I knowwwww! Like DUDES, Jan and Feb are the worst of Winter! But mine don’t dump coats that fast, fortunately, but for sure there are late Jan to early March weather conditions they can’t handle without blankets, that wouldn’t be a problem in late December.
TBH, mine are constantly shedding even if it’s just a very low level. Really low level. But for now, it’s not altering their coats.
@OP, in your situation I’d do a Rambo rainsheet w no liner. I’ve been impressed at how warm horses stay in those - even clipped horses. Far worse to come into a warm barn with toooooooo heavy of blanket and get warm and sweat underneath. Even worse, imagine a warm blanket, going out on a sunny day, getting really hot and sweating and then coming into a warm barn.
When I see horses blanketed out in the sun I feel bad. People don’t realize how hot they get with fur under that blanket. Being too hot is dangerous.
Maybe a stupid suggestion - get black blankets. It won’t be sunny every day, but on the days that it is, I can tell a noticeable difference in my horses temperature when wearing black blankets/sheets.
They’re pretty darn good! Got one for my beastie last year and it was warm enough (but never made her sweat) to get her winter coat good and gone (shed out) by about mid-January.
This fall I was able to ride her more through the fall so she got clipped. She’s toasty (her saddle patch is starting to shed out) but not sweaty. I use the neck to further regulate - on warm days, I take it off because she will get too warm if the neck is left on above about 3C.
One thing I hate? The colour is awful. I’m pretty sure that all the reflective value of the silver colour is negated by the vast swaths of mud stains 
Never again will I buy a light-coloured blanket. One other note, the lining is not the smooth slippery stuff that leaves a coat shiny and smooth. It holds shed out coat like a dryer lint trap holds cat hair off a hardly ever washed cat bed!
It’s ironic that it’s often still summer-like weather in late September/early October while the horses are turning into wooly beasts yet they are in full shed mode in early March when we almost always get snow.
A perspective from coastal Massachusetts: We have a pretty well insulated barn. Not perfect, but pretty good. The wind can really howl here so we shut it down overnight with the horses in. We don’t blanket at night because blanketing keeps the horses’ body heat on them instead of allowing it to circulate. When we let it circulate (no blankets on), it is rare to have even the slightest bit of ice on the water buckets, even in below 10F temps with wind. And the horses are comfortable. It’s an 11 stall barn.
What does this have to do with your question? It’s entirely possible that the barn will be cooler with the horses blanketed over night.
Unfortunately the morning barn staff will not do blanket changes, and being out 24/7 isn’t an option at this barn.
I’m just hoping to figure out the best blanketing arrangement that might work for them to do the best I can without having to go every morning myself, since that will be a pretty big hardship for me just to go there every morning for that before turnout (8amish) especially when I work at the barn until 10pm most nights.
I put a thermometer up in the barn.
Right now when it’s been in the low 30s at night, it’s ~50 degrees in the barn. It’s been getting up into the low 40s by midday generally but the first few hours they are out are in the low 30s. I think so far
It seems like sheets work best at this temp arrangement until it gets consistently in the 30s during the day. Other than they might he a bit chilly in the morning. The sheets at least seem to add some protection since none of them have very fluffy coats, but in blankets with any fill they tend to start feeling really warm when the barn is 50.
I think sometimes the barn being 20 degrees warmer works, but most of the time the temperature swings between night and day aren’t that large around here
The barn is unfortunately already much warmer than outside at my time of turn in, the majority of the horses besides my 10 or so are in for most of the day in the winters. I sometimes will pull their blankets at turn in and put them back on at 10 when I do nightcheck to try to help with this
Yea unfortunately since they spend about 2/3 of their time in the barn and only 1/3 outside, I think their coat is suppressed by how warm it is in the barn. I do delay blanketing as much as I can but most of them don’t grow much of a coat compared to when I’ve had horses in regular temp barns or 24/7 turnout
Thanks everyone for your input.
Just wanted to make sure I’m doing the right thing by mostly blanketing for the warmer conditions (ie when they are in the barn at night) even if it means they are a bit chilly for a couple hours in the morning when they first go out. I can come when there are drastic changes, and if it’s really freezing in the early morning their turnout can be delayed until late morning. I mostly used sheets and 100g blankets most of the year last year except when it got crazy cold would dip into medium weight. But the bucas and possibly some fleece lined blankets also sound like nice options I will explore.
It’s nice having an insulated barn because our water never freezes and nice for humans, but in a perfect world I would at least open up some windows so the barn is only ~10 degrees warmer than outside other than the coldest nights of the year when everything could be shut up to keep it above freezing.
I don’t have any advice for you, but I am baffled by the fact that the farm doesn’t offer blanketing service, even at an additional charge. That seems like a pretty important component of horse care if they are maintaining an insulated barn.
I’d be interested to know whether the barn has actually experimented with this or whether it’s a theory only that seems to be working so they stick with it.
From my perspective, horses maintain respirations when blanketed so are still putting plenty of heat into the air. My personal observation is that in a barn full of blanketed horses in insulated barns, buckets don’t freeze unless it’s about -20C and even then, in a well-built barn, it’s going to be a thin skiff of ice.
Stocking density (number of animals per square meter) plays a huge role as well. Empty stalls mean a cooler barn. A high density barn (think old-style dairy barn or a standing stall barn where animals are cheek by jowl) and those maintain their heat far better than their stone and wood and zero insulation would leave one to believe.
If you can, it sounds like an 80-100gm fill heavy sheet is a better option than just an unlined sheet.
If your horse isn’t clipped and isn’t a complete freeze baby, hopefully a sheet will be fine both in and out. Im on the other end of the spectrum. Im in the midwest and have cold, wet, snowy winters and this spring we moved to a barn with an indoor. I have a Fjord Yak that I have a pretty generous blanket clip on him at the new barn to minimize any sweating while riding. He also has the tendency to overheat which manifests as FWS. Even with the clip, he has a 0 fill stable sheet and a rain sheet that he gets turned out in and has been fine even on the couple 20 degree days we’ve had so far. I do have an adjustable weight blanket and hood if we get down into single digits, but haven’t had to use it yet this year. He goes out unless there is extreme weather; and even then he doesn’t seem to mind provided there is a round bale out. He has no shelter though, so thats the main factor there.
He seems pretty content IN the barn without a stable sheet anywhere above 35 degrees. Our barn so far has been staying about 10 degrees warmer in than out. We had one weekend that it got frigid and morning staff said he was a little shivery. His coat grows back in so fast and thick, that I have to be careful with that too because then he gets too hot…one morning he was starting to get sweaty under his sheet 
.
I just redid his clip and weighed the hair that came off. It was a pound, which is about 450 grams so that is a heavyweight blanket in addition to his full winter coat. I think its going to be easier for me to just keep the clip maintained through the rest of winter and not have to guesstimate how much warmth his coat growing in is providing.
So far in my experience, most non-clipped horses are just fine even when it feels too cold from our perspectives. Growing up, none of the barns I lessoned at ever blanketed in the winter come to think of it; and my last barn, it was a more even split on horses that were blanketed vs those that weren’t. When we were there, he would get trace clipped once or twice in the fall because he would get too hot, and even with that, I never blanketed him in the winter and they were turned out unless it was extreme. And he was fine. Of course there are exceptions, but it seems like most people err on the side of over blanketing, sometimes to an extreme. Take that as you will though given I have a nordic breed so my experience doesn’t seem to be the norm!
Fluffy Yak photos after his most recent clip…
The barn I’m at in the midwest has a converted dairy barn with big block walls and hay loft overhead and it stays very warm when closed up in the winter. The owner used to be a dairy farmer and he’s never offered blanket changes.
In my area, there are not a lot of boarding barns with blanket changes unless you go to a full-service barn with a trainer. The lack of “services” is part of the reason horse keeping is much less expensive here than on the east coast, etc.
I too have a very warm barn. I’m in a milder climate, but I’ve never had the barn drop even below freezing. And most of the horses are clipped and are hothouse flowers and princesses to boot, so they need their blankies.
Unfortunately, the only way to manage is to do blanket changes or intentionally make the barn colder (via open doors or windows). Generally, I crack all the doors and the clipped horses are fine in a medium weight inside and out. But the unclipped youngters or the shaggy older horses may need a blanket put on in the morning and taken off at night. And in really cold snaps, most of them need to be double blanketed when outside, but are fine in a single med-weight overnight.
I can pay someone to do blanket changes if I can’t get out there AM and PM, or sometimes I can get DH to do it if it’s simple.
If the barn owners don’t offer that service, can you pay a boarder or a local kid to do it?
I don’t have anybody I can consistently pay to do it, maybe once in a while but if just once in a while I can just come myself. Horses get turned out at 7-8 in the morning so nobody is there before that time except the barn owner who’s 84 and the barn guy who won’t do it (I think he’s actually afraid of horses even though this is his job)
There is a boarding barn local to me that is super warm at night, they don’t change the horses blankets when they come in, and often at night the horses are literally lathered in sweat under their blankets. Then they are turned out in the morning with their crusty sweat dried blankets.
Not acceptable imo.
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