It’s my first year having a foal at home. I read some old threads where people live is REALLY cold places and don’t blanket foals during the winter, but they all say rain/wind is when they do blanket. It doesn’t usually get below 20 in Oregon in the winter, but it rains a lot and gets windy. Usually in the 30s in the winter. I would bring the foals in the ice. But if its in 30s and rainy/windy will they need blankets if they have a 3-sided run in shed in the pasture?
I know a lot of people don’t blanket weanlings, but I did with my last foal. She lived out 24/7, and was brought in a handful of times for extreme weather. Mid-Atlantic climate. She wore a high-neck pony medium weight TO. I just made sure the belly straps were adjusted nice and snug. I pretty much blanketed her the same as my adult horses, so she wore her blanket most of the winter.
I am north of you (WAY north, almost to Canada) and I blanketed my weanling when I brought him home. The wind and the rain was just too much for his little self. And he did great after trying (and succeeding a few times) to disrobe.
I blanketed my weanling this past winter. It made me feel better and she was no worse for wear.
I used to never blanket weanlings.
Longtime PNW person here. Cold is fine. Wet is fine. Cold plus wet is NOT fine for many horses. Baby horses are not super smart about utilizing shelters. If the baby is out with a good mentor who shuffles everyone into a big enough loafing shed when the weather is bad, it could work. Or the baby could be out there shivering because they are wet to the skin.
My weanling only needed a waterproof blanket for short times. But I would shut him in a smaller paddock with a big loafing shed during bad weather. If he was out in the pasture (he could still access the paddock and shed), he just wouldn’t come in. Who knows why.
If they are shivering, cover them up. If they are a pony breed with a super thick coat that is dry at the skin, leave them alone. If you suspect that the day will be a soaker, default to a sheet rather than a blanket with fill.
So the answer is: it depends on the horse and the set up. And be REALLY careful about the adjustment of leg straps and belly straps. As snug as possible without being too tight.
In “wet cold”, and with questionable shelter, sure, you may be looking at waterproof blanketing. In “dry cold”, usually not needed. The exception being an “oops” foal, who arrived November 11. She was, of course, supplied with the newborn foal blanket (well, 2 of them actually, at once) immediately, after birth. But within a week, it was -20C, then -30C, and stayed like that for months. She was wrapped up with blankets all winter, as was her dam (which I don’t usually like blanketing mothers- scared of foal getting somehow tangled up in mom’s blanket). All I saw of that foal was a furry little face at one end, and a furry little tail at the other, for months. She did just fine… no problems. Come spring, I took the blankets off, and got a look at her fat little body! And she’s still a little pork chop, 12 years later! The nice thing about blanketing foals is that it gets them “broke” early to wearing clothes, often makes the introduction of other clothes easy later on.
Even though it never gets that cold here (N CA), we did just have an epic rain season. I always rainsheet all the big horses (waterproof but no fill) and I knew I couldn’t deal with not doing the same for the weanling and then constantly wondering if he was wet and shivering. So he got sheeted the same as everyone else when it rained for more than an hour or two. He hated it the first time but then was fine. Amazingly I chose the right size and it fit him from November to May.
For a filly, yes you can blanket. For an extremely mouthy colt, it may be better not to blanket. Because that blanket is going to get yanked on, chewed, and possibly ripped.
I will say my colt had the biggest, thickest yak like winter coat I have ever seen, and we are in Florida. I had to partial clip him and he still had enough hair to be perfectly happy when it dropped down to 15 degrees.
Either blanket or stall accordingly. I don’t trust my colt with a blanket and have only put one on him for the training experience. He would destroy it very quickly otherwise. So it really depends on the horse.
Fillies can be mouthy, too, and colts can be saints.
It all just depends on the horse.
I’m in Ontario and brought a colt home last year once he was weaned. I blanket all of my guys, they do have 2 sheds, but prefer not to use them I find the youngsters tend to feel the cold a bit more, especially on the windy, wet (either wet snow or rain) days.
My boys are very mouthy and playful, but his blanket stayed on all winter and I had no issues with it. I even added a neck cover for the cold days. Sometimes the velcro straps on those would magically open (ha ha), but nothing tore or got caught. I did bring my guys in every night to a warm barn and removed blankets for the night. But they wore them outside every day with 0 issues.