Wild Woollies

I tried something "new" with Willie this year.  I left him (mostly) unclipped, and as he's tried to do every winter I've had him, he grew a nice, extra-plush coat, some 2-3" long.  When I clip I usually do so to keep him more comfortable, so he doesn't overheat when worked and then take hours (literally, hours) to dry off completely.

You can't take away a horse's natural insulation without replacing it, and that means blankets. Even with a horse that can technically keep himself warm, I found that blankets help SO MUCH in keeping them clean -- an extra-thick winter coat holds the dirt and grime like no other, and a coat that gets soaked to the skin and/or completely caked with mud cannot insulate a horse as well as a dry, fluffy one.  Willie, as we all know by now, is also a bit of a princess and pretty much breaks out in hives when the wind changes direction.

Even so, I recently decided to try leaving him unblanketed for the first time in years. Since his workload has lightened considerably, he's no longer doing anything to work up enough of a sweat to worry about overheating or finding a hair dryer to bring to the barn.  Since I didn't clip him, he technically doesn't need a blanket to keep warm.  When I tuck him in for the night, he's got piles and piles of hay, a shed, a heated water tub, and a giant Moose to use as a mobile windblock, the combination of which (Moose jokes aside) is enough to keep most healthy horses quite comfortable in the winters here.

This has been a tough process for me, since, well, he's my baby, and I've been clipping and/or heavily blanketing him for the last three or four winters.  The last few have been wet and/or bitterly cold right off the bat, and I found that even with most of his hair intact and several blankets, he was really, really cold at night and had to be stalled out of the elements.  This year, we've been lucky enough to have mostly dry and cold-but-bearable weather.  So far, Willie has been comfortable au naturale even as the temps sink into the low 20s.

It isn't like I just took off his blanket in the freezing cold one day, though; when the temps hit 60, his blankets all came off, and as it slowly got cooler again, I kept putting off the blankets while I toyed with the idea, until suddenly it was below freezing and he was greeting me with perky, happy, WARM ears in the mornings.  I have upped his grain by another 1/2 lb per feeding to make up for the extra calories he's burning just regulating his body temperature.  He had been maintaining his weight well, but I didn't want that to change.  If he gains or loses noticeably we'll adjust again.

When the forecast calls for steady freezing rain or heavy snow, I do think I'll keep blanketing him, but as long as he seems happy, he can stay naked for now.  Other than needing some hand-holding on the really cold nights, I just need to come to terms with the fact that my fuzzy old pony's coat will not really sparkle until spring rolls around -- I curry the snot out of him on a daily basis, but there's just no way to get all the dust and dirt out of all that hair without washing or vacuuming.

How Willie looks before grooming...

How the floor looks after.

But he's handling it well, and that's what matters.

I just have to keep telling myself that... ;)