Its about 30 below with wind chill here, I am keeping my minis in in this temp, their not happy but don't want them to get sick. How many of you keep yours in with the temps like this?
Sue, it's -20 celcius here right now with a projection of -26 celcius tonight. I kept them in, my full size horses and minis in till around noon and I had to let them out. Shery, the 30 year old arabian was kicking her walls in protest of being stuck inside, crazy old girl. Now I am looking outside and my full size horses, which includes my 30 year old arabian (she is blanketed) have chosen to be outside. They all have hay in their stalls and of course hay outside. The minis chose to come back in, they can come in and out of the barn as they please. The full size horses, they also have that choice have chosen to stay out. Oh, okay, Jagger, my little stud colt decided to come out as well. The way my set-up is, they have the option of either staying out and eating or going to their lean-to and eating or coming in and eating. I find they know what is best for them. Now tonight of course I will be bringing them ALL in, they won't have an option. I will play it by ear as they say tomorrow morning but since I am at work all day and don't have control as when I am home, they will all be staying in. I am just thankful that all that whack of swow we had a few weeks ago ALL DISAPPEARED when we had temps of 15 celcius (around 50 degrees) so now it can snow all it wants but it's too cold at these temps to get snow. I find when we have snow on the ground in these temps it helps to make the cold more tolerable. When my entire crew is in and in the barn they heat up the barn pretty good with their body temperature. My barn cats are all in but have the choice to go in or out, but they are all in their own room with heat lamps and it's quite toasty warm in there, with their beds.
. Now my ducks have their own house, "Duckingham" palace and I worry about them tonight, in the -26 celcius temps but I have added hay bedding so they can hunker down and their house is insulated big time so I know they will be fine.
Not us! Here it's -35C (30 below for those on the fahrenheit scale) and with the windchill it's -45 (which is 45 below, doesn't matter which scale you use when it's that cold!!) and our horses are all outside. All have run-in sheds to use, so they can get out of the wind--no one (except me!) is cold. All are comfortable & healthy, and I have no worries at all about anyone getting sick because of the cold temperatures.
For those of you who don't understand this kind of cold, you would be very surprised how much horses seem to love the colder weather. Don't forget they have natural "coats" on them. They certainly seem to do better in this kind of weather and temps than they do in the heat and humidity of the summer. In the summer when it reaches 95 degrees farenheit and above and hot and sticky humid they absolutely hate it, they are then for sure looking to come in, especially from the nasty bugs that come along with that kind of temp. I think it's more us humans that don't enjoy the cold weather, lol, they seem to love it. Perhaps in my next life time I should come back as a horse
It;s not "cold weather" that chills a horse, its "the wind". If they have shelter or it's not windy, they do just fine and it's much healthier for them than being cooped up in a barn, you have less "breathing issues" in the long run.
