Ridecamp: [RC] How cold is cold ? How fast do horses adapt to no stalls?

I just had a very weird discussion this afternoon with my buddy Babsi
over moving my horses from mainly stall living to paddock living. She's
convinced that they are going to die of pneumonia or something from the
bitter cold of the Egyptian winter. Here's the set-up. I'd like
opinions. Any vets?

I've recently invested in some land next door to my friend Babsi's
palace so my horses can live in paddocks instead of boxes. I would have
liked to do this over the summer, but the opportunity came up in
September while Kelly was here. We planted grass on two thirds of the
land and the other third is sand for maybe a little house or something
(and for a room for tack and groom, etc). Things have gotten a bit
strange over at my old stable (just the OTHER side of Babsi's), so I
plan to move the horses to temporary paddocks in the sand part until the
grass gets settled. The paddocks are pipe and the area where I'm
planning to put up a shelter (just a roof for shade and the
every-five-years rain drop) will not be ready for two or three weeks.
This year I haven't clipped any of my horses because I figure that the
fuzz will help them get used to being outside, and anyway, my life still
basically is far too-office oriented for them to overheat from excess
work. <G> Even the month or so they are on the sand, they will be
getting a better diet in terms of forage than they have now. 

Having grown up in the mountains behind Ventura in California where it
was hot as Hades all summer and we would really have the odd morning
with ice in puddles in winter AND most horses were just pastured, I
figure that the horses will be fine. A REALLY cold night here is about
10 C or about 45 to 50 F. I seriously doubt that horses will up and die
of shock from not being in boxes at night with those temperatures. The
most exotic of mine is the Appaloosa/WB cross and he gets pretty fuzzy.
The Arabs are baladi, so they are used to all sorts of things, but they
do tend not to get too fuzzy. I figure it's just not cold enough for
fuzz.

Don't know if she will listen to outside opinions, but I hate to see her
worry needlessly. (She'll probably say, "But they don't live in Egypt!"
like she does to me. Virtually everyone keeps their horses in stalls
here because land is expensive and they think I'm nuts to waste it on
leaving horses out on it.) 



Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.ratbusters.net 


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