - 50 C. Virgil had a fleece cooler on, his light winter blanket, heavy winter blanket, rain sheet and his extra heavy hood. I drove out to check on him and he was toasty, amazingly. The horse with him had two blankets and a hood and she was cold...

Anyway, overkill or not? I don't think the barn owner will let me keep all my winter blankets out there so I'm only keeping three and will bring the others as needed.

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I don't know if this is relative... because how you outfit your horse depends on where he spends the majority of his time (inside or outside). Because of my guy's age, I do not want him spending too much time outside. He gets daily turnout, but not more than two or three hours. Sometimes he's out there longer on nice days, and just turned out in the indoor arena on bad days.

In winter, most of the horses (even the fieldies) are brought into the indoor arena overnight and during the coldest days.

And Michigan doesn't really get terribly cold. We moan about the weather, but it isn't that bad.

Anyhoo!

No sheets until October - and then I have a light nylon sheet (the same one he wore at shows).

When the temps drop below 40f, he gets his midweight turnout blanket. And he wears this inside and out. <- It's easier than asking the help to switch blankets when they turn him outside, and he has room to run.

That's it.

The blankets and sheets conserve warmth and then he also gets fat and hairy in winter. My barn lady feeds a little extra in winter too.

When I first got my horse, I went out and got a heavyweight winter blanket and my barn lady laughed at me and told me to send it back and exchange for the midweight. o_I

I've never kept a horse outside at all times, but here in Maine USA where it gets super snowy, Charleston (Morgan) has a heavy winter, a light winter, a rain sheet , a bug sheet/with hood, a cooler, and a "dress up" blanket.

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It is VERY hard to figure out the wardrobe.

First of all I am a FIRM believer in mother nature takes care of horses. So when I retired my old show horses, they wore nothing. I let them go all naturale. If it got SUPER cold, then maybe I would toss on a blanket but I am talking 20 below or colder. I make sure they have hay, water, shelter, and they are fine. Blanketing them I worry makes them to conditioned to being 'cared for' and if you don't properly, then they are not happy. Blankets get wet in the winter, and then they are wearing wet cold clothes. In the summer they get wet from rain and sweat, and I worry skin conditions flourish. I think letting them grow the necessary coat, and allow their coat to protect them, is the most natural least invasive process.

Now I know a lot of people do put fly protector sheets on the in the summer, and the horses do just fine.

If you have a stabled horse, who lives in and out, in work that is a completely different story. My horse is not clippable. So I had to keep him warm in the fall to keep the trigger of growing his coat. He does not grow a lot of coat so it is not hard to keep it off. However the winters he was 'off' work, I just let the hair grow. He's a TB so he does not grow a ton, but he was just fine. This past winter we did clip him (not fun) I had a cotton sheet on him, a Baker blanket, a heavy blanket topped by a nylon sheet to keep the blankets clean. I had another layer, a wool cooler, if it got super cold and he needed it. I probably had the most blanketed horse in our barn too. However his coat looked the best, no cat hairs no need to think about a second clip job.

I would protect him from the summer flies, but JMHO I let their hair grow and only blanket when it gets EXTREMELY cold.

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We've never blanketed our horses ever. We do have fly hoods for them, though. We've know people that have blanketed their horses but they were for show and my understanding is that it keeps their coat slick and shiny. Buddy and Luke have nice shiney coats because the neighbors have really nice pastures and have the guys come over for dinner or breakfast so they don't have to mow.

Our boys get nice full winter coats and they have never been stabled. We have a small coral with shelter if they need it they go there or in the round pen we have a lean to.

They live here with us so we feed them everyday and check them out and such, but they are out 100% of the time. They know where to go to get out of the elements but funny - they love the snow and rolling in the mud, etc.

We also take their shoes off when it starts to get cold or do rubber inserts so the cold metal doesn't hurt their feet.

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Never used a blanket,in my life when I had horses,in France.The horses had a shelter,in the field when they needed protection but that's all!.If it got really too cold(freezing temperature,we had them,in the stalls but that's it.
I think that the more you protect them,the more they need protection.

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See, I think that's the problem. For most of his life, Virgil was a show horse and was kept blanketed to protect his coat in the summer. In the winter, he was always clipped so needed to be rugged up to keep warm. Now he's retired and even though I spent 2 winters trying not to "coddle" him and only blanketing him when it was minus 20 C (-4 F), he was miserable and unhappy because he got used to being blanketed all the time.

He's also not on a round bale anymore and has gotten pretty thin from the bugs chasing him this summer, so he's not going into the winter with any extra weight. Indoor board or staying in the arena at night isn't an option for him no matter what the weather so he's outside no matter what.

A mild winter day here is considered anything -10 degrees C (14F) or warmer. If it's sunny, he's usually not blanketed. If it's snowing, he gets a blanket and a rain sheet over top to prevent the blanket from getting wet. He doesn't get much of a winter coat and he's a bit spoiled now from so many years of being blanketed. He was just miserable without his blankets and now that's he's so much skinnier, I'm concerned about him not being "insulated" enough.

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Here are pics.

This is a fat, happy, and shiny Virgil in the September of his first year of retirement. Going into winter, I didn't worry too much about blanketing him and he had a LOT of insulation.



This is Virgil a few months into his new home which only gives flakes of hay - no round bale.



I don't have any recent, naked pics of Virgil, but he's lost about 100-200 more lbs since the pic above and you can easily feel his ribs through a cotton sheet. He's not exactly plump for the winter...

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I'm going to plead the fifith here -

He will not grow a coat if he gets a blanket!.I would just,start,to take some layers off and tell him to toughen up!.A horse is not made of sugar and he will survive colder temperatures!.

__________________

My Golden's slideshow:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3cQhJc2LDM
My Hovawart's slideshow:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh_1toD6xtc
If you don't like a wet,shedding dog,don't get a golden or a Hovawart!.
RIP,My Beloved Priska!.