My horses refuse to remain inside in wet windy weather and the one gets to shivering. Blanketing him is out. I got to thinking.......I'm wondering if a person gave the horse a good spraying with show sheen if it would help repel water since it contains silicone. What do you think?
hmmmm thats a good question, I would say it might help repel water, but it might make it harder for him to fluff up his fur to retain heat if the silicone weighs it down....which wouldn't help the shivering issue.
Can you feed large amounts of good grass hay in the shelter? When my mare lived at home with me she also had the choice of going in or out and would sometimes make poor choices and stand out in the rain or snow and get to shivering. I solved that by feeding free choice grass hay in her stall so she would stay in most of the time and dry off. Additionally, the continual fermentation of the hay in the hindgut is the horses natural internal heat source. If you have more than one horse, just put enough out for both. That method of feeding is safe and effective for most horses during the cold months.
I put hay in there three weeks ago and it's still there. They went in grabbed a mouthful and left. We had wind and fine wet snow today and he wasn't shivering so I didn't try the spray. His coat is a little thicker than it was three weeks ago when it was wind and rain. Blanketing, some horses consider a blanket fair game to relieve their boredom. They are too expensive to be replaced every few days.
So you must not regularly feed them in there unless you are saying they have not eaten at all in three weeks. Why not feed them in there all the time so they get used to eating in their shelter?
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