Hi Everyone,
Trying to figure out what blankets to buy without spending a ridiculous amount of money. I’d ideally like a sheet, maybe 100-150g stable blanket, and a heavy with a neck. What do you blanket with at what temperatures? In the NE, but it still seems like people at my barn may be over blanketing. I used to use smartpak’s app, but that hasn’t worked all year.
My typical rule of thumb is:
40’s sheet
30’s liner and sheet
<30 liner and heavy.
Thanks!
Is the horse clipped? Does the horse have shelter? Does the horse have a winter coat?
My fuzzy mare in a stall/runout does just fine with no blanket, and only enjoys a turnout blanket with fill when its sleeting close to freezing. We have done winters no blanket at all.
Obviously with a runout we have no use for a stable blanket but I do find my wool cooler useful for drying her off.
Last winter she was at a stall/ daily turnout place and went fine in just a rain sheet and her natural poofy fur.
PNW, no snow to speak of last year.
Clipped is obviously another thing altogether.
I got all my blankets second handhand.
I don’t use stable blankets- I have 3 turnouts per horse: a no fill sheet, a medium weight and a heavy weight. I think stable blankets are a hassle from barn staff perspective.
One of mine is clipped and inside at night, the other is fuzzy and on pasture board but needs to gain weight, so they actually end up blanketed very similarly. My chart is similar to yours, but no liners - just sheet, medium and then heavy.
You can always double up on turnout blankets if you have to, just like a liner, but the good thing is they are all waterproof so you won’t run into issues like rain getting into your liner and soaking it.
My most used blanket is a 100 g turnout, followed by a medium weight turnout. I found I nearly never used sheets, so stopped buying those. The heavies only come out when it’s bitter cold.
In your circumstance, I’d go with the 100g, a medium, and a liner for when it’s bitter.
My horse is clipped and we are in the rainy PNW so it isn’t terribly cold. I use a rain sheet, medium weight (150g), heavy weight (300g) and a stable sheet. We use the rain sheet and medium weight the most. We might use the heavy weight a couple times a year when we get cold hard freezes.
Side question: WHERE do you find a 100g turnout?
OP if you are boarding, find out the barn’s “system.” Each barn has its own way of doing things. Current barn expects at least 2 turnouts and at least 2 stable blankets, of different weights. My mare has 3 of each, sheet, medium, and heavy. The barn before this had the same system as Samantha37-- turnouts only, light medium and heavy, which were used as stable blankets as well. The one before that wanted a turnout sheet or lightweight, and everything else stable blankets of varying weights. They put the turnout sheet on top of everything else (adding/removing layers as necessary) for turnout.
(I am also in New England, and worry much more about wet weather than cold and dry. My mare is not clipped, but she doesn’t grow much winter coat except on her legs and under her jaw.)
I like the Rambo one: https://www.adamshorsesupplies.com/rambo-original-100g-w-leg-arches-204432
There is also a Rhino wug: https://shop.horseware.com/product/rhino-wug-100g-lite/
An Amigo: https://shop.horseware.com/product/amigo-bravo-12-original-w-disc-front-closure-100g-lite/
The Duo: https://shop.horseware.com/product/rambo-duo/
A Shires: https://www.ridingwarehouse.com/Shires_Tempest_Plus_1200D_Turnout_Blanket_100G/descpage-SHTP.html
Dover Northwinds: https://www.doversaddlery.com/northwind-plus-light-to-blnkt/p/X1-240152/
Another Shires: https://www.doversaddlery.com/highlander-100g-blanket/p/X1-V000139/
Centaur in 150g: https://www.ridingwarehouse.com/Centaur_Plaid_1200D_Waterproof_Turnout_Blanket_150G/descpage-CPTB.html
Smartpak: https://www.smartpakequine.com/pt/smartpak-deluxe-turnout-blanket-7376
SSTack has a few 80 g, this is one: https://www.sstack.com/c_blankets-sheets_horse-blankets_waterproof-turnout-blankets-sheets/armorflex-warrior-vtek-fit-surcingle-turnouts/
A weatherbeeta, I think they have a few: https://www.weatherbeeta.com/weatherbeeta-comfitec-plus-dynamic-standard-neck-medium-lite
…really, pretty much every blanket manufacturer makes SOMETHING that’s 100 grams or near. It’s a really useful weight.
I just replied with a boatload of links, and it’s stuck in the spam filter. I’m sure it will be along shortly, but the short answer is: everywhere. Nearly every blanket manufacturer makes something that’s 100 grams or close (80-150.)
So much depends on your particular climate and whether anyone is clipped (and how much), as well as any natural wind-breaks, and whether they are stalled regularly or not
Here, Winter can be single digits and howling winds, anywhere from 1-2 days to a week, often a week (Jan usually) of highs only in the low-mid 20s with nights in the low-mid doubles, normally highs in the low-mid 40s and lows in the mid-20s or so.
But we can also have 50s and raining buckets (which will be the case Thursday and Friday. Again), or 35 and raining.
What that means is, we have all sorts of weird combinations.
All I have is a sheet and a medium blanket. The blankets work for most of this. The sheet works for the warmer end of things, and the sheet on top of the blanket works for the colder end of things.
None of mine are clipped, all are out 23 hours a day.
I tend to use a sheet if it’s staying above freezing ( ufp to low 40s), medium for average winter weather (say, 30s during day, teens/20s at night), and I save the heavyweight for real cold snaps. I think we worry too much about it sometimes. My current horse is pretty tough, though.
Horseware has 100 gm turnouts. This is my first year with one. Quite nice but my go-to for WI winters is still the medium weight blanket.
I do sheet until just under 40, and then most of mine spend the majority of the winter in their medium weight blankets. I use heavy only for about upper teens and lower. Horses are stalled at night but unheated barn and not very warm but they are out of the wind at night. BO rarely keeps them in but occasionally does for a blizzard or something, which we never really get any more anyhow!
My super rough boarded horse at my DIL’s family’s farm just keeps his medium on from about early December through March.
100 gm Weatherbeeta is my favorite. I also have medium weights in regular neck and high necks. I have a heavy in a high neck but probably only use that twice during winter. No matter what my mare always has a waterproof sheet on top - helps keep everything underneath clean and mud free.
I add/remove layers daily depending on weather.
OP you may already know this so my apologies if so: I’ve always been told if your horse is not clipped putting a no fill sheet on in cold temps can make them colder as their coat can no longer function properly.
That being said, I have unlined sheets for those rainy cool days (40’s) that I rarely use. If it’s colder than that and raining I bring them inside, they hate the rain. Mine are unclipped so I generally never blanket unless it is bitter cold, like <10-15F or so, then they get heavy blankets. Personally, I don’t have much use for light or medium blankets unless horse is clipped.
It really does depend - on the horse (how long/thick/dense the coat is), and the actual conditions.
This also really applies much more to older sheets that were physically heavier, and tended to really sit ON the horse. So many sheets today are very light, and do more tenting over than back, than sitting so heavy around the horse.
But for sure, at some point, laying down the hair even by that much, without replacing that warmth, is going to be a problem.
I’ll reiterate that it depends if your horse is clipped, if there’s a run-in, if the other horses actually let your horse in the run-in. Do they have hay in front of them 24/7? Are they outside for 2 hours or 24 hours? etc.
Mine is out 24/7. He isn’t clipped this year. We’re up in Ontario. I’ve got a rain sheet with no fill, a medium weight (150 gm), and a heavy weight (300gm) with a detachable hood. I also have a 250gm stable blanket with a wide belly band that can be used under the other blankets in case one gets wrecked, or if he has to be clipped for some reason.
I used to have an amigo with the liners but I found it a pain, and things were always moving around. And if the outer shell gets ripped than you have nothing to attach the liners too. I prefer just having several different waterproof blankets.
Water proofing is important. It doesn’t matter how warm a blanket is when it’s dry, if it gets wet in the pouring rain or the wet snow than it’s just going to make them colder.
Yay, my post full of links showed up! Tagging @quietann so you can see it. Just scroll up a bit 
As an aside, the conversation about climate and stuff is interesting. I’ve lived in three different “cold” climates–planting zones 4, 5 and 6–in CT, CO and MN, and my blankets are about the same. Oddly, I used my heavies the most here in CT last year. It was my first full winter in CT and the horses were just COLD, so if it was below freezing, they were in their Rambo Supremes @ 420 grams…so a HEAVY heavy blanket. That’s the blanket I used on a fully clipped horse, living outside in Colorado, only when temps dipped below ZERO. But the horses were cold last winter, so they wore it in temps waaaaaay warmer than I’d ever used it before. So weird. This year the horses aren’t cold in the same way and they’ve pretty much worn their 100g blankets all winter so far with temps below freezing overnight.
I could do any of those three climates with a clipped or unclipped horse with a 100g, a medium (which I consider 200-250 g) and an additional 100-200 g liner. A neck cover would be useful for a clipped horse.
Was is a damp cold?That makes a big difference.
When I lived in Ohio, the medium was most used I’d say, it would stay on day and night for weeks at a time.
I have only ever used turnout/waterproof items.
Clipped horses:
<60F and rain. Sheet
<50F. Sheet
<40F. Medium
<30F. Heavy
<15F. Heavy+medium+hood (no longer applicable to me in Florida)
Unclipped horses drop those by about 10 degrees.
These are just rough guidelines I use. One of my boarders has a mare who is very thin skinned. She is full clipped and requires a sheet <75F if it is raining.
My most favorite thing i ever discovered was Schneider’s blanket liners. https://www.sstack.com/Horse-Blankets-And-Sheets/Adjusta-Fit-V-FREE-Nylon-Blanket-Liner/ 2 of these and a good sheet that maybe is a tad large and you are set. Sheet, sheet/liner or sheet and 2 liners, you have all of your contingency’s covered. And the best part is each layer will individually fit in my front loader so they have clean clothes all winter.
No more so than in MN, or the winter before in CT when we moved in December, or this winter, where they are fine in much lighter blankets. Who knows. It was weird.
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