I’m curious what other barns do? We are sitting around 10 during the day and negative temps/windchill at night. Our barn is insulated but still freezing as there was ice starting to float on top of water buckets. The horses are turned out during the day but all have blankets taken off at night still.
Horse dependant, but generally in temps that cold we leave blankets on in the barn. The hard keepers/old guys especially, will have blankets 24/7 much earlier than some of the others. Once we have to contend with keeping buckets unfrozen is pretty much the indoor temp marker for us. (I will note, our barn has terrible insulation as it was originally constructed as a summer barn. So we do more with blankets than someone with a better insulation system might have to.)
If the horses are blanketed in freezing temps during the day why would you remove blankets for them to be inside in freezing temperatures overnight?
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It doesn’t even get freezing here, but yes when it’s cold my horse (who has a trace clip) is blanketed inside.
The horse that wears a blanket outside wears one while inside too. The horses that do not wear blankets at all during the winter stay naked when inside too.
Edit to add - it is not any warmer inside my barn than it is outside my barn.
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This. If the barn is significantly warmer than the outside temp, I can see removing a layer or two but I wouldn’t leave them naked! My trainer’s barn is heated to around 40 degrees so when the horses come in (it’s in the single digits here too) their heavy weights come off and their mediums go on.
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If the barn is not heated, yes, absolutely blankets should be kept on. Is there a thermometer in the barn? If not, maybe get one, so you can see how much your insulation is (or isn’t) doing to keep the temp inside warmer than outside. Ice on water buckets? I can’t imagine it’s all that warm inside the barn enough to warrant removing blankets.
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If the buckets are freezing in the barn, as is stated in the first post, the barn is freezing.
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If I bring my horse in barn for the night. At are current temperatures blankets stay on. -30 outside -28 in barn. I dont bring them in,out 24/7 better off where they can move around.
I leave mine on, but the biggest reason is that I can barely stay unfrozen while doing the normal barn chores and I don’t want to be out there even longer fiddling with blankets twice a day!
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Are the horses shivering in the stalls? I haven’t needed to blanket in many years but once we started putting them on we continued to do so. Being stalled will limit their ability to move around to warm up. Sounds like the barn is still pretty cold if your water is freezing over inside.
Why wouldn’t you keep blankets on overnight for horses who need them during the day?
That makes no sense to me. What is the reason?
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I think that’s kind of silly, since it’s usually much colder at night. I just tonight will bring mine in at night since it will be below zero. Up until today, I had them in during the day and pull blankets if it will be in the twenties or above. They are not clipped (obviously). I will switch back to night turnout once the temp moderates a bit.
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If the water is freezing then it’s pretty cold inside. I would leave blankets on or if you want to take off a damp blanket you could switch the waterproof turnout for a puffy stable blanket.
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I remember some boarders years ago who wanted the opposite - blankets off during the day when it was warmer out and the horses could stand in the sun, and on at night indoors. The barn management informed everyone that blanket changes were the boarders’ own responsibility, and suddenly a lot of horses wore the same blanket (or no blanket) all season.
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because the barn is insulated and with animals it is warmer inside most likely. Very common practice. Also wind chill does not matter when inside out of the wind.
If buckets are only getting a thin layer of ice barn must be staying fairly warm.
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I board at a friends private barn. I’m the only boarder. Her barn is well insulated, and very tight. I think it needs WAY more ventilation (there is condensation on the windows). But the horses wear the same clothes around the clock. I’ve got a lighter weight turnout on my gelding b/c I’m more concerned about him not getting too hot & sweaty at night. I think he really could use another layer to go out during the day, but afraid they won’t remove layers as necessary at night. Thoughts? If the barn is significantly warmer (say 25+ degrees warmer) should there be an adjustment in clothes?
Long time barn owner and manager in the quite frozen NE corner of coastal Massachusetts. It can take me a season to convince a new boarder of my standard practice, but once they get it they’re converted. Here it is:
Having a fairly tight insulated barn, we DO NOT BLANKET AT NIGHT when the horses are in. We’ve followed this protocol for over 30 years.
Why:
- The wonderful old horsemen I learned from always taught me that if a horse is out of the wind and dry, it will stay warm.
- If the horses are blanketed, their body heat is trapped and the buckets will freeze. If they are unblanketed the barn will almost always stay above freezing, the air won’t be toasty but palpably warm when one enters, and there will be water available to the horses all night.
Our horses have healthy coats, are in good flesh with a forage based diet, and have a very low incidence (approaching zero) of respiratory issues.
We have a well-insulated 11 stall barn oriented east-west and none of the horses are clipped. YMMV
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If your water buckets in the stall are freezing, it’s cold enough in either F or C to blanket in the stall, But not doing so probably isn’t going to harm the horse unless it’s clipped, aged, sick.or just shipped in from So Cal.
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If there is less than 10 degree temp changes between outside and in the barn, blankets should stay on. From the description, your barn still sounds too cold to have the horse naked at night if a blanket is otherwise worn. I am not a fan of blankets being taken on/off. I leave mine on and they wear a medium most of the winter, or a heavy in the very cold temps we have now. My barn is not insulated or heated however.
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