Horses and the frozen tundra of the South
Posted by Bill on Dec 05 2006 at 11:57 am | Tagged as: The Barn, Horse Health
Today was the coldest day yet in east Tennessee. Actually there have been colder days since we’ve live here but not since we’ve had horses. Lows at night are in the lower 20’s and we’ve had some wind. Although my Arizona butt hasn’t quite acclimated to winters that are actually cold, our horses seem to have adapted nicely. Both Moonshine and Valentine have thick fuzzy winter coats and despite our attempts to shelter them from the cold, they seem to prefer it to being stuck in the barn.
One thing I’m not familiar with is frozen water buckets. Yesterday and today both I’ve gone out to discover all of our animal water buckets had almost an inch of ice on top. I was expecting this but I’m not yet sure what to do about it. Most of the buckets aren’t near any power source so a bucket heater or bucket de-icer doesn’t seem like it would work for us. We could use an extension cord but that increases the possibility of a barn fire. I’m also concerned with our horses nibbling on the wires, though it seems like the heated buckets use steel wire wrapped cords to prevent nibbling. I saw a product called Thermo Bucket that uses a simple insulated float but it looks too thin to drink from. Maybe it’s just a bad picture. So we’re looking for a solution, mostly for in the barn stalls. The ice in the outside bucket I can break up effectively and it sits in the sun most of the day.
Because we baby our horses, the subject of horse blankets has come up, too. Mikki is interested in trying them but I’m skeptical. Besides yet another horse expense, I wonder if the blanket would stay on for very long. I can see Moonshine rolling in the dirt to get it off. Plus I wonder if it’s even needed. Here comes the old “horses in the wild don’t need that” argument. But it’s true. How many horse blankets do you see in those pictures of wild horses running in the Montana snow? None. Of course horses in the wild probably don’t live as long as our pampered domesticated horses. But even when it was 26 degrees (F) outside, neither horse shivered or showed any signs of wanting to seek shelter. I did see Valentine galloping around more than usual. Maybe it was to warm up, maybe he just felt frisky. But no blankets for now.
In our barn, the outside stall windows are now closed for cold weather, though the ends of the barn remain open as we have no doors. We’re considering adding doors but it won’t be anytime soon.
Let me take a minute to say that I do realize 26 degrees isn’t that cold. Many, if not most of you live somewhere that has harsher winters than we experience in Tennessee. That whole “frozen tundra of the South” thing was a stretch, to be sure. It doesn’t get much colder than this except in the mountains.
I have friends that blanket and experience troubles, while I have others that blanket with much success. Equally, I have friends that don’t blanket. I have chosen to not blanket….we live in Alabama. I work outside the home, have two small children and can’t see putting myself through that. I also have friends with many, many horses and they could never do it with that many AND their horses are FINE. So, I will take comfort in all of the above, appreciate everyone’s own individual decisions and hope they will appreciate mine - to NOT blanket. We did have a frozen trough the other morning as well, but a pole broke the ice fairly quickly.
How about trying running water? Moving water will not freeze as easily as stagnet(sp) water does. You can find small pumps in pet shops or lawn and garden shops. The idea I had was find a 2 stall water container, and stick the pump in the far out of the way they can’t get there heads near. I have seen at the zoo they use a 50 gallon plasti drum sidways between the 2 stalls, and run the pump from the bottom, and run a pipe along the back and up and over. gives them something to play with too.
Well that’s not a bad idea but I still need to get power to it. Solar might work for a very slow moving pump but I wonder how expensive that would be. I’ll have to look into it. Interesting idea.
Well this morning here in Minnesota it is -7 degrees. No real wind to speak of, and the promise of sun for warming the horses once they do go outside.
I have to admit, we board our horse, but are in the process of purchasing 23 acres so we, too, will be facing the same challenges, and love to read your site.
We do blanket, but mostly because our horse is in a relatively small outside area without natural areas to stay out of the wind and elements. Last year I purchased a heated pucket for his outside paddock, and with a massive extension cord running outside of the paddock, and the wire-covered plug in the base the pail, it has worked really well to keep water offered all day. We do place that bucket inside a tire as well, to keep curious lips and teeth for being able to access the wire/plug.
In the barn the water freezes each night, so now that it is really cold, the buckets go into a heated tack room to thaw during the day, then are replaced in the stalls at night.
My favorite part of this really cold weather (here until mid-March, mind you) is the frozen “road-apples” we muck out of the stalls. Good grief, I cannot imagine what that feels like when the horses lay down at night, and have one of those lodged under a hip–not much sleep, I would guess.
Love to check your site, so thanks for the frequent notes.
Jeannette
I live in Saskatchewan, Canada and our winters we experienve -40 C weather with a windchill of -50 C, we do not (and I don’t know of anyone around here who does) blanket our horses. We do use them occaisionally in the barn after a ride when the horses are warmer to begin with but never out to pasture and trust me they are fine. I just recently had to put down my 28 year old horse and he would be pampered and get put in the barn each night in the winter while the others stayed out in the pasture with a shed and a windbreak. But that was just because of his arthritis and the cold and lack of body mass in the end. It is a large expense to buy blankets for your horses and you don’t want them to get wrecked or worse for the horses to injure themselves trying to get them off, or hooking them on a nail or piece of fence, etc.
Shelly, that is good input on the blankets. -40 C? Brrrrrr!!! Oh my gosh, I thought we were suffering at 20 F. I agree with the dangers of blanketing a horse - I personally don’t think a blanket would last 5 minutes on either one of them, especially Moonshine aka Roller Girl - but the thought of one of them injuring themselves trying to get it off certainly makes it sound like it’s not worth the risk. Besides, they really do have lovely winter coats.
Hi! I too, have a dilema. I belong to a rescue group here in SC and we have many debilitated horses that we bring in. The more debilitated, we blanket during the coldest time of the year. The horses that have been rehabilitated, have hay and fresh water, as well as their grain two times a day. Some of our horses are out where there is no shelter and no wind break. My question is, should we put waterproof blankets on these guys when we have 40 degree weather, rain and wind?
My personal horses live out in the pasture the majority of the time. We do bring them in during 20 degree sleeting weather. Two of our horses are 27 and 31 and I’m sure the extra warmth helps their old bones. We have never blanketed our guys, other than with a cooler sheet when they are sweating in Winter.
Just want to do the right thing for our beloved equines.
Hi Pam,
That is a very good question. I would have thought that horses need blanketing or shelter when it’s really cold and/or wet, but we’ve learned over the last few months that they’re more weather-resistant than you would guess. Since you’re talking about horses that have been unhealthy or weakened in the past, however, they may need special treatment. Perhaps on this one you should consult your vet.
Anyone else out there have advice?
Hello All: I live in Wisconsin and tonite it is going to be -30 degrees F. I blanket half of my horses when it gets to be -10 degrees F or sleeting/cold rain. Those include: A debilitated pony, an Appendix who never grows a wooly coat, an Arab and our oldest horse, a Paint. I actually put a really warm thermal sleezy underneath the blanket for the Paint and neck warmers on the others. Her eyes, nose and ears are the only things showing. I have never, ever had trouble with my horses rolling and getting caught in their blankets. I cross the straps underneath them, not too tight but enough so if they lay down, they will give enough for comfort. The leg straps have to be correctly fitted as well. If they are too long, there is the possibility of catching the back hooves in the straps. Many of my friends don’t blanket no matter what even when they have horses who need a little extra TLC and they all do fine.
By the way, one last note, this debilitated pony was a rescue and had never had a blanket. She appears to be very grateful and has never tried to remove it.
Hope this helps.
Polly
My other five, I do not put blankets on since they have very wooly coats. My horses have a leanto and a barn which they can come and go as they please. My heater for my tank is one in which I can screw into the bottom of the tank. It keeps the 100 gallon tank open. When we first had horses, we did use a bucket heater that looked like a donut as well as a heated bucket. Both did a good job of keeping the buckets open.
If you keep hay in front of them all day long so that they can keep eating, that seems to help chase those shivers away. I also feed them a warm mash instead of straight grain in the really cold weather. I mix their normal grain with hot water to make it soupy and let the grain absorb the water.(15 minutes) I also put carrots in the hot water as I take it from the house to the barn. They love the warm carrots and the mash. I add electrolytes to the water as well as a probiotic to help digestion in this fluctuating weather. With the mash, I am told that they do not lose water from their own systems in order to digest the grain. Normally, grain absorbs water from the horse within it’s own body. By providing the moistened grain with some extra water, the horse doesn’t have to expend any of it’s own water supply.
Thanks for the note on your experiences, Polly. Come on spring!
I agree with Tonya. We live just north of Atlanta on a road where there are several horse farms. When the temp drops below freezing at night, I can drive to work and see most all of them blanketed.
But it only gets that cold here a few days a year. As soon as it gets a tad warmer, the blankets usually come off. Whether we blanket or not depends on what kind of clip the horse has. If he’s got a full clip, we usually blanket because the horse won’t have his own winter coat anymore.
But if they have their natural winter protection, there’s not much reason to.
Sierra Lynch
Horse IQ
That’s true, Sierra, about the clip. I always forget that show horses get clipped in the winter. They definitely need a little extra protection!
You must live near a friend of mine - we went down to visit her in Alpharetta last weekend, and that whole area is horse farms and horse property. She lives in a development called Triple Crown, and all the street names are race winners, like Affirmed and Seabiscuit (although they don’t actually have horses in that development).
I’ve heard of the mash idea for the grain, though I’ve never tried it yet. I also heard the horses like it a lot with molasses mixed in, and apples and such too (I’m sure it’d make a tasty treat). Our barn has a big problem with freezing water buckets too. Usually we just break the ice with a metal pole or hammer, but I’ve heard of these special insulated buckets that doesn’t necessarily eliminate freezing but helps so they don’t freeze solid (Here in PA it’s about 8 degrees). I can’t seem to find the insulated buckets anywhere though does anyone know where to find them?
Those recipes sound yummy, Shanna, we’ll have to try those out with our horses.
We’re having to whack the ice with hammers every night too. I hadn’t heard of insulated buckets, but I did a search on Google for “insulated horse water buckets” and got several hits, including HorseStalls.com and DoverSaddlery.com. They’re quite a bit pricier than heated buckets ($80-$120 compared to about $50), but you don’t need an outlet (we don’t have any near their buckets). So that’s definitely something to think about.
I read an article recently that indicated that a horse with a good coat might actually be colder with a blanket on. I’ll see if I can find it then I can fill in the details.
I forgot to mention that I think it was because the blanket caused them to sweat more and that would actually chill them.
WOW! found it first try.
Why Not All Equines Need a Winter Horse Blanket -
Stable Blankets Can Make Some Horses Colder in the Winter.
When the cold winter weather hits, many horse owners automatically bring out the horse blankets. However, a horse’s normal winter coat is much more insulating than a blanket, and unless the horse has been clipped, is outside without a windbreak, or has been moved to a colder climate during winter months, it will usually actually be warmer without a blanket.
Full article is at:
http://www.horses-and-horse-information.com/articles/0101coldcomfort.shtml
Great article. I’m glad we didn’t give in to the temptation to blanket our horses. Well, actually we didn’t do it because they are so expensive and because we thought the horses wouldn’t keep them on anyway. But still, I’m glad we didn’t do it. The horses obviously just fine on their own.
We live in Georgia and have 1 paint horse at this time. We have been looking for another horse for about 6 months but no luck yet. We do blanket our horse but only when the temp. drops to 35 or below. We are still working on our barn so it is not closed in yet. It has 3 sides with a 12 x 12 stall for our horse(I’m a firm believer in large stalls). So currently the barn is very drafty. Also our paint does not get the winter coat the I have seen most horses get. We never leave our horse out in the pasture at night, she is always put in her stall with hay. So this cuts down on any dangers at night that could happen while you are sleeping. Her blanket is removed after her breakfast and we understand that it’s only for about 3 months out of a year. We have never had any problems with it getting caught on something and our horse likes to roll also. Every horse,barn and owner situation is different, but I think alot of horse owners make up excuses why not to go the extra mile to blanket. They don’t have the time, blanket cost to much, horses in the wild never had them, etc. We purchased our top of the line blanket off season and got it for half price. Alot of my friends that have horses go overboard in many areas including when they blanket and ofcourse this is not necessary.
Our water bucket gets frozen once in awhile also, just keep a rubber mallet handy and when you head to the barn on cold days, take a pitcher of hot water with you.
A last note, horses take alot of time and with my recent experience in horse shopping, most horse owners should not have horese at all.
I used the Thermo Bucket for 15 yrs when I had my old horse. It worked great as long as I mixed warm water in with the cold. Even at -20 as long as there was warm water in there it didn’t freeze. I’d put about 3 gallons of cold and 2 gallons of hot and my boy had water all the time. It’s only 5 gallons though so I had to fill it alot but it did work and we’ll be getting 2 horses in our barn again so I will need another bucket. I was just on line going to order one when I saw this site.
Thanks for the note, Ann. I’ll have to look into the Thermo Bucket. I don’t think I’ve seen that.
I just ordered two thermo buckets (http://horsestalls.com/waterers.htm)
$80 each, but free shipping. I do not like the idea of the plug in heated buckets, the fear of fire will do that. Even still, the plug in buckets are $50 each, and the thermo buckets are only $30 more. I feel safer for the extra few dollars.
I read above that you should add hot water in with cold, less chance of freezing during the night. I am on Long Island, and we get strange winters. Last winter, it was very mild up to and thru January. Now that i have horses home, i’m sure this winter will be a cold one!
Here in western Pennsylvania (0-10 degrees on winter nights), I’ve used the same four Thermo Buckets for 14 years. The fifth horse has had a variety of plastic or rubber buckets. With hot water, the Thermo Buckets will usually stay drinkable for 24 hours, even without the floats (which disappeared years ago, and I haven’t gotten around to making new ones). The regular buckets get inches of ice in them every night. I found this site because I decided it’s finally time to get that fifth Thermo Bucket. At $80 over 15 years, that’s not a bad price.
The other thought to consider is the Thermo Bucket keeps the water cool during those 90 degree days, when the water in the other bucket becomes undrinkably warm.
I only blanket my woolly guys when the most extreme storms come from the east where my barn is open, or if they come in wet and the temperature drops-with the exception of the 36 year old pony in the last year of his life.