Showmanship Grooming
 

I am currently getting my horse ready for our first show season next year and am blanket shopping. I want to get a winter blanket to put on him so he will shed out faster for showmanship should I get a midweight, heavyweight, lightweight or all three I live in minnesota too btw.

Are you planning on putting him under lights?

The length of the "day" is what cues a horse to start shedding his coat, not the blankets you have on him.

I'd say the heavier the better, especially if it gets real cold!

Spurstop is 100% right. I would put him under heat lamps and a lightweight sheet, if it gets -really- cold wherever you are at in the winter :)

i read that if they already grew a coat the lamps wouldn't make it shed faster. Something about starting on the first of August... Is this true? I blanket my gelding 24/7. during the winter in florida. if it's in the 70's he wears a sheet. I think it helps allot.

We start ours before the fall equinox. Lights are on a timer. My horse is brought in around 4:30, so that's when her light comes on and it goes off at 10:30. She's also blanketed when it gets cold because she doesn't have a winter coat.

60s = sheet
50s = blanket
40s & below = sheet and blanket

Blanketing alone doesn't have an effect on the amount of coat a horse grows. Some horses don't grow much of a winter coat and some are puffballs.