Hello! I’ve never posted in here before and I apologize if this thread is in the wrong place or redundant, but I haven’t found the exact answer I was looking for to my question. The question is about blanketing temperatures. I’ve never clipped before but am doing so because of excess sweating. My mare is a drafty pony (prefers cold weather) and is overweight at the moment (working on getting her back in shape though) and I assume the extra weight would make quite a difference in the blanket weight. She is either going to get a blanket clip or a trace clip and will be turned out in the morning and will be in a stall at night. The barn is not heated. Does the temperature that you blanket at go by the actual number or what it feels like (ex: 20 degrees Fahrenheit but feels like 5 degrees because of windchill)? If someone could give me an idea of what temperatures require what blanket, it would be much appreciated. We live in an area that has winter temps anywhere from -5 degrees F to 35-40 degrees F. Generally it is in the low 20s to low 30s though.
This is a good reference tool.
https://www.smartpakequine.com/horse-blankets-sheets-and-coolers-182c
Smartpak has a blanket app for smartphones too. It is based on the weather, the barn and info you enter about your horse and let’s you knlw what blanket is best. My guy is not clipped and wears a med weight most of the winter; a fleece underneath when it gets single digits/below zero, like now.
I always go by what the the temp feels like and not the actual air temp. When the wind is whipping around like tonight (& the barn sounds like it’s going to come apart) it’s a heck of a lot colder out than if there was no wind. My mare who loves to be out all the time actually spent sometime inside her stall (barn is open) today as it was miserable out. On a nice sunny calm day she won’t come in at all. Windchill tonight is going to be in the single digits if we’re lucky - she’s wearing 300gms right now (200 gm medium weight and 100 gm medium-lite weight). She has free choice hay and hot water in her insulated bucket so she’ll be fine.
She is a TB and grows a great coat (not clipped) and is in good weight - she’s much happier blanketed though when it’s this bad out. 
Agree, I go with the “feels like” temp to a certain degree, BUT if there is no windchill or precipitation, even -10C isn’t that cold for a horse! My horse wears 550gms of insulation in -14 (feels like -22), but if it were a clear day with no windchill, he could easily be just fine in 200gm.
You will have to learn your horse and where they are comfortable. If my horse gets too hot, he will have poop in his tail (runny poops). I make note of this and the temperature, and the next time that temperature occurs, I blanket lighter. It’s safer to blanket a little less, but you certainly can’t use one blanket for all applications.
Your best bet is to have: -1 rainsheet, 1 100gm liner, one 350gm liner and a 200gm turnout. That way, you have many different layering options.
20 deg F is about -6 C, correct? You likely won’t need more than a 200gm turnout. It really depends on how hot your horse runs… if she’s a little pudgy and drafty- she will likely only need the 200gm most of the time. If it does get to -7F (or -20C), you will have to bring out the big guns a 350-400gm turnout should do the trick, or the 200 with a 200gm liner (if she’s clipped almost all over, that is).
My philosophy- one can never have TOO many blankets!
Thank you guys so much! Very helpful
If the horse is outside, go by windchill rather than actual temperature. If they’re in the barn, go by actual temperature. Smartpak’s blanketing app is a good place to start although I think it tends towards over-blanketing. This is what I generally do for my horse, an unclipped TB who lives out but is a weenie about the cold.
40-50: sheet if windy or raining, naked if nice
30-40: medium if windy or precipitating, sheet if nice
15-30: medium all the time, add light liner if really windy or snowing
0-15: medium + liner if nice, heavy with neck cover if not
Under 0: heavy with neck cover, add a liner if windy (Baker blanket if windchill is above -20, heavy stable blanket if below -20)
I have lots and lots of blankets, obviously. Most horses in your temperature range can get away with a medium, a sheet, and a medium weight liner even if clipped.
My pudgy, hairy Morgan never wore above a 200gm blanket. When it was -40 (not a typo), he’d wear a fleece underneath. And he felt warm under the blanket - not sweaty, but certainly warm enough. I would guess your mare would be similar.
TB wears a heavyweight for most of the winter. I have a fleece, but he stays in on the coldest days so hasn’t needed it yet.
I typically go by windchill. Not sure where you live, but Smartpak’s blanketing app is ridiculous where I live. It would have my horses in heavyweight blankets from October on - it was recommending extra blankets and liners when my guy was wearing 100gm lined rainsheets.
Thanks! I’m in Massachusetts. I did get the smartpak app and it did seem like, for the most part, it was giving me reasonable suggestions but it would say to put her in a heavy weight plus liner during the day(-5 degrees) and just a sheet at night , presumably because she’s stabled at night. From what people said here, a sheet seems ridiculous. There’s no wind in the barn but if it’s -5 outside, the barn is not much warmer. I would assume she’d need a medium weight or someting underneath the sheet.
Thank you for the response and the temperature range and blanket weights. You kind of confirmed what I was thinking. I have a heavy weight but was debating on whether or not she’d need it. I was just going to use a medium weight because she’s pretty good with the cold. Didn’t want her to sweat.
Thank you for the response and the temperature range and blanket weights. You kind of confirmed what I was thinking. I have a heavy weight but was debating on whether or not she’d need it. I was just going to use a medium weight because she’s pretty good with the cold. Didn’t want her to sweat. Also would you say that heavy weight should be used if it drops below zero (for my mare) or would a medium with a liner be ok?
[QUOTE=Mel2599;7941876]
Thank you for the response and the temperature range and blanket weights. You kind of confirmed what I was thinking. I have a heavy weight but was debating on whether or not she’d need it. I was just going to use a medium weight because she’s pretty good with the cold. Didn’t want her to sweat. Also would you say that heavy weight should be used if it drops below zero (for my mare) or would a medium with a liner be ok?[/QUOTE]
I would think a medium with a liner, if she’s prone to sweating. I had a heavyweight liner that came with one of my blankets, but I never used it on my Morgan. He would have been sweaty and uncomfortable. The 200gm + liner combo worked great for him even on the coldest days.
For your situation - temps not THAT bad, and a fat pony with a draft-y metabolism - you will probably rarely need a blanket, even with a light clip job. Even then, a medium weight and either a straight sheet or a heavy sheet/light blanket would get you through pretty much anything, especially if the sheet is a high neck. Putting the sheet on top of the blanket for the worst weather (so neither the sheet nor the blanket are weighed down), or using either separately based on conditions, covers pretty much all of it for what you describe.
Your temps sound very similar to ours - a little cooler, and while we don’t have many days in the single digits, we do have several a year, and will be looking at a few this week, of wind chills below 0. The medium weight and the high neck sheets do the job very well for my unclipped ones. But none are fat, so that changes the temps at which things get done, even if only by 10* or so.
You don’t need a heavy weight, not for those temperatures. If you stumble across a good used one for a cheap price, it wouldn’t hurt to have it, but otherwise not very likely to be needed.
[QUOTE=Mel2599;7941876]
Thank you for the response and the temperature range and blanket weights. You kind of confirmed what I was thinking. I have a heavy weight but was debating on whether or not she’d need it. I was just going to use a medium weight because she’s pretty good with the cold. Didn’t want her to sweat. Also would you say that heavy weight should be used if it drops below zero (for my mare) or would a medium with a liner be ok?[/QUOTE]
I do med weight with a liner. Doing this today actually on my way home!
