It's Wintertime at the Rescue! After a few starts and stops, winter has officially arrived at the Rescue. It is beautiful to see snow blanketing the property and covering the Flat Tops in the distance, but is not without its challenges. For our volunteers, it means more layers, headlamps for feeding in the dark, and protocols like always draining the water tank and keeping hoses in the warm room so they don’t freeze. Our four-legged friends naturally adapt to the cooling temperatures, as long as they have plenty of outdoor time. Our horses do, and most have grown their winter coats to keep them warm and dry. On particularly frigid days, you might think the horses look fluffier than normal and that’s because they are! Their fur fluffs out to trap warmer air next to their bodies to insulate them from the cold - just like a human's down jacket would. Horses who are older, clipped or have trouble keeping weight on need some extra help and wear winter blankets. You’ll see blankets on horses like Holiday and Nova this winter, who are both working to put on more weight. Once a horse is blanketed for the winter, the blanketing must continue because the horse's coat adapts to wearing it. Horses also do many of the same things us humans do to stay warm. They eat more, move around when they are cold and seek shelter on particularly cold or snowy days. Horses are much better adapted to the cold weather than we give them credit for, so when the mercury drops this winter we know they can handle it. MVHR provides plenty of hay and shelter for our Rescue herd, and Mother Nature takes care of the rest! | 
