Ok Stupid question time

My_chestnut_mare

My_chestnut_mare

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Do horses lay down in the snow?

What a frigging stupid question.

But my friends horse has seemingly got hypothermia(how vets can diagnose with out looking at him i have no idea). Said friend had phoned the vet as she had got a phone call from the person where she keeps her horse to say her big retired 17.2 had collapsed in the field on an embankment bum up head down at bottom. She got him up and put him in stable.
I asked her how did the vets know he had hypothermia(with out stating the obvious) she said there was a mark where he had been lying down the staggering feet prints to where he collapsed.

so now im wondering if they do lay down as mine have been and they are out and i dont want them getting it(although they are rugged up).But then so was hers.
 
Ours lie down in the snow sometimes. They are well rugged and have tummies full of hay. I don't worry about it!

ETA I don't expect it was the lying down in snow that made him ill IYSWIM - sounds like there was something else that made him unable to get up . Sure yours will be fine
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Lucy rolls in the snow all the time. But when she wants to lie down the cleaver little madam makes a nest in the hay. I'm not shore weather this is just to stop the others eating it while shes asleep though.
 
I have approx 30 horses aged from 2+ outside and they all lie down in the snow.
They are heavy hairy cobs and don't seem to notice that it's all that much colder....... I'm sure they prefer the weather like this because they all have access to hay 24/7 in ring feeders and are fed barley and sugar beet twice a day........... infact I think they are looking better at this time of year than they did in the summer with the rain!

It sounds like your friends horse has taken ill and is now suffering from hypothermia...... Hope he feels better soon!
 
Yeah of course they lay down in it. I have been putting our 2 6 month old NF foals in the school for a bit and they are unrugged, we found both of them laying down in the corner, and they are currently stabled so its not like they had no choice.
 
Found my pony ling down in it once - though it looked odd but I think he obviously saw it as a nice comfy 'bed'!

We did have an old pony that got hypothermia once though - he had got soaked through and laid down (in a load of muck) he was ok but it was after that we started rugging him inwinter months. He was generally a sickly type though and had bretahing probs. His coat was so thick but it used to get soaked and wouldn't dry quick enough.

I don't think a healthy horse given ample feed and water etc should get hypothermia though. It certainly wouldn't be caused by lying in the snow, more the horse collapsed anyway or was weak and chose to lie down in an attempt to get warm.
 
Ours lie down all the time we have 2 youngsters out 24/7 and they are as happy as larry, both rugged, adlib hay plus 2 feeds a day they are very fat and happy, mark you up to their eye balls in snow at the moment
 
Not stupid at all.
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Yes they do (see signature).

Sometimes I have 'horse snow angels' in the mornings where they have been stretched out.

How is the horse now? I don't know if they can get hypothermia, but I don't see why not, but as they are so good at conserving heat then there would have to be mitigating factors as well.

Yes they can get hypothermia, here you are, this is a chapter from an article I have put up in another thread, scroll down a bit:

http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=15393
 
yeah he is fine now!

He is stabled now and rugged up to the hilt is getting warm water for drinking and in food and wont go out now till the warmth picks up (when ever that is).

thank you for the link
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ETS I love your siggy by the way its fab.
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ets change siffy to siggy
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Ohh, i'm so glad I stumbled across this post! My heart nearly stopped the other night when I went to do my late night check on my boys and found one of them lying flat out in the snow I thought he was dead! I ran over to him and his head shot up straight away and he looked at me like a loon lol I was still a little concerned though as I haven't seen any other horses at the yard lying down. at least I now know he's not the only one lol
 
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