In or Out in the Polar Vortex?

[judybigredpony]

So stalled some clipped rugged horses stayed in today. Their paddocks have no,sheds nor wind protection plus the former mud ruts are now granite…We do 2 warm wet feeds adding in extra oil n a bit of salt and bump,up the hay and monitor the water input.
they will,get out tomorrow for a few Hours and hopefully back under saddle,time by Thursday.

My un rugged hardy turn outs all,have Run In sheds out of wind catching sun Access to Big good hay round bales and extra calorie feed. They all,have water we monitor to make sure its broken open at least 2 X day. I can also see if anyone is lingering by trough and take axe or sledge hammer to open.

What are yours up to…

[Action42]

My 2 fuzzy beasts normally live out 24/7 with lots of natural shade and wind breaks. They came in last night (one took some major coaxing to get in to the barn) and slept in their stalls with extra hay, fresh water and 4 layers of blankets on. Today they are outside under the same 4 layers, got lots of hay and their water trough is in direct sunlight most of the day. They drank well last night and were happy to go out this am. If they’ve had enough to drink when I get home from work, they’ll get regular dinner and get to stay out. If they’ve had a light water day, they’ll get mashes.

This weekend it’ll be 65 here. Just got to deal with it for another 36 hours!

[downen]

Not only in the polar vortex, but we lost power for six hours yesterday! Thanks to a generator, my ponies had their electric buckets. They are used to being out, but for now are happy to be knee deep in straw, munching hay from slow feed nets, and waiting for reasonable weather to return!

[bornfreenowexpensive]

We blanketed the hell out of everyone…including broodmares and babies. Most of the ones living out have sheds but two weathered outside without sheds last night…but with probably 4 Rambo type blankets which covered them to their ears to tail. (was 1degrees this am with 20-40mph winds taking the wind chill to -20+)

LOTS of hay for everyone. All seem to be generating good heat and seem happy. A few of our outside water troughs did freeze over night…even with the tank heaters. Barn has auto water with heaters so everything inside was fine.

Just hope we get through all this with no colics. It isn’t the cold that is trouble as much as the rapid change…it dropped 40+ degrees in a day. I have one going in the hospital tomorrow for a bone scan…and would rather not have more high vet expenses!!!

[Toadie_s_mom]

Mine are all out with run-in sheds. 2 stay blanketed if it’s under 40. My boarder’s 31 yr. old, and my own gelding, who just never seems to grow much hair.

When we had a big ice storm last month several people I know said they kept theirs stalled for 6 days because they were afraid they’d get hurt out on the ice. Well I’d rather take that chance, than to take a chance on one going crazy in turn out after being in a stall for a week!

[jbonifas]

Mine come and go as they please and are happy as clams with butts to the wind in the sun. Not a one shivered but all have had good meals with a little extra protein. We are not use to this kind of temperature and I’m glad it’s not raining or staying around for long. I would have a hard time if I had to deal with this on a regular basis.

[subk]

The Hay Buffett is open. Doubled up blankets. Normally out at night up during the day except in extreme weather–around here that’s usually 35° and rain not 0°. So I’ve switched it and am giving them about 4-6 hours of turnout in the field that I can watch from the house during the day and up at night. When in their stalls I’m checking and exchanging their iced over buckets with water every 4-6 hours. Getting tired of midnight trips to the barn.

[flyracing]

Wind chills in the -50 to -70 range means everybody comes in (some ears are being lost in this storm for sure, but hopefully not too many lives ) Those down south, keep them blanketed and offer warm water at least twice a day. 0 degrees is no fun, especially when you are not use to it. Praying for those in the vortex and the adjacent NE!

[Mango20]

My horses were in last night as usual. We got down to 0 last night and now have wind chills down to -20. I stayed home from work today (not related to the weather) so left them in their stalls until noon. I put their outside hay where the barn blocks most of the wind, and they all seem fine with it. I am worried about them drinking enough so will probably give them something wet for dinner.

[monalisa]

Mine are in today with tons of blankets, hay, water, a warm beet pulp breakfast. By this time tomorrow they should be back to regular day turnout. My 20 year old looked at me this morning, with the “why am I here in all this cold?” look. She does not like it. But all are drinking a lot and coping well.

[Chestnut_Run]

Ours are out because we don’t have a barn with stalls built yet (just moved in this fall). But they all fit comfortably in the oversize run in shed. We have 14 horses in one side, and three sectioned off into a smaller section of the run in shed since we are weaning babies right now. All have free choice alfalfa/orchard grass round bales, run in is bedded down, and we moved the heated stock tank into the shed so they don’t have to leave it unless they want to. We do have a couple that decided to stand on the non windy side of the run in shed in the sun, so I threw a bale of hay over the fence to them there. Our stock tank heater and heated buckets are having trouble keeping the tubs ice free, so we carried out warm water from the house and watered each horse by bucket with warm water to make sure they are staying hydrated.

We got down to -8 last night with 20-30 mph wind gusts and everyone seems to be doing fine.

Even if we had stalls, I don’t think I’d keep them in. Our run in shed is oversized though (basically a whole tobacco barn), so they have room to move around, socialize, change which hay bale they are eating on, etc. And this way I only have to keep ice off of 3 heated buckets/tubs/tanks instead of 18 buckets.

Sheila

[islgrl]

Ours are out. Its about 15* but with the windchill its quite a bit colder. They don’t have run-ins, but the trees provide a little break from the wind. They have hay and will come in early (3:30) for the night. Checked them at lunch, they were fine although in one paddock the horses would take two bites then run around a little bit, then take two more bites, everone else was quite sensibly eating and behaving :).

[dangerbunny]

mine are locked up now, after going on a midnight romp last night.

They had plenty of hay in the shelter so I have no idea why they decided to have a run around on the coldest night in Michigan in a decade.

Now I have to sort out my stupid fence.

[Heliodoro]

Just got back from the barn a little while ago, as my trainer had the luck of booking a cruise this week!

Horses were double/triple blanketed and went out for a few hours today as we got chores done. It was -4*F when I arrived at 830am and gusty. Converted the wash stall into a stall-stall for one of the pasture boarded horses. The other 2 that are pasture boarded got to trash the indoor last night and today/tonight, with the 2 cows in “stalls” with them. Horses were happy to stretch their legs and play a little, but most were ready to come in when I went to the gate… except for the massive steer! Once I grabbed all the horses out of his pasture and wrestled (no, really she didn’t want to leave the round bail!) the calf inside, he was more willing, but there were a few head tosses.

Everybody has lots of straw to relax on and big piles of hay in their stalls. I ended up using one of the box jumps as a hay feeder for the 2 in the indoor to help contain the mess. I worry about water as I checked everyone before I headed home their buckets were already starting to ice up and the water had barely been poured an hour before! I mixed up feed for tonight with everyone getting a little shake of salt on their grain. Fingers crossed, everyone stays eating and drinking!!

Oh it’s warmed up to a whopping 5*F now, but with more wind it seems.

[bathsheba8542]

I feel lucky to have a warm barn and an ice-free stone dust paddock…so everyone went out for a few hours this morning. Mine are not blanketed, and everyone except the TB was fine. He was warm to the touch, yet was shivering to make me crazy. : (

Everyone has been in since lunch time, and just got the third hot water top off of the day, and a hot bran mash.

Barn is 45 degrees with all horses inside, with a ‘feels like’ outside of -2!

[fatorangehorse]

The wind block is the most important thing. If in is an option, I’d take it. We had temps as low as -15 plus 30 mph winds - so -40 I think that equates to… Anyway, the wind stopped and the sun came out and was -5 and my (well blanketed including neck cover) horses left the cover of the buildings in the paddock and went playing and lounging in the big pasture. And btw - I have found neck covers make a huge difference in helping body heat - even more than additional blanket layers, provided you have atleast a heavy on.

And an unpaid plug for my heated waterers. I have them in stalls and in the pasture. they have never frozen. I do cover the pasture one @ night when the horses go in - just with a bucket.

My neighbors gave warm water to theirs and it was the only water they would drink even when the other wasn’t frozen - so this part is really critical to prevent colic, dehydration and other issues.

Good luck to all - the worst seems to be behind us in the MW.

[pegasusmom]

In overnight. This was such an extreme temperature drop for us, followed by an extreme temperature rise over the next three days. I hate having them in, mine are normally out 24/7. But it was hard to keep outdoor buckets thawed as we are just not set up for this kind of weather. Everyone had something on, the clipped ones were doubled up and we are serving hot soup at Pegasus Ridge along with the hay buffet.

Turned them all out around 11 am.

[slp2]

Where I board my horses, the BO decided that the horses with stalls were staying in yesterday and today due to the extreme cold. Other factors were that the barn help couldn’t get to the barn (we got ~16 inches of snow) so they had limited staff to help turn out / bring in, clean stalls and fiddle with the automatic waterers that have been acting up in the cold weather. They also wanted to keep the doors closed as much as possible.

Last night was -12 with a - OMG windchill. The outdoor horses have shelters and they put heated buckets out there due to the finicky automatic waterers. Everyone has blankets on and has plenty of hay. Since my 2 horses are inside, I don’t have a crazy number of layers on them. My oldie has her heavyweight on and my youngster has a blanket liner + a medium weight on.

I imagine that Wednesday morning there will be some major hy-jinx in the snow when they DO get turned out.

[kcmel]

My guys are on their usual routine. Out during the day and in at night. I did put their heavyweight blankets on them today–first time in probably 3 years. They have a run-in, but don’t care to use it except in the summer to get away from flies. I saw several farms nearby with unblanketed horses. I think we tend to over-react!

[NeverTime]

When I lived in the Rocky Mountains, the horses lived out 24/7 with double blankets and run-ins, and it would dip to -20 fairly regularly at night. (They were in pipe-fenced paddocks, and twice during that time I found minor lesions on my horse’s lip/tongue, presumably from pulling A Christmas Story and getting his wet mouth too close to the cold metal, poor guy:cool:) Now we’re in PA and the horses who usually live out 24/7 have spent the last two nights in their stalls, double-blanketed. I guess its a bit situational, for us if not for the horses.