horses under lights

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Carley

does anyone here keep their horses under lights during the fall/winter? i know its kind of a QH thing to do, but i was curious to see how widespread it was to use them. i used to own a mare that i COULD NOT body clip and a vet told me to try this with her. does it work fairly well? what do you guys think about it?

About Carley

I’m the assistant instructor and trainer at Twin Elm Training, under Bobbie Jo Graham. We are located in Northville, MI and offer lessons, boarding, training and showing. We speciailize in mostly morgans, although our barn also includes arabs, saddlebreds and national show horses. We attend class “A” morgan shows, along with the MHSA shows and a random open show here and there. We also attend tournament shows throughout the winter months. Our lesson program offers hunt, western and saddleseat lessons from novice up to advanced riders on seasoned school and show horses. Feel free to check out our website TwinElmTraining.com.
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9 Responses to horses under lights

  1. colwilrin says:
    October 27, 2008 at 1:28 pm

    The string of horses that my trainer sends to OKC are kept under lights. In the 4 years I have been with them, we haven’t had to body clip any of the horses that go to Worlds. I think it works really well.

  2. Amanda says:
    October 27, 2008 at 2:35 pm

    Last year we put my mare under lights to get her to cycle early and consistantly as we were going to breed her.

    The added bonus was that she shed out early and had a great coat all year. Being here in New England it was great. I think we will do it again this year.

  3. Carley Freeman says:
    October 27, 2008 at 2:36 pm

    what wattage did you use? and how long?

  4. Kelly says:
    October 27, 2008 at 4:32 pm

    Lights work great..Rushtons use them with great success. Lights and keeping them blanketed at nite as well. Google it but basically 16 hrs light and enough light that you can read a newspaper every where in the stall.

    Kelly

  5. flx says:
    October 27, 2008 at 4:34 pm

    I have had good luck with the lights from orion west lighting. equinelighting.com these light give off a true day light spectrum and are ideal for bringing mares into heat and keeping the horses from growing a heavey coat

  6. IED says:
    October 27, 2008 at 9:22 pm

    I did lights in 2006. However, I’m from Minnesota, and it gets COLD; I’m not sure, but I think that helped to stimulate hair growth. I still had to body clip, but there wasn’t nearly as much hair as there would have been if I hadn’t used lights.

  7. shortiedu says:
    October 27, 2008 at 10:26 pm

    Rushtons took 30 horses, of those thirty, I think we only clipped 12. Of those 12, 3-4 of them probably didn’t need it, they just look spectacular clipped or had just some sight fuzz on their poll that we thought what the heck, clip it.

    next year might change however as GN is a week later in the month.

  8. Amanda says:
    October 28, 2008 at 9:15 am

    Carly I will ask my trainer about wattage. I know the lights were set on a timer from 7am to 11pm (16 hours) and that it was placed directly above the center of the stall so it was the same lihting in all 4 corners of the stall. (12×12 stall)

  9. mrsfire says:
    October 28, 2008 at 11:40 pm

    Debbie,

    What are the dates for OKC next year?

    Dawn Fire

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