Winter is officially upon all of us and I wanted to take this time to have a reminder for horse owners and extra education for new horse owners who are going through their first winter!

Here are some basic Do's and Don'ts of blanketing. These mainly deal with safety of your horse and the fit of the blanket.

In addition to these items, here are some of my tips and tricks and opinions for blankets:

• I prefer the clips on the chest rather than buckles. This is mainly for practicality reasons, as clips are much easier to attach and disengage when you are changing multiple blankets. Buckles take much longer.
• I prefer not to leave the chest hooked up and just put on or take off the blanket by sliding it over their head. Even though most horses will stand nicely for it (or you can teach them to do so), I just view it as a safety hazard if they were ever to spook while you are mid-sliding it over their head and they are blind and you are standing directly in front and somewhat underneath them. I would rather take the couple of seconds to unhook and rehook up the chest closure (see point above about liking clips!)
• I have found the easiest way to take off a blanket is to fold the hood back (if applicable), then fold the front half of the blanket back onto the back half. Then you remove it from there, keeping it folded as such. This makes it 10x easier to then set this back onto them, then unfold the front half onto the front. No more struggling with direction and crookedness and whatnot! This also makes it easy to hang up. (Although this may be easier for me to do since I'm tall!)
• I have a hatred for the tail cord blankets. I will take a blanket with leg straps all day every day. In my opinion, the tail cord does nothing to keep the blanket from twisting (while the leg straps do), and it also just gets pooped on all the time. 
• I also prefer the hoods that get attached with velcro versus the hoods that get attached with clips. Velcro helps seal and keep the hood closer to the blanket, as well as keep it from twisting. The clip-on hoods can twist and also are much looser against the blanket, meaning there is more cold air flowing through the hood.

Stay safe and warm!