The Big Blanket Debate

Sooooo.... My gelding was blanketed his whole till we got him. I have noticed that he does not grown in a good winter coat so me and my mom decided we are going to starting blanketing him in the winter. It took a lot of convincing to my mom, like showing her Indiana is having a terrible winter, Ben has been shivering in the past, ect. I have a blanket that went on my old horse but is 10 sizes to small, but I loved it. He is really rough on stuff so I don't want him in the middle of winter to rip it and I just wasted $100. Price is not really a problem, when it comes to my horse I don't really care what it costs. So here are my questions!!


You may need to know some things before answering though...
Ben is a quarter horse, blanketed for 10 years before I got him. Does not grow in a supper fluffy coat. Goes out 7 hours a day. Sometimes gets wet in the winter. I live 5 min from the barn so layers is okay but not preferred. His barn is pretty drafty. Money is somewhat of a problem, but I have lots of models I could sell to pay for it (duh!!). I live in Indiana, which if you don't know can be bio-polar (no offense to any one!) with its weather. Typically we get lots of snow, cold, windy, and sleeting.

1- Should I let him grown in a little bit of his coat then put a meduim/heavy on him?
2- Should I let him grown in most of his coat then just put a sheet on him?
3- Should I let him grow in NONE of it and buy a couple of layers?

You may ask, why are you even thinking of blanketing?
Well at my barn almost everyone blankets, and two if it is not snowing when they are put out then they arnt coming in till 6 whether or not it rains, snows or shines! (some times it is different with the temps drop, sever wind) but anyway I don't like my horse getting cold! So whatever he gets will be water proof.

4- If I let him grow in NONE of his coat do I have to put a hood on him? I would prefer not to so if a hood is a must then I will let him grow in some of the hair.


5- So say I let him grow in some of his coat, but not a lot, should I a fleece coat, a stable blanket, and a light water proof sheet for layers or just buy a medium water proof and a fleece coat? Or a water proof blanket, medium, and a stable blanket?



I hope you guys can answer my questions, also if you don't mind me PMing you please do say that as I have many more questions! Any Google just isn't helping!

THANK YOU A THOUSAND TIMES OVER!

We have the same wacky weather in CO and my friend and I (my horse is boarded at her place) blanket everyone.

Then younger horses who regulate temp better have a rain sheet and a medium weight blanket. The older horses have a medium and a heavy blanket.

We leave them as-is until they get cold. So if an oldie starts shivering at 30 degrees, out comes her blanky but the rest who are standing around going "ahh, nice weather" stay naked.

The only exception is if we get a freezing, sleety rain and then either everyone stays in the barn or the youngsters get rain sheets and the others their medium-weights.

For the most part, the oldies get blankets at 30degrees and the youngsters sheets (because of the WIND here) and then we change everyone to the next weight at zero degrees.

We don't bother with stable blankets. Too much of a hassle since they cannot go outside in them. Everyone has a turnout blanket and a spare, so as they are coming in at night if the blanket got at all wet, we change them and hang up the other to dry.

If it warms up, we yank all the blankets/sheets. Not unusual for my friend to blanket everyone in the morning and then by noon I am out there yanking them all off.

Thank you very much! I can't go out during the day if it gets to warm.... so should I buy a medium, a fleece, and a sheet. So I can accmoate accordingly?