I far, far, far prefer the v snap front, and it’s one of the reasons I only buy Rambo. It makes for such a nice fit on my horses, and it’s so much easier to deal with. Leg arches = v snap front, no leg arches = straight t buckles. My vote is always the snap front.
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I live in Virginia. Once you blanket here, it is virtually impossible to unblanket. A horse’s natural coat is designed to keep it warm by trapping air close to the horse’s skin. The weight of the blanket squishes those air pockets & the horse no longer has that natural mechanism for regulating temperature.
Caveat: Our winters are cold but not generally the “breathing is dangerous” kind of cold that they get in places like Canada, upstate NY, and the mid-west. I imagine that for people in more temperate climates it is totally doable to blanket only when precipitation is forecast.
Personally, my horses are clipped because we continue training thru the winter. (Barring frozen ground & absolutely horrid weather) Unclipped, they’d get too sweaty working, take hours to dry, and potentially catch cold. However, it’s not uncommon for people here to blanket unclipped horses that are older, have thinner natural coats, etc.
I try to only blanket for (wet) precipitation plus cold - one exception being the old man who can’t keep himself as warm anymore. He is blanketed much more aggressively. I live in the NE. From late fall to early winter they pretty much live in rain sheets because it rains all the time unless it’s cold enough to snow. Once it’s regularly cold enough to snow, they’ll usually be naked unless it’s damp. I might put a 100g on them if it’s snowing for a full day and the wet heavy kind. The midweights come out in extreme cold (15F or below) or if we have high winds plus snowstorm. All of them have access to shelter. All of them hang outside anyway.
Adams has some good sale prices on Rambo turnouts right now. The sizes are limited but you might get lucky.
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Do you guys recommend a liner and a medium or light rain jacket for the coldest of cold …or go straight into the 400g all-together ones?
And…hood or no hood?
I’ve never put any kind of covers on any of my horses, but i have two mares who are now 20. (one has cushings …controlled) and other is a rangey arab that tends to thin in the winters. So i’m considering blanketing both of them. I want good blankets that can go-the-distance in their herd situation- giant pasture and running around-ness
Well, where are you?
In CT, I use the 400 gram nearly never. It just doesn’t get that COLD. It was far different in MN, I used that weight quite a lot there (and even used a liner with it in the coldest weather.)
Unless you’re in the coldest parts of the US, you probably don’t need a 400 gram very often for an unclipped horse.
My go-tos are the 100 gram & the medium. I don’t ever use a sheet anymore. You could easily layer the two blankets for the rare colder day, or pick up a liner to toss under either.
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mid-Missouri. Last winter was a pretty warm one, until it got sub-zero for several days. Brutal! froze up all the diesel engines! Worst cold spell we’ve ever had -that i can remember. Was a fairly wet winter for most of it
Below zero during the day is when I think about cracking out the 400g heavies, especially if we get a stretch of that, but I don’t use them for below 0 nights or, like, ONE below zero day.
YMMV of course, but it’s COSTLY blanket for a few days a year!
I use the turn out sheets w the liners. I combine two liners sometimes. The weight depends on the temperature and the wind chill. I also use hoods. They seem to make a significant difference what weight of liner I need…sort of like wearing a hat. Hope this helps.
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Yay on Rambo. Yay on Rhino. Yay on the Amigo Bravo 12. Nay on anything else Amigo.
I have an old, partially clipped horse in Maryland. It doesn’t get Quebec cold, but it’s damp and icy and 20 degrees is pretty miserable. I have a turnout sheet, a 100gm, a 250gm, and a 450gm, and the ones with fill have hoods. I have two goals with my blankets that this system fulfills: first, I want to layer them such that the inside/outside blanket change is “take off top layer” or “put on top layer” more often than it is “take off rug, put on rug.” This is how I have avoided being killed by the barn staff despite having 4 blankets. The second is that no matter the weather, if my horse destroys a rug or naps in the trough and soaks it or I need to take it home to wash, I can dress him appropriately with his other rugs for the majority of conditions he encounters.
So… I’m going to tell you to get ALL the blankets, and only your wallet will be sad. 
But if you have the ability to borrow a rug in a pinch, or if your horse has the coat of a feral pony or runs warm, you don’t need my arsenal and you can do a lot with a waterproof sheet or 100gm and a stout midweight turnout.
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the Rambos fit my horse very good. for my needs I splurged on the Rambos that he’d wear the most, and then others I’d get a Rhino or Amigo which also held up quite well. When he was a youngster he was quite tough on his clothes, With the Rambos (and others) I replaced more due to sizing (growing boy) vs demolishing them
This is kind of similar to how I do things. Inside blankets are cheapies, second hand, etc. Outside are the good ones - Rambo Supremes etc.
At one barn, they allowed only turnouts, and only 3 (no fill, medium, and heavy). With layering, it actually worked pretty well and there was way less blanket changing.
Quietann, that’s how it’s been at most of the barns I’ve boarded at. I can imagine how endearing one would be to their barn manager with a list of blankets for every temperature change. And the other thing is unless your horse is fully clipped they may not need an assortment of blankets.
I’ve tended to board at barns that are a bit upscale, given that I’m mostly a trail rider who dabbles in dressage. The barn I described originally had the list of blankets by temperature changes, but that meant SO many blankets that it was making the staff nuts. So the rule became 3, all turnouts, unless by vet’s orders (e.g. a Back on Track blanket)
Another barn I was at wanted whatever stall blankets, and one and only one no-fill turnout that would be the top layer. BO didn’t want muddy turnout blankets in her stalls. But she layered like crazy on her own horses… I remember one in 4 stall blankets with the turnout on top, for 10 degrees weather.
Current barn is, in fact, the blankets by temperature type. And there are boarders who want their horses insanely overblanketed, like a heavy if it’s below 45 degrees, rain sheet at 65, etc.
My mare appreciates her blankets but I’m fairly conservative about them. She is not clipped, but doesn’t grow much winter coat, and she has arthritis basically everywhere. She can be outside nekkid at 30 degrees as long as the weather is dry and not super windy.
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