One thing that hasn't really been mentioned is the trailer itself. I would be more concerned over a wet horse in an open stock trailer vs. an enclosed trailer. We have a slant trailer that is enclosed and that thing can get very very warm even with all the windows down for air flow with the only 1 or 2 horses in it and that is during the winter! It the summer, some of the horses will even have some sweat on them. It is also a light color so the heat is primarily from the horses themselves.
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of sherman Sent: Sat 2006-11-25 12:46 To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] [RC] to blanket or not
Thanks everyone for your advice.
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.
