As always 'it depends'. I would never say 'blankets are bad', 'horses don't need blankets', I would say, 'it depends'.
Many people are used to horses that grow a very nice thick coat in winter, or horses that have lived in the same area all their lives. And to not working the horse hard most of the winter.
It takes a horse a year to 'synchronize' with a new location and grow a coat appropriate to those seasons. A horse brought to a new area that is much colder can really have problems and need blanketing the first year or first winter.
Then, some horses do not grow much coat. Imagine getting two horses of the same breed and one grows a good winter coat and one does not, been there done that. It is an individual thing.
Some horses just don't grow much coat and need blanketing. Too a horse say, with slightly low thyroid, will not grow a coat that keeps him warm. It may be quite long but not a dense and healthy coat still. The horse might be weak or out of condition or thin and not able to keep himself warm.
Then, there is your area. There are places where the temperature changes thirty or forty degrees in a day, where there are ice storms, sudden thaws and freezing. It is pretty hard for a horse to adjust to extreme temperature changes, ice and wet even if he lived there all his life. Getting completely soaked at 30 degrees and then having the temperature drop to ten or zero and the wind pick up to 30 mph, pretty hard on a horse, yes even if he has a good coat and is used to it.
Then there is your situation.
Going to come home and work the horse after work and have to leave him at night with a soaking wet long coat? Going to take him out on a fox hunt for hours of galloping and have him sopping wet with sweat from a long heavy coat during and after the hunt with no way to get him dry? Well.....
There are people for whom blanketing, even body clipping and blanketing is the best choice. Heavily blanketing from early fall to keep the coat from getting too long. Clipping 2-3 x during the winter. Yes, people do so and they have very good reasons.
Now what about the average pleasure horse owner? Owns a hardy breed that grows a long, thick plush coat. The individual animal is healthy, not ancient and goes into the winter with a good amount of 'condition' (fat) on it. Doesn't plan on working the horse hard to sweating during the winter. Horses are pastured and out much of the time and have a nice, tight shelter for severe weather. The owner is in charge of whether the horses go out or not or the staff at the boarding stable has common sense and won't leave them out in an ice storm or thunderstorm followed by blizzard. If it gets wet, icy or hales the horses will be in munching hay, or on a few days a year, out in a waterproof blanket, or will have enough hay (hay generates heat when eaten) and wind break out there and enough long coat and will weather it just fine. Well then you're looking at not having to blanket much at all.
Many people are used to horses that grow a very nice thick coat in winter, or horses that have lived in the same area all their lives. And to not working the horse hard most of the winter.
It takes a horse a year to 'synchronize' with a new location and grow a coat appropriate to those seasons. A horse brought to a new area that is much colder can really have problems and need blanketing the first year or first winter.
Then, some horses do not grow much coat. Imagine getting two horses of the same breed and one grows a good winter coat and one does not, been there done that. It is an individual thing.
Some horses just don't grow much coat and need blanketing. Too a horse say, with slightly low thyroid, will not grow a coat that keeps him warm. It may be quite long but not a dense and healthy coat still. The horse might be weak or out of condition or thin and not able to keep himself warm.
Then, there is your area. There are places where the temperature changes thirty or forty degrees in a day, where there are ice storms, sudden thaws and freezing. It is pretty hard for a horse to adjust to extreme temperature changes, ice and wet even if he lived there all his life. Getting completely soaked at 30 degrees and then having the temperature drop to ten or zero and the wind pick up to 30 mph, pretty hard on a horse, yes even if he has a good coat and is used to it.
Then there is your situation.
Going to come home and work the horse after work and have to leave him at night with a soaking wet long coat? Going to take him out on a fox hunt for hours of galloping and have him sopping wet with sweat from a long heavy coat during and after the hunt with no way to get him dry? Well.....
There are people for whom blanketing, even body clipping and blanketing is the best choice. Heavily blanketing from early fall to keep the coat from getting too long. Clipping 2-3 x during the winter. Yes, people do so and they have very good reasons.
Now what about the average pleasure horse owner? Owns a hardy breed that grows a long, thick plush coat. The individual animal is healthy, not ancient and goes into the winter with a good amount of 'condition' (fat) on it. Doesn't plan on working the horse hard to sweating during the winter. Horses are pastured and out much of the time and have a nice, tight shelter for severe weather. The owner is in charge of whether the horses go out or not or the staff at the boarding stable has common sense and won't leave them out in an ice storm or thunderstorm followed by blizzard. If it gets wet, icy or hales the horses will be in munching hay, or on a few days a year, out in a waterproof blanket, or will have enough hay (hay generates heat when eaten) and wind break out there and enough long coat and will weather it just fine. Well then you're looking at not having to blanket much at all.
