The young girl taking care of the geriatric mare while her owner was out of town had called my emergency pager in a panic. “Misty has a terrible wound on her withers,” she gasped through her tears, “I need help right away!”
When I arrived, I could smell it from across the barn. The gaping wound was big, gooey, and painful to the touch. It was also located right under where the horse’s blanket normally rested on her withers. The poor girl had taken the blanket off to groom the old lady in the owner’s absence. Unfortunately, that blanket hadn’t been taken off in a very long time.
Think this could never happen to you? Don’t be so sure. You might be surprised to learn that this wasn’t a place where these kinds of things are common. In fact, it was at a well-managed barn with a caring owner who made an innocent mistake. And blanket injuries like this are much more common than you might realize.
In this article, I’m going to tell you about some of the most common blanketing mistakes I’ve seen in practice, and how you can avoid them. But first, I’m going to help you decide whether your horse needs a blanket at all.
