When to blanket a horse: the temperature chart

Go by tonight’s low, not today’s high. For a horse with its full winter coat: no blanket at 50°F or above, a light blanket when the low is in the 30s or 40s, a medium from 10 to 29°F, and a heavy below 10°F. A body-clipped horse needs one step warmer.

The chart

The grams are the blanket’s fill. These are the bands of Tennessee Farmers Cooperative’s blanketing chart (“What’s the best blanket?”, 2021), which lists 50–60, 30–40, 10–20 and below 10°F; a low that falls between its rows takes the colder row. The same article points out that not every horse needs a blanket: one that lives out with a full coat makes its own heat and may only need one for rain or snow.

What changes the call

• Wind. We go by the low, and when the wind will make it feel 3°F or more colder, the email gives the wind chill too.
• Rain, snow or freezing rain. When it’s likely tonight, the email says when it should fall and that a waterproof turnout matters.
• A low right at a line. A low within 3°F of a line on the chart keeps last night’s weight, so the call doesn’t flip back and forth over a degree or two.

How our blanket call works

Farm & Barn emails the call for your barn between 1 pm and 3 pm, September through May, on the afternoons it changes: when tonight needs a heavier or lighter blanket than last night, or rain or ice comes into the forecast. Same call as last night? No email. When only the rain leaves, no email either. By default it calls only nights of 40°F or below; you can set that to 50, 30 or 20°F.

How often the call changed in 2026

We replayed 2026 from January through October at six places, with the weather that actually came standing in for the forecast, at the default 40°F setting. In January to March the call changed 8 to 14 times a month, about two or three times a week, and about half the calls (128 of 268) also carried rain, snow or freezing rain. November and December weren’t part of the replay.

Updated November 2026.