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RE: [RC] working hairy horses/clipping - Kathy KellyI live above 7000 feet and we have cold winter nights, often in the single digits. Its been a dry winter, but some winters we have a lot of snow. My horses have a run-in shed. I've never seen them cold unless they were quite wet and it was windy. (I can think of just a handful of times thru the years I've seen them shivering to keep warm). The air is very dry here (high desert), and on most days if the horses are sweaty (from a ride, or with my blacks they will sweat just from standing in the sun on a warm winter day), they air dry really quickly. I do feed them extra hay at night if its very cold and windy.
A few weeks ago I took Gabriel down South to Wickenburg for the 50 at Land of the Sun. This is always a challenging ride for us because he has a full winter coat, and its usually quite warm there. We've done this ride 3 times, and I've never clipped him (partially because I don't want to deal with blanketing and partially because I think it is hard on the horse when he has to live in the cold). This year it was 10 degrees when I packed up at home in the morning, and during the ride it reached the low 70s. We were able to move out in the cool morning, but as soon as it started to warm up at all, I really have to slow him down. When I see his respiration isn't dropping like normal (his heart rate always does) I know its time to slow down and enjoy a nice day at an easy pace. Of course last year when it was cool and rained much of the day at LOS, he was perfectly happy in his furry winter coat, and the lightening storms & hail bothered m
e more than him :0)
I prefer to slow down on a hot day rather than clip, and its worked well for us.
Kathy Kelly
Parks AZ
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