It is now halfway through October. If you live in the northern part of the USA you have probably noticed a drop in the temperature (although as I write this it is an unusually bright and sunny 71 degrees). The nights are getting chilly. The grass is frosted over in the morning. The flies have all but disappeared (can I hear a big HALLELUJAH?!). The horses are starting to get fuzzy. It is fall. Two days ago I spent several hours searching through the attic of my barn top apartment, digging around various trunks, and looking in the back of trucks to round up the barn’s supply of winter blankets. Naturally not a single blanket was labeled, nor was there any type of handy dandy chart to tell me what size belonged to what horse. None of the blankets were organized (heavy weights were mixed in with sheets, 78” nestled up against 62”) and none were folded. Thanks, last barn manager. Thanks a lot.
Eventually I found every blanket I could find and dumped them in a pile in the middle of the barn. I then spent several more hours sizing every horse and separating the blankets in different piles depending on their weight and size. When it was all said and done every one of the ten horses had a rain sheet, stable sheet, and medium/heavyweight. The blankets are now labeled and folded neatly on the blanket bars awaiting the temperature to dip a few more degrees.
Someone asked me the other day what blanket she should buy for her horse. She showed me a blanket she had found online that was not at all suitable and I gave her my opinion on what would work best. I don’t know if she ended up buying the blanket she had initially picked out or not. I hope for the sake of her horse it’s not, but I am in no way surprised she asked me the question.
Blankets are confusing. After all, they take up at least 20 pages of every horse sale catalog. You have fleece blankets. Cooler blankets. Stable sheets. Rain sheets. Medium weight. Heavy weight. Grand weight supreme. 600 Denier. 1200 Denier. Ultimate rip stop. Buckle enclosure. Leg straps. Tail straps. No straps. Rain proof. Wind proof. The list goes on… and on… and on.
To understand blankets, you have to have a basic blanket vocabulary.
Denier: This refers, in the most basic of definitions, to the “toughness” of your blanket. The higher the denier the less likely your blanket is to rip, tear, etc. The higher the denier the more expensive the blanket. What level of denier you get is up to you. I can squeak by with a 600 denier for all of Darwin’s blankets because he isn’t rough on them. Poppy on the other hand needs 1200 denier or I would be replacing her blankets every year (a lesson I learned the hard way last winter).
Fill: This term refers to the “weight” of your blanket. Fill is measured in grams. The higher the amount, the warmer the blanket. Fill can run the gamut from 150 grams all the way up to 400. It is very important that you pay attention to the amount of fill when you purchase a blanket. Blankets that are “no fill” do not have any extra insulation and are referred to as sheets.
Stable Sheet: This blanket has no fill, is not waterproof, and has low denier (if it has any at all). A stable sheet is not intended for warmth, but is great for keeping your horse clean before and during a show, clinic, or event.
Stable Blanket: This blanket is not waterproof, typically has a low denier and comes in varying degrees of fill. It is not intended to be worn outside by itself. Stable blankets are great for layering under waterproof blankets and sheets or for just keeping your horse cozy while they are in their stall at night. The picture on the left is an example of what NOT to do. Ignoring the fact that the horse is behind barbed wire (people's stupidity never fails to astound me) you see that this horse has been turned out in a stable blanket that is well on its way to twisting all the way around and already has a rip on the left chest area. The highly intelligent owner of this horse has also failed to criss cross the belly straps, making it very easy for this unfortunate horse to get a hoof caught. Blanketing FAIL. Turnout Sheet: The turnout sheet has no fill and the denier varies by price. It is waterproof. Think of this blanket as a windbreaker. It won’t keep you warm in the winter, but it is great to have during the chilly fall before it really turns cold and for rainy spring days.
Medium Weight Blanket: This blanket is water proof and generally has a fill count between 100 and 250. It should keep your horse warm in all but the coldest of weather. As always, denier count varies depending on price.
Heavy Weight Blanket: The heavy weight blanket is generally between 300 and 400 grams of fill. These blankets are best suited for freezing cold temperatures or horses who have been clipped and no longer have their natural hair to protect them. Think of the biggest snowman looking parka you could wear and you’ll have some idea of how warm the heavy blanket can be. A heavy weight worked out great for me last year when I body clipped Poppy completely. I bought this blanket online for $75. I can't even remember the brand name - Big D, maybe? - but I really lucked out. It did sustain a few rips that needed to be fixed, but after being worn by a 1,400lb moose all winter I think it faired pretty well. Here is Poppy taking a snooze in her heavyweight. She really liked it. 
I won’t go into coolers and fly sheets and irish knits here. Two of those are for summer and if you have questions about coolers you can ask them in the comments (which are being kinda funky, but if you click submit a bunch of times it should eventually post… sorry about that, blogspot is weird with the comments). I do have three blanket rules which I believe every person who is going to blanket their horse should strictly adhere to. 1) Once you begin blanketing, you must continue. When you blanket your horse will not grow as thick a winter coat as they would normally, which means you can’t get tired of changing blankets halfway through January and decide to take them off all together.
2) Change your blankets according to the weather. If you have your horse in a heavyweight because the temperature has been subzero but all of sudden it skyrockets into the 40’s, you cannot leave the heavyweight on. You, or someone you trust (a barn manager, barn owner, friend, groom, etc) must put on a lighter blanket. Likewise if your horse is in a lightweight and it’s supposed to get down to -10 overnight, a heavier fill blanket is in order. The best thing to do is to have a “temperature chart” stuck to your stall especially if you are a boarder and are relying on other people to change your blankets for you. My personal temperature chart goes kinda something like this (aka I just made this up in my head and still have to dig out my real temp chart from the bottom of my trunk):
55 and up: no blankets
54 to 45 and/or rain: turnout sheet
44 to 35: turnout sheet during the day, stable blanket at night
34 to 15: medium weight
15 and under: medium weight over stable blanket
Make a plan and stick to it. Just like you wouldn’t go out in 10 degree weather without a heavy jacket on, your horse doesn’t want to sit in a cold stall all night with nothing more than turnout sheet.
3) Look at your real horse once in a while. Believe it or not, some people stick a blanket on their horses and don’t see what is going on underneath until four or five months later. Don’t let this be you. Ideally your horse should be checked daily for blanket rubs, skin irritation, proper fit (belly straps do come undone or twist or loosen), and body condition. Horses lose weight in the winter. Horses can easily hide that loss of weight under a big bulky blanket. Solution: look under the blanket.
Hopefully this long, drawn out post has answered some of your questions about blanketing. If you’re wondering what I use on my own horses, consult the temp chart above (just remember the actual temperatures aren’t quite right). Darwin and Poppy each have a rain sheet, a stable blanket, and a medium weight. The stable + medium = heavyweight and the rain sheet can double as a stable sheet for shows. If I had tons of money I would have six different blankets instead of three, but we do what we can. And lets face it, since I will be the one changing the blankets three is a heck of a lot easier than six. Please keep that in mind when you give your barn manager your blanket instructions.
Darwin & Harry at their old barn in lightweight sheets.
Monday – Lounge walk/trot ten minutes each direction
3) A day at the spa. For the most part, bathes go by the wayside during the cold winter months and under his blankets and hairy fur, your horse is dirty. When you know you’re going to get a stretch of warm weather, get out the hose, your horse shampoo, and wash that horse. Scrub his mane, his tail, and his legs. When he dries off (or before) trim up that hairy moustache he’s been styling. If you’ve been letting it lax, pull the mane and bang the tail. By the time you’re done you won’t recognize the new, shiny horse that has been disguising himself as a wooly mammoth all winter.