Yes, some horses take cold weather better than others and they do acclimate. I think some breeds take the cold better than others. Babies, older, or sickly horses are obviously at greater risk in cold weather. Two of my horses have been in Indiana over 2 years, but both were born and raised in Florida. […]

I am not a blanket person, but I know once you start to use them, you had better keep using them or the chances of your horse getting sick is greatly increased. I understand certain diciplines want their coat to look good all year. I also know that racing people blanket or clip because they […]

I know they need to be built right and facing the right direction for wind and the elements. Run in sheds need to be spacious with many exits. You want to make sure horses can’t get cornered in them and that there isn’t metal exposed they can cut theirself on… If you do not have […]

Sick horses usually don’t eat, look at the manure for changes and listen to their neck and chest and make sure you do not hear gurgling or rasping sounds and check temps and look for mucus out the nostrils. I have had people tell me their horse got pneumonia, and they didn’t even know it-how?

In the day if it is not snowing or freezing rain, I open both doors and let it ventilate. At night I leave the doors cracked, and fortunately I can do this without a draft on the horses in their stalls. Spring and Fall cleaning is important too. We try to go into the winter […]

During the winter, I put my horses in stalls at night, but I try not to seal the barn up too tight. I want to allow for some air flow because a closed up, dusty, dirty barn invites respiratory problems. Keep the stalls clean and keep the urine smell down—clean, clean, clean.

In the wild, horses roam to better climates. They’ll go to canyons, tree lines, wooded areas and find natural shelter in winter, summer heat or storms. But, we put our horses up in paddocks where they have no choices. Unless you have some Icelandic Pony they need help in the winter, they need shelter, a […]

We make sure there is an area absent of ice before taking the horses out or that the ice will break under their weight. During several days of a winter storm, we tested the paddocks and only two were usable—the others were still solid ice or ice in large areas. I put our horse, Thurben, […]

Unfortunately, in the last 5 days my horses have been in the barn. First we had snow, then we had over 3 inches of solid ice and it was dangerous for people to walk outside. Our barn doors were froze shut and took hours to get in. The snow had drifted up against the doors […]

I can’t say I have found any shoe to help with this condition. Sometimes a toe grip or something like that will help grab the track but it isn’t going to help on thick ice and could make conditions worse. Also to change a shoe to something like a serious toe grab would change the […]