Horses may need a blanket in the winter if you clip their coat, robbing them of their protection from the cold. Blanketing is bad for the horse however, but it is the lesser of 2 evils. If you touch your horses ears and they are cold, he is cold. If not, he is not, so leave him unblanketed.

It is bad for horses to wear blankets as you can read in the related link. The only time you would need to blanket a horse is if you rob them of their protection from the cold by clipping them. In this case the blanket is the lesser of 2 evils, even though it is still really bad. To tell if the horse needs a blanket, touch his ears. If they are cold, he is most likely cold. If not, he probably isn't, so leave him unblanketed.

You would put a blanket on a horse in the winter to save him from getting a cold or even dieing.

However, if you do not clip your horse, it is better to leave him unblanketed. To tell if your horse is cold enough to blanket him, touch his ears. If the are cold, he is most likely cold. If they are not, he is fine as is. Also look for abnormal behavior. If he is standing listlessly with his head down, something is wrong, and it may be that he is cold.

Blanketing is bad for horses as you can read in the related link, however, if you rob them of their protection from the cold just because you want to spend less time cooling down or because you think it looks better, then your horse has no protection from the cold and you will have to blanket them in the winter, or any time it drops to extreme temperatures. To tell if your horse needs a blanket, touch his ears. if they are cold, he is cold. If not, leave him unblanketed because he is fine.

No, not really. It will vary from breed to breed, as it does in horses.

If you leave your pony unclipped and unblanketed in the winter, he should be fine- better than he would clipped and blanketed anyways, because the blanket doesn't do as good a job as his coat does. and if you do keep him unclipped, then he should also be outside 24/7 (but still give him the option to go inside, with either an attached pen to his stall, or a run-in shed), or he will not develop the winter coat he needs for protection, and he will be hot inside while cold outside.

If you are worried he is cold, feel his ears. If his ears are cold, he most likely is, and you should find him better shelter or maybe even blanket him.

If you mean, does the horse heat himself from the outside, then no. They use chemical means and muscular actions to heat themselves. Chemical actions go on that create heat, and they also, through muscular action, lift the hairs on their back to create a thermal blanket arounf themselves. Another way they get heat, is the grass or hay they heat. it ferments in their gut, and this produces heat also. However, when they are not given free choice hay or grass (as some are when kept in a stall) or they are clipped and/or blanketed, the clipping prevents the winter coat from being used because there is none, and the blanket will cause the muscles used to lift hairs atrophy. and the blanket doesn't heat the horse evenly either, so it does a bad job.

Since a horse heats from the inside out, this is why it is better to keep a horse unclipped and unblanketed during the wnter, and to allow free choice hay.

This depends on where you live and on the horse itself. The best thing to do is let him pick by allowing him to move from shelter to pasture as he pleases. If you do not clip your horse and you leave him unblanketed and give him free-choice hay, most horses will be just fine throughout winter without being brought in. If you do clip him, it would be best to bring him in whenever it drops below whatever temperature HE finds cold. To find what HE considers cold, turn him out. After a little bit, feel his ears. If they are cold, he is cold and you should either put on a blanket or bring him in. If not, he's fine. then, record what temperatures and how windy/rainy it gets before he gets cold so you know when he needs to be inside and when he is OK outside.

Or, to be safe, you can just bring him in during the night when it's coldest.

Make sure to excercise him if you keep him in a stall; being cooped up in a stall builds up energy enough. Add cold weather to that, he gets even more frisky, so he'll need plenty of excercise.

November to Febuary

Horses may benefit from wearing a blanket during the winter months when the weather is cold, wet, or windy. The decision to blanket a horse should be based on factors such as the horse's coat condition, age, health, and the local climate. Blanketing during other seasons may not be necessary unless the horse has specific needs.