My Oklahoma-bred TB is experiencing her first Canadian winter, and she loves her stall. It was below 0°F all weekend with a ton of snow. I was messaging with one of the barn staff today, and she said Winnie was beyond comfortable with the decision to keep them in for the day (she’s generally out during the day, stalled at night). “Every time I open Winnie’s stall door, she faces the corner and pretends to be invisible so I won’t turn her out.”
Aww, she sounds too cute!!!
I had an Icelandic who grew up in a huge pasture with only trees for shelter. He always stood outside in the rain and loved to roll/lie in the mud. Completely covered in wet mud and happy. He always seemed baffled when I didn’t ride him on those days.
Cold, Wet, or Windy. Any two conditions are comfortable to a horse. But, in all three conditions, horse needs a shelter.
^^^^^ Agree. Also a horse needs to be dry at least once every 24 hours (the old timer told me).
Dumb things. I have retired my horse to a ranch where she’s happy, but not fussed over. It is cold and mostly dry up
there. Her feet are good being away from our wet coast. I lie in bed at night, cosy and worried about her - this thread makes me feel so.much.better! There are shelters and wind breaks. She.is.fine.
I know they do thrive living out and in a herd … I just do not internalise it.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, I’m always amazed at the horses standing out in the middle of the scalding hot midsummer San Antonio summer when they’ve got nice shade options. Not even nasty, dusty/smelly oven-like run-ins, big stands of live oaks with nice breezes. And they stand there in the middle of the furnace-baked clay and cook.