How do you handle extreme weather with your horse?

Hi everyone,
It's freezing and miserable where I live and I know for members in Australia, it's really hot right now.
How do you handle extreme cold and extreme heat with your horse? How long do you turn out for? How long do you ride? Do you alter the feed in any way?
Is is kinder and more "natural" to leave the horse out for hours at a time in extreme weather, or to leave them in the stall for hours at a time, without their normal turn-out?

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Permalink Reply by Jan Jollymour on August 9, 2009 at 10:15am

Right now our big challenge is smoke from the 100's of wildfires burning in BC. The worst of the heat has broken, we're at about 30 degrees during the days, and around 15 degrees at night, so it's quite workable, but the smoke is something else.

My personal challenge yesterday was to not work anyone in the smoke! We have massive fires around us, and we live, as most people in BC do, in a valley, where the smoke collects. If we wish for wind, which clears the smoke, it fans the fires, which creates more danger/more smoke. We are all praying for rain, but there's not much in the forecast for the next 16 days.

Our horses are eating and drinking well, and consistently holding their weight, but the respiratory problems are on the upswing as a result of the smoke...

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Permalink Reply by Fiona Hill on August 9, 2009 at 11:41am

My horse is at a livery yard (boarding) so he has to go with whatever is on offer and the routine there. In the winter he is kept in a stable at night and turned out during the day whatever the weather with a group of four or five others and they eat from a big round bale of haylage all day - well he does, he spends most of his time keeping the others away from the haylage! Right now as it's summer he is out 24 hours with a herd of about 8 other horses in a huge field with lots of natural rocks for shelter. He lives by the sea so the weather can change pretty quickly and it's often quite windy, which keeps the temperature down and reduces the number of flies. That said, there is often not much natural shelter in the other fields so the horses need rugs every day in the winter.

If I had my own place I would have my horses out 24 hours with the option for them to decide to come into a barn or shelter when the weather got bad. I do believe we should keep them as naturally as possible and I think we often want to wrap them up unnecessarily because we think it's what they want! That said - I know some horses love living out and some just want to stay wrapped up in their stable, wearing rugs and being 'pampered'!

I can't imagine living somewhere with huge extremes of temperature and I'd be terrified of living somewhere where wild fires were burning. What a worry that must be. :-s

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Permalink Reply by Lynsey Steinberg on August 11, 2009 at 11:13am

I'm currently at two barns and we get both heat and snow.

One of the barns keeps the horses out 24/7. They only will come in to eat every once in a while if it's too hot or too cold. They stay out in bad weather as well... however, they don't have run in sheds. Something I'm not completely happy about. But they are much happier being outside. If it's too hot they stay inside for the day away from the bugs and then go outside at night.

The other farm brings in horses twice a day for feeding and certain horses will stay in just at night or just during the day. If extreme weather they always come in. However they do have run in sheds.

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Permalink Reply by Lori Tankel on August 12, 2009 at 11:31am

In Florida, in the summer, it is HOT and we have horrible lightning storms daily (a few in the past weeks have averaged 550 strikes PER MINUTE!). So mine are in during the day with fans blowing on them. They go outside all night long, weather permitting..usually our storms are done with by evening.