:My Horse Blankets

Many different kinds of horse blankets and horse sheets are available on the market today. If you own a horse, knowing what options are available is useful. The information can help you to (a) decide if blanketing your horse is necessary and, should you decide to use blankets, it will (b) help you make the appropriate choice for your individual horse. The various types of horse blankets on the market today can provide protection against cold temperatures, wind, rain and snow, but also shield your horse from dirt, manure, mud and insect bites. Whether you blanket your horse or not depends, of course, on your animal’s individual circumstances. This overview may help you evaluate your horse’s situation in light of available blanket choices.

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If you plan to blanket your horse, make sure to measure it correctly. A blanket that is correctly fitted should fit comfortably across the horse’s shoulders. A blanket that is either too big or too small can cause several problems, the most common of which are:

1. Rubbing: If the blanket (and therefore the leg straps) is too small and tight, it will cause a lot of rubbing across the animal’s shoulders and withers when the horse moves or reaches down to graze. This may lead to skin abrasions and blisters or sores. If the horse’s blanket doesn’t reach from the center of its chest all the way to the top of its tail, you need a bigger size.

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The key to successful horse handling and horsemanship is not how much you know about training techniques, but whether you have trained YOURSELF in how to communicate with your horses. It’s up to the horseman to understand the horse’s behavior, and not vice versa. This is the one most important pre-requisites to handling a horse. Unless you understand your horse’s psychology, expertise and knowledge of riding and training techniques, however extensive, will produce very poor results – or none at all.

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Cold weather is here and many horse owners are about to, or already have, blanketed their horses. The practical advice concerning proper care and maintenance presented in this article should help both novices and veteran equestrians to extend the lifetime of their horse blanket(s).

Cleaning Horse Blankets:

1. Although it can been done, washing a horse blanket in your home washer is not recommended because of the considerable amount of dirt, horse hair and manure embedded in most horse blankets after a whole season of use. The sheer bulk of heavier horse blankets also means that your washing machine won’t function properly and your horse blanket won’t be thoroughly cleaned.

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What color is a horse? The words for a horse’s coat color have very specific meanings.

A bay horse has a body coat that is a shade of brown with black legs, mane, and tail. Within the bay group, there are blood bays which is a more dark reddish shade of brown and bright bays which can look a golden brown. There are also black bays, which might appear to most people as a black horse. Truly black horses are a more rare color. Most horses that you might think look black are black bays, which is a very dark brown. You will see lighter colored hair between the hind legs and tummy area and around the muzzle. This makes them black bays instead of black horses. People also call this seal brown.

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Many of us are happy to allow our horses to ‘go barefoot’. We see the benefits of a more natural program. We don’t like pounding nails into the hoof every 6 weeks. We understand that metal may not be the best composite to secure live tissue. Shoeing is expensive and good farriers require excessive love and adoration, but what choice do we have? If we consider pulling the shoes, our horses may well be lame. Then when we put the shoes back on, he trots off happily. What is the difference? How can some horses go successfully barefoot and others have no end of trouble?

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Running away, like all other habits, is caused by improper and careless handling. It only takes three or four experiences of this kind to make a horse unsafe to drive, ride or work. The driver is never sure whether he will get back with the whole rig or not. This is not the only bad feature of having a runaway horse, for the driver never knows when he will be thrown out, in making a quick turn, or running over some sort of an obstruction and either badly shaken up, or, possibly crippled for life. I would rather risk my life behind a kicker or shyer any day, than behind a runaway before he has been properly subdued and with no means of control except the lines.

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