Winter blanket problem
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Minimor
Well-Known Member
What brands have you tried?
I have the Kensington Mini blankets and find that they fit really well.
Small size blankets made for big horse foals or true ponies do have that problem of being too long in the drop for the minis--it pays to get actual mini blankets
I have the Kensington Mini blankets and find that they fit really well.
Small size blankets made for big horse foals or true ponies do have that problem of being too long in the drop for the minis--it pays to get actual mini blankets
Rocklone Miniature Horses
past member -I gotta get a life...
When i first got my mini i went through the "omg no rugs fit" and for the life of me i could not find mini ones, but there are a few who do them. I'm UK so i can't help much from here, but just letting you know they do exist! lol
MajorClementine
Well-Known Member
I use the Dura-Tech brand for minis that Schinder Tack carries. I've never used any other brands for my minis. They have worked great for the last 5 years. They've held up well and wash well too. I like that the neck adjusts on both sides and it has a double buckle in the front.
Minimor
Well-Known Member
Really just even with the bottom of the belly.
If you are handy with a needle you can adjust the blankets you already have that are too long by sewing a hem along the bottom edges. If they are a heavy winter blanket use a large needle like an upholstery needle and dental floss for thread.
When I put fleece coolers on my minis, I keep them stable and unable to slip off by sewing a strap of fleece on each side at the mid belly and tie under the horse. I make sure they are not loose so that a rear leg cannot get caught. It can be reversed and the ties will be on the outside of the cooler and when tied under the belly the long sides are folded under the belly and are warmer while the horse is drying.
Schneiders miniature blankets are not too long, at least for my guys, mostly 30" to 33".
When I put fleece coolers on my minis, I keep them stable and unable to slip off by sewing a strap of fleece on each side at the mid belly and tie under the horse. I make sure they are not loose so that a rear leg cannot get caught. It can be reversed and the ties will be on the outside of the cooler and when tied under the belly the long sides are folded under the belly and are warmer while the horse is drying.
Schneiders miniature blankets are not too long, at least for my guys, mostly 30" to 33".
AngC
Well-Known Member
No blankets used here; I use their horsey-hairy-coats as an insulator. The benefit is that you don't have to "fit" their own hair to their bodies. The drawback is that in the spring (if you don't shave, which I don't) you have to brush, brush, brush. ...nasty business that; all that hair flying around getting in your nose.
always learning
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No blanket here either, just a lot of "elbow grease" in spring. Mine are stabled in winter and fed according to need. Last winter the barnyard had snow almost to Molly's back, and when I did put her out she'd jump around in it a bit and was ready to come in and be dusted off. I do have a 12x14 pen by the barnyard end that doubles as a (take turns) exercise area in winter.
This topic comes up every autumn - and unless your horse is sick, was recently body-clipped for show - the worst thing you can do for your horse is put a blanket on it. There is good HARD evidence to that fact. I live in northern Wisconsin, where 30 below zero is not all that uncommon. All of my horses are outside 24/7 with access to shelter, heated water. AND NO BLANKETS. Even when it is 30 below, you will see them walking around outside, sometimes with their backs covered with snow - and they could go inside if they wanted to! Here is an excellent article on why you are doing your horse a disservice if you blanket when it is healthy with a full coat: http://thesoulofahorse.com/blog/no-more-blankets-an-amazing-article/
Silver City Heritage Farmstead
Can't stop now (formerly Dragons Wish Farm)
Just as a house with snow on the roof usually means it's well-insulated, so it is with our horses. As long as I see snow with no shivering and normal activity and breathing I'm not concerned. Same thing with cold rain (which is more likely in NC) that is rolling off the back and dripping off the mane and tail.
Frankly, when I see mine covered in snow like that, calmly lipping up hay with ice-dripples on their whiskers, I feel the peace of the winter season.
Frankly, when I see mine covered in snow like that, calmly lipping up hay with ice-dripples on their whiskers, I feel the peace of the winter season.
paintponylvr
Well-Known Member
As minimor asked - which brands have you tried? You can call the stores that carry different brands and check to see how "long" their blankets are. That is called the "Drop", btw.
varies depending on the blanket. Really more important to have the fit correct from withers to chest. The drop will vary based on the width of a horse (actually, so will the fit from withers to chest). A wider horse takes up more of downward "drop" by raising it with his "roundness"...
We had a filly (mini sized Shetland) that was very sickly her first winter. I ordered MINI blankets for her based on her size (the ones stated by all companies will fit) and even got one that was somewhat custom fitted from chest to withers BUT they still did not fit her right and had a lot of "drop" (down to/past her knees). The longer drop at her haunches also meant that the watery feces soiled her blankets - and in below freezing weather it kept the blankets (layered) quite stiff as well as nasty. To make them fit better, I pulled them up at the withers and rolled a bit of hay into a ball & stuffed it into the blanket (on the inside and held by my hand on the outside and used haystring to wrap it from the outside. It holds better than pins and works great when you don't have any heavy duty pins handy. That shortened the length both from withers to chest AND the drop. Using hay meant that when she laid down, it was softer than a rock (what I've used in the past). This is a quick way to shorten the blanket when it doesn't have the adjustable straps on it like the blankets from Schneider's Tack does (the only place that I know of that has the adjustable straps up by the withers or 1/2 way down to the chest to adjust the fit from withers to chest).
Any pictures to show what's wrong with your blankets?
Strangeaddiction
Well-Known Member
Not really an answer for you but was wondering do most of you not blanket in the winter? How do you deal with keeping your mini's clean and from getting things like rain rot, fungus etc. I live in Washington and it's soggy here. With the mini's long coat they easily get "funk" unless I blanket. I stall my horses at night and they are turned out all day.
I have found Schneiders blankets work wonderful, the adjustable shoulders really help with the fit. Make sure you are getting, MINI blankets and not PONY. I have found they fit a lot different, especially in the length and shoulders
I have found Schneiders blankets work wonderful, the adjustable shoulders really help with the fit. Make sure you are getting, MINI blankets and not PONY. I have found they fit a lot different, especially in the length and shoulders
Minimor
Well-Known Member
I live in Manitoba....lots of COLD and usually our precipitation is snow rather than rain --rain rot is not an issue. I have only 2 that need help dealing with extreme cold. The rest go nekkid all winter.
chandab
Well-Known Member
Mostly dry cold here too, mostly snow, little rain in winter. I've not had rain rot.
Strangeaddiction
Well-Known Member
See it is always WET cold here, even when its snowing. I am always worried about pneumonia (was rampant last winter, lots of cases in my area) and rain rot...
paintponylvr
Well-Known Member
Ours have gotten rain rot while wearing blankets due to high humidity. I've had healthy horses get more rain rot while IN A BARN during hurricane season both with & w/o blankets. NC humidity causes condensation in barns creating lots of problems (and for some reason the barns here seem to all have solid walls, it blew me away cause i was used to each individual stall opening into either runs, paddock, alleys or large pastures) from June thru Sept (warm to miserably hot here). Just the heavy dew here during the early spring and late fall can cause rain rot. Seems to depend on the year. I owned an arab mare for 10 years. She was in great shape. Never had rain rot issues - even when she stood on her own outside in the worst weather. Then the year many of ours got rain rot, she did too - the only time she ever did. I spent more time that spring/summer doing fungicide bathing than anything else. We didn't have a lot of rain that summer but the humidity was terrible. If I remember right, we also had a lot of hoof problems that year (all ties into metabolism), too.
Personally, blanketing is like feeding. It's individual to the horse, the environment and what you are doing with that horse. Most times ours don't get blanketed, but I do have blankets (some are water resistant, some not), most aren't waterproof however, so would be a problem if really wet out there (which NC generally is). If a horse is healthy he is usually better off w/ being able to use his natural insulation of a fluffy coat w/ regular oils in it. Rolling in that mud will also (sometimes, you do have to watch) help - others it will cause the hair to pack down and become a problem. Show horses who have had their coats removed for showing, older horses or horses with metabolism problems (doesn't just mean old) may need not just one blanket, but several. THEN, someone also has to be around to remove those layers as the day warms up or to put more on thru the night if the temps really get bad... A horse who has his coat pressed flat by a blanket loses his natural fluff and insulation and if he then sweats and the temps drop - you will have one miserable, possibly very sick horse.
And NC does get snow - even here just a couple of hours from the coast - in the sand hills region.
AJ did wear a blanket. This was originally one of his daughter's blankets (larger than he is) and it's big, but better than nothing. He was 18 1/2 yrs old and first time w/ some issues. He is happier outside though. He had the blanket off during the day while the sun was shining, and put back on when the temps started dropping. With the prolonged cold, I used a sheet under it as well. He passed at 20 yrs of age. The 2nd pic is the same storm - the two pastures were back up under the trees (outside the fences) and the horses and the ponies stayed pretty dry and happy. They had access to the barn - which was open - and neither of these groups came in (normally they did not have access to the barn - gates were opened for access for the duration of these storms which strung out to about 2 weeks).
The biggest problem here is the fact that it often warms up after the snow lands and then refreezes into a solid sheet of ice. Doesn't happen every year, it had been 5 years since we'd had a previous storm similar to this one (more snow). We go every 5 yrs or so and get really heavy snow and ice. The year this one happened (2010/2011) - there were a lot of horses euthanized due to sliding on the ice (badly damaging tendons or breaking legs) or worse breaking thru the ice on a pond in our "neighborhood" (west end of our county). I sometimes bucketed water OUT to the ponies where they were in the pasture so that they weren't walking on sheet ice. Ours all did fine. NC literally closes down when the weather does this - pipes freeze/burst, power lines snap due to weight of ice or trees down on them, roads are "funny" (I think they are banked wrong) and so many people don't know how to deal with it - driving too fast and "skate" right off the roads. I was happy to have a job then that I could stay home when the weather was like this!
This was a problem for me after it froze back up. I fell more than once that winter - I tore muscles that took forever to heal.
I had one filly that I'd been keeping in the barn and led up to the pasture where those boot tracks are. She ended up getting switched to a different pasture for the duration until a full melt came. She was so light her hooves wouldn't even scratch the surface of that ice. After this pic, I took a tamper and broke the ice up where I walked, helped a little... When the melt came it was still really slick. That was the filly that was described in another post that we had a time with fitting blankets to. For a liner under the blanket, I used one of my own sweatshirts and put a tie in it to draw it up snug to her belly.
Personally, blanketing is like feeding. It's individual to the horse, the environment and what you are doing with that horse. Most times ours don't get blanketed, but I do have blankets (some are water resistant, some not), most aren't waterproof however, so would be a problem if really wet out there (which NC generally is). If a horse is healthy he is usually better off w/ being able to use his natural insulation of a fluffy coat w/ regular oils in it. Rolling in that mud will also (sometimes, you do have to watch) help - others it will cause the hair to pack down and become a problem. Show horses who have had their coats removed for showing, older horses or horses with metabolism problems (doesn't just mean old) may need not just one blanket, but several. THEN, someone also has to be around to remove those layers as the day warms up or to put more on thru the night if the temps really get bad... A horse who has his coat pressed flat by a blanket loses his natural fluff and insulation and if he then sweats and the temps drop - you will have one miserable, possibly very sick horse.
And NC does get snow - even here just a couple of hours from the coast - in the sand hills region.
AJ did wear a blanket. This was originally one of his daughter's blankets (larger than he is) and it's big, but better than nothing. He was 18 1/2 yrs old and first time w/ some issues. He is happier outside though. He had the blanket off during the day while the sun was shining, and put back on when the temps started dropping. With the prolonged cold, I used a sheet under it as well. He passed at 20 yrs of age. The 2nd pic is the same storm - the two pastures were back up under the trees (outside the fences) and the horses and the ponies stayed pretty dry and happy. They had access to the barn - which was open - and neither of these groups came in (normally they did not have access to the barn - gates were opened for access for the duration of these storms which strung out to about 2 weeks).
The biggest problem here is the fact that it often warms up after the snow lands and then refreezes into a solid sheet of ice. Doesn't happen every year, it had been 5 years since we'd had a previous storm similar to this one (more snow). We go every 5 yrs or so and get really heavy snow and ice. The year this one happened (2010/2011) - there were a lot of horses euthanized due to sliding on the ice (badly damaging tendons or breaking legs) or worse breaking thru the ice on a pond in our "neighborhood" (west end of our county). I sometimes bucketed water OUT to the ponies where they were in the pasture so that they weren't walking on sheet ice. Ours all did fine. NC literally closes down when the weather does this - pipes freeze/burst, power lines snap due to weight of ice or trees down on them, roads are "funny" (I think they are banked wrong) and so many people don't know how to deal with it - driving too fast and "skate" right off the roads. I was happy to have a job then that I could stay home when the weather was like this!
This was a problem for me after it froze back up. I fell more than once that winter - I tore muscles that took forever to heal.
I had one filly that I'd been keeping in the barn and led up to the pasture where those boot tracks are. She ended up getting switched to a different pasture for the duration until a full melt came. She was so light her hooves wouldn't even scratch the surface of that ice. After this pic, I took a tamper and broke the ice up where I walked, helped a little... When the melt came it was still really slick. That was the filly that was described in another post that we had a time with fitting blankets to. For a liner under the blanket, I used one of my own sweatshirts and put a tie in it to draw it up snug to her belly.
