Winter horse care need not be a challenge if you remember two key things.

The first thing to remember about winter horse care is that horses easily get dehydrated in winter, but getting them to drink can be a tricky business. Imagine you've just finished a horse training or horse riding session on a cold winter day. Your horse worked up a sweat. Should you now give him warm water or cold water to drink? Or your horse spends a lot of time in a pasture or stall in winter. How do you know she's drinking enough water to stay hydrated? Here’s what the research says.

The second thing you must consider is that horses burn an enormous number of calories in winter just to keep warm. This means you have to either heat your barn (expensive!), dramatically increase their food rations (expensive!), or blanket them to help them stay warm (much cheaper!)

Maybe you're not convinced that blanketing is necessary. After all, who blankets wild horses? Here are the pros and cons of horse blanketing in winter, according to the pros. But don't just take their word for it. Here are 4 reasons why blanketing is a good idea.

If you're convinced now that blanketing is an important component of basic horse care, you're probably wondering what is the best horse blanket for your horse. There are dozens of horse blankets on the market that promise to give the best in horse care and vital protection for horses in horse training. Here are 5 factors you must consider when choosing and using a blanket for your horse. Return to basic horse care from winter horse care