150 Winter blanketing practices: An online survey of North American horse owners

Abstract

Blanketing is a highly debated practice utilized in the equine community as part of winter horse management. Despite this, little research is available on the prevalence, reasoning, and management decisions relating to the utilization of blankets for horses in North America. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to explore the blanketing management practices and the associated opinions and beliefs of respondents via an online survey. A 33-question branched survey was developed and available between December 1, 2020 and January 5, 2021 and advertised using social media and e-newsletters. When comparisons were made between participant-reported frequencies, the FREQ procedure for Chi-squared analysis in SAS was used. There were 1,693 participants who started the survey and the final completion rate was 86%. As a result, data was collected from 1,450 North American respondents. Demographic information indicated the majority of respondents were from the Midwest region of the United States (68%). However, geographical region did not impact the frequency of blanket usage ( P = 0.17, X 2 = 8.99). When respondents were asked to self-report discipline, recreational riding was the most prevalent (40%), followed by Western (22%), English (20%), other (14%), and non-riding disciplines (4%). Differences in blanket usage across disciplines were detected ( P ≤ 0.001, X 2 = 124.11) and blanketing was more common in English disciplines while nonblanketing was more common for those participating in recreational riding. Overall, 54% of respondents (n = 790) reported blanket use on the majority of their horses during the winter. The most frequently selected reason respondents chose to blanket horses was exposure to precipitation (78%). Out of the respondents who did not blanket the majority of their horses (n = 660), the primary reason for not blanketing was access to shelter (50%). For non-blanketed horses receiving outdoor turnout (n = 657), 84% had access to manmade shelters while 6% had no shelter access. This survey provides valuable information on blanketing and winter management practices reported by horse caretakers in North America, yet more research is required to evaluate the impacts of blanketing on horse welfare.