What is everyone doing to care for your horses during the upcoming cold snap? We are in Louisiana where we NEVER have this type of weather. I am trying to get a game plan together.

Just make sure they have plenty of hay/water and a good wind block/shed to beable to get out of the weather.

Hay in front of them 24/7.  Eating=heat.  Fresh water.  If needs be you can also blanket, but readily available hay and water should be just fine.

Extra food.   Warm-ish water if you can.   Some horses thrive on ice cold water, many though do not like it at all.  

Zesterra or Electrolytes if you can to encourage them to drink.  

My horse is in the barn, with a blanket and a full net of unlimited  alfalfa and coastal. Heated bucket for water and I make him a warm mash with his feed with added forco. I'm going to town tomorrow to pick up a bottle of zesterra .. our really cold snap is coming Monday but it's darn cold now! Everything is iced ...  my chickens have heat lamps in the coops and extra feed, these are Texas chickens we aren't use to this garbage! Lol! I'm huddled up on my couch  with a hot cup of coffee a blanket  and have 5 snoring dogs at my feet! I worry about my husband,  he's a truck driver and he's out near Fredericksburg today and has to stay out overnight. Tree branches are falling and busting everywhere from the ice... I pray our electric doesn't go out! 

We put out fesh round bales yesterday for cattle and horses, they have water troughs, but also a creek going thru the pastures, if the water trough freezes - of course, i will break ice if needed. All livestock have shelters to get under if they desire to do so.   We have 2 dogs that are inside/outside dogs, and usually they stay in a 10/8 kennel outside with hay and blankets when we are at work, but I am setting up kennels in the house for them for the next few days while we are at work.  My husband is going after work to fill gas cans for the generator - just in case we lose power.

if they have a wind break it will help.  hay 24-7.  we have heated buckets so they keep drinking.  if you dont have that avaiable i reccomend double buckets for more insulation.

I know that you southern people and your animals are not used this cold and wet weather. 

But up here in northern Iowa our horses are outside playing in the snow.

You are right, we are not used to this. It really isn't the snow that concerns me. Everything did fine a couple of weeks back when we got a considerable amount. I worry though with lows around 7 degrees and rain. If you took the rain part out I may not be so worried. This winter has been fairly mild other than the random snow storm mentioned above. Most of our horses have not developed as thick a coat as maybe previous years. I know they can probably survive it, I just want to make it as easy on them as possible. I'm quite sure this will be the coldest temps these animals have ever experienced in their lifetime. 

I try not to change anything that I do. I have been putting a little salt in their feed to keep them drinking. They are not used to blankets so no blankets. I feed hay morning and evening after I feed grain. Water troughs are filled up and I will break the ice a few times a day. We lose electricity easily so buckets with heaters aren't a good thing. A couple of things to remember. Hot water freezes faster than cold water. If plastic buckets are full of water and freeze, there is a chance your bucket will split. With these expected single digit temperatures buckets will likely freeze solid. 

The Rain is what makes it hard on us here too, since we dont live like this every winter we are not prepared for this really cold stuff thats about to hit us, with the rain and freezing temps we have to really keep a close eye on everything.. 

Dont use buckets for water use a bigger water trough so the ice is easier to break ,the buckets will freeze soild.. 

Mine started shedding two weeks ago. I have hot water in the barn for now, but will have to drain it and cut the breaker by Monday because there's no way we can keep it from freezing up at 9 degrees. That's what worries me. Mine are used to having warm water. 

One of mine has been shedding for a few weeks now, I have not been brushing him at all since winter is not over I didnt want much hair to come off of him, and now hes going to really need that hair. 

Been putting round bales out today for the horses in the back pasture and in the front are my 2 Donkeys so they got a round bale also, I want them to keep eating that hay to keep their bellys full so they will stay a bit warmer, this monday they will really need to keep eating its going to get real bitter cold. Man we just dont know how to deal with all this cold..I just hope that the rain stays away this weekend..

Looks like we're in for a real stiff single digit freeze Mon-Tuesday.  We're talking lows of 2-3 degrees.  Pipes are going to be busting all over the place, because contractors don't bury water lines deep enough.  They cut corners wherever possible.  We 're going to fill bathtubs, and I'd suggest keeping some faucets running at a trickle overnight.  I'm not at all confident that any amount of covering of outside faucets will do the trick with this long stiff freeze.  

You are right about that Bear, will probably keep the bath's on a slow stream, i feel even a drip won't be good enough. All our outside faucets are directly on the bathroom walls, so hopefully that will do the trick.

other than that, I am breaking ice every 2-3 hours. And feed alfalfa cubes with warm water morning and night. I also feed electrolytes year round, but i'm doubling the amount this week.

And we out out a new round bale.... we have 1 in there but it has a slowfeed net on it, and with the rain/sleet we've had so far it's frozen over. So now we are "sacrificing" another round in order for them to have acces to hay. Makes my life a bit easier, since I'd have to feed squares if we hadn't done that... and I'd rather loose half a round bale than have 1 of them be cold or worse, get colic....

I am soooooo over this stuff! We are not set up for this! And I will be grateful when we get to Next weekend without incidents.

Totally impressed with the peeps up north who do this thing every single year!

Stay safe and warm everyone!

My mare is blanketed, has access to fresh water and hay 24/7, and has access to the barn to get out of the elements as she pleases.

I don't do anything different with mine.

I guess my goal is to have things set up already so that weather changes don't require any extra work.

I sometimes worry I'm not doing enough. But then when I check on them in the dark after work and it's -30*F air temp and I find Red standing out in the wind by choice. Okay......guess you aren't cold!  I provide 24/7 free choice hay, water, and shelter .... and they do what they want.

We don't usually get rain, but often times we can have wet snow if it is "warm" enough for the snow to be wet. My two right now are fat and healthy so they do fine. If you've got one with special needs, of course that is different.