I do want to clarify that I don’t blanket horses standing around
in pasture, even when we have weeks of cold, windy rain or a little snow. My
concern is that when I’m responsible for them being wet from a long hard
ride that causes heavy sweating, and, they have to stand in the windy, chilly
trailer for 30 minutes for the drive home, even though I’ve cooled them
out and rubbed them down, will they get too chilled? It just seems like their
skin gets colder from sweating than from standing for hours (or days) in the
rain, and I thought I maybe needed to protect them from getting a chill. And
yes, sometimes after a ride at home I worried that maybe they were too wet from
sweat, even after a rub down to remove moisture, for me to just put them back
in pasture without a light cover for an hour or so.
From all the advice received from those who have more experience in
colder climates, it sounds like I don’t need to bother with the
blanketing, regardless of whether I’m trailering home or not, as long as
I cool my horse down before we load up. I will watch for shivering though, and
lightly cover those horses for the wet trailer ride home, right?
Kathy
Ed wrote:
We routinely ride in the cold and trailer without blankets.
