if wet especially it can be really hard on > them.
In my years in horses, at different times, I have used 4 vets consistently and everyone one of them has said that they have more clients that make their horses sick by keeping them too warm than too cold. I do think when they are wet, though, that does change the situation. Of course, the ponies don't get wet down to the skin from rain or snow - it's only when they sweat from exertion. The only horse we ever owned that needed a blanket was our Polish Warmblood and he just didn't have a coat hardly at all - even in the worst of winters. We blanketed him but we weren't as riduculous as his previous owner. When he came to us she sent him with a full page of instructions on the different blanket combinations he needed in 5 degree temperature increments. She bred him and had him his entire life until we got him and I have to wonder if by starting him out this way, that she didn't create this - we will never know. -- Laree in NC Doppa & Mura Simon, Sadie and Sam (the "S" gang) "Yet when all the books have been read and reread, it boils down to the horse, his human companion, and what goes on between them." - William Farley
