Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I don't think you can make generalizations here. I've got one that hasn't
acclimated to the cold weather in Brooksville, FL vs. the subtropical weather
in Sarasota, FL. We can see the upper teens here every once in awhile and
20's quite a bit. But it's been 3 years and if it's below 40 he sits and
shivers. 

I think many FL breed horses that have lived here for all their life would
have a very difficult time acclimating to western mountain weather. Heck
when we took him to Northern Idaho two summers ago we had to blanket off
and on until about the third week of June. 

On the other hand I know of horses bought from the western mountain regions
that could never quite acclimate to our humidity. Not that they overheated
- but they tended to get a variety of skin problems in the summer the natives
didn't get. 

Truman

Drin Becker wrote:

" The key to healthy horses is QUALITY hay available free choice, and a
reliable water supply.  Even in windy conditions, I don't see our horses
shiver. "

 

That is exactly right Heidi , we keep a water tank with de-icer on at all times and also keep a loose salt feeder avalible .

Someone mentioned that it took 21 days to acclimate a horse to colder temps but that has not been what we have seen . It seems to be more like a full year to get them acclimated . And it doesn't seem to matter where the horses come from , whether it was from the mtns of CO or Las Vegas it still took them a year to be able to handle our temps here in the winter . But we are also at a high altitude (6,500) so that may have something to do with it .

                          Drin Becker

                          Mtn Region