40 below in Western Canada

[Genie]

I have read former posts from our neighbours to the west who say their horses are out 24/7

What is happening out there when today it shows 40 below on the Weather Network???

Also wondering about our friends in Australia who are inundated with water?

When we hear the terrible weather reports my thoughts immediately go to my little group in the barn and wonder what would I do if faced with the challenges that some are having

 

[Eagle]

I totally agree, when I saw the floods in Australia I immediately thought of the horses there, especially the mini's and then the camera man zoomed in on 5 horses that were swimming and resting their heads on the roof of a house, it was awful to see. How is thee situation in Australia now and is there anything we can do to help?

 

[happy appy]

When I lived in Alberta I found that the -40 weather wasn't as cold feeling as the -20 weather in ontario or the -15 weather in altantic Canada. It never gets bone chilling. More of a dry cold.

 

[Mona]

I have read former posts from our neighbours to the west who say their horses are out 24/7

What is happening out there when today it shows 40 below on the Weather Network???

Even though I no longer have minis, when I did, they were always out and yes, even in the 40 below temps! We never, EVER had a problem with it. They have run-in shelters to get out of the wind and also wind blocks from the trees. Now I have riding horses again, and truthfully, I am more concerned about THEM keeping warm, then I ever did with the minis. The minis grow an IMMENSE winter coat here, whereas the big horses only get a "plush" but fairly short winter coat.

If they are used to it, it does no present any problems...it's when they are used to wearing blankets and are turned out without, or used to being kept inside and suddenly are outside 24/7, or when they come from a warm climate to this stuff that it poses a problem, but common sense take care of those things.

The only times I have had to blanket horses here, were in early Spring when it is still very cold out and the mares foaled and they sweated while in labor. I didn't want them to get a chill so I would blanket them in their stall for awhile until they dried off and warmed up. I also had a stallion come from Florida in September one year. It was not far enough in advance for him to "prepare" for our winters so I had to blanket him on and off that year. I had another stallion come from California in January one year, and I did keep him blanketed with a reall nice, heavy winter blanket and bought a polar fleece hood as well because they had head/necked him before they sent pics of him. He also did very well. Now this year, I have a riding horse coming from Georgia. I am waiting until March to get her home so that the wether will be a little warmer for her, and I have also bought her a blanket as it will already be in the 70s-80s down there, and come into the 30's here!

Common sense is needed, but they can easily endure 40 below!

 

[Knottymare]

How is thee situation in Australia now and is there anything we can do to help?

I am participating in the Crochet a Rainbow project. If you crochet, you can make squares, send them to the coordinator who will assemble the squares into blankets for flood victims.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Well, as one of the westerners on here (I'm in the northern interior of BC) I have to say first... we aren't seeing -40 here today in fact it is a balmy -15 right now lol. It may be that cold in parts of Alberta/Saskatchewan/ Manitoba today but not here. We do get those kinds of temps occasionally tho and my horses do just fine. They all have shelter from the wind but actually seem to prefer standing with their butts to the wind unless its wet too. Since they rarely allow themselves to get truly wet I don't see shivering from them for the most part. In bitter cold temps I always up their hay so they can chew all day long. They generate body heat digesting long fiber and that is pretty much all they require beyond the shelters and a nice thick winter coats. Now the horses in Australia are another matter and I too have been thinking of those who are in the flood zones. I sure hope mother nature decides to give them a break there.

 

[Riverrose28]

Regretfully the situation in Australia is getting worse, besides dealing with the flood waters now they are preparing for a cyclone! Some areas are being evacuated. We are expecting sleet tonight and heavy rain tomorrow, so I am hoping all of our ice melts, but I am dealing with some mud in several paddocks and I am sure after all the rain there will be more, but have to say it is nothing compared to what they are suffering in other places. Hope everyone stays safe and well.

 

[Relic]

Well in this part of Alberta we went from a hot -4C a few days ago and plunged down to -37C almost over night...the only bad thing is the going from high to low l find the temp change bothers me but the minis don't seem to have a problem with it..all are out there 24/7 didn't see any of them in sheds as there was no wind which is always good..the past few days they've had those pesky ice balls hanging from the eyes and under the chins but that'll melt of later today as we're suppose to get back to +4C by tomorrow...hot hot hot and time to get out the shorts and fire up the BBQ again...

l wouldn't trade the cold for flooding ever so very sad for those people and animals down under.

 

[Minimor]

Well, it’s not quite 40 below here today; this morning was ‘only’ -32C which is 26 below. However, there was a bit of wind so the windchill likely put it down to the 40 below. I know there was a windchill warninig out this morning. Regardless, our horses are outside as they always are. Most of them came outside to eat their hay. 3 or 4 of the geldings stayed in the shed so I fed them in there. This morning Jewell, who has taken to jumping back and forth over the pasture gate into the hay yard as she pleases, was out in the hay yard, standing in the middle of “her” round bale, eating hay. She was kind of in the open there, but wasn’t cold—no shivering. I took her a pail of warm water & gave her some oats and she was happy. If she wants she will jump back into the pasture later to get into the shed. Tonight when I got home from work half the mares were in the hay yard. The pasture fence is getting to be very low (thanks to 3' of snow on the level!) and I guess they walked out. When Timie saw me coming she jumped back into the pasture, and Frosty followed her. A few minutes later both of them were out again. I opened the gate & let them all out there!! That way tonight I didn't have to fork hay out for them, they could just help themselves off the round bales. Saved me some work, that's for sure! Right now most of them are back in their shed, out of the wind.

The horses will like it better when it warms up again, but they aren’t suffering any by not being inside in this weather. Me on the other hand...

For those that saw that news clip from Queensland, with those horses with their heads up on the metal roof looking like they wanted to climb onto the roof—those particular horses did get rescued. I felt so bad when I saw that news report, because I was sure that the horses would end up drowning. However, some fellows got a boat and went & led them to dry ground—they rescued the horses and several cattle (there was one cattle beast shown in that clip with the horses). The horses were all champion race horses; they had terrible injuries—serious cuts from the sharp edges of the metal roofing. A vet spent 5 hours treating them, free of charge, once they were rescued. If the infection can be kept away, the horses should recover. I haven’t heard since then how they are doing.

 

[ohmt]

It's pretty much been 20 to 50 below the past 2 weeks straight here in SE North Dakota. That's with wind chill though. We live in the red river valley which used to be a big lake bottom so it completely flat and the only trees we have are what farmers have planted for shelter belts. The wind is horrible.

Our stallions get put in at night when it drops to 20 below or colder. Our weanlings/yearlings and a few preggie mares that need extra feed have free run of the yard and barns. The rest of the mares have a big barn with 24/7 access. They go in there together when it gets too cold and they usually keep it a good 20 degrees warmer than outside just with their body heat. The barn cats love it! During the day though they all choose to be outside no matter how cold or blustery. We make sure they have extra calories and free choice hay. They stay very fat, fluffy, and healthy!

 

[Knottymare]

Do any of you blanket in the winter? Here in Western WA, I have always blanketed my large horses with a lightweight rain sheet during the rainiest times or they'd be wet 24/7 but Dolly seems to have a thick enough coat that the water doesn't penetrate to her skin. I want to clip her in the spring and I'm curious if she'll need a blanket for next winter.

 

[Mona]

Do any of you blanket in the winter? Here in Western WA, I have always blanketed my large horses with a lightweight rain sheet during the rainiest times or they'd be wet 24/7 but Dolly seems to have a thick enough coat that the water doesn't penetrate to her skin. I want to clip her in the spring and I'm curious if she'll need a blanket for next winter.

If you body clip in the Spring or Summer, your horse will easily grow back more than enough winter coat so they won;t need to be blanketed...at least that has been my experience here, and I have had horses here on occassion, clipped in early September and still grew enough winter coat where they didn;t have to be blanketed at all in the winter, and we are in the severely cold winter weather area! I wouldn;t recommend clipping that late, was just using that as an example, but Spring or Summer clips should never pose a problem for the following winter.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Your weather there in WA is different than here in the interior of BC for sure. Much wetter I think. The biggest risk is if your mini gets soaked to the skin from the constant rain it will be very difficult to get dry again, making them cold and risking rain scald. I'm not sure what most people do with minis in your area but I would sure have a light blanket available for use in case the rain refuses to let up. Then if it seems she is going to be a drowned rat you have the option of keeping her protected. On the very rare occasion I blanket a horse in winter tho I make it a point to give a thorough brushing when I remove it to re-fluff the coat so its insulating properties are restored.

 

[Knottymare]

Your weather there in WA is different than here in the interior of BC for sure. Much wetter I think. The biggest risk is if your mini gets soaked to the skin from the constant rain it will be very difficult to get dry again, making them cold and risking rain scald. I'm not sure what most people do with minis in your area but I would sure have a light blanket available for use in case the rain refuses to let up. Then if it seems she is going to be a drowned rat you have the option of keeping her protected. On the very rare occasion I blanket a horse in winter tho I make it a point to give a thorough brushing when I remove it to re-fluff the coat so its insulating properties are restored.

Good point, fluffing the coat. I pull the blankets and brush at least once a week no matter what the weather is like. Wish it was more often but with the big horses, it's a bit different. Dolly is easy to brush right in her stall so I brush her every day! I find that using really light weight rain sheets, my full sized horses still grow in their coats but at least can stay dry. We had a LOT of rain recently - rained for over a week straight. No time for a horse to dry out. My older mare's mane started smelling like a dirty fish tank! But, I can keep them from getting rain rot and have a rotation of blankets so they stay pretty clean, too...

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Yes, it pays to keep an eye on whats going on under the blankets. I find my minis do shed a lot of rain but if it keeps coming they will get soaked thro. I think you sound like you have the common sense that (was it Minimor or Mona) mentioned and can trust your gut.

 

[CCC]

we had a few pretty cold days here in New Brunswick last week

Our minis come in nights regardless of the weather, but our big horses stay out 24/7 unless it's really cold/windy/wet .

But those 2 days last week when it was really blustery and cold out, we put the big horses in and they even got blanketed one of the nights!

it was SOO cold! we also live on a ridge, where it is really windy with no wind break!

The big horses seemed a bit chilled the night we blanketed them, but the minis seemed happy and fine! They sure have better coats than the big horses!!