WINTER BLANKETS: Necessity or Nuisance?
It is mid-winter, and the horses in this barn are bundled up in thick, quilted winter blankets, with matching hoods that make them look like jousting horses on their way to a tournament. Yes, the mercury has fallen -- all the way down to 65 F -- and the owners of these horses at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center are not going to let their precious darlings suffer from the deep chill. While the above scenario (true, I might add) will no doubt elicit chuckles from people who actually experience real winter, there are plenty of strident voices out there who say that most horses don’t need blankets at all, even in harsh winter climates. Advocates of “natural horsekeeping” assert that blanketing horses actually makes them colder, as the blanket compresses their coat, destroying the insulating properties of the warm air normally trapped between the fluffed up hairs. ...