Wondering how horses handle the cold and the sudden swings in temps you guys often experience.  How much hay do you go through in a winter?

My 5 horses are on a 1K cattle ranch.  They are pet/pleasure/trail/and show horses although they move cows around a couple times per year.  We don't brand and the most roping we do is if one tries to go DEVGRU on us and heads for the small lakes to escape the roundup and we have to drag it out.  

To call our temps moderate or temperate is an understatement.  They are so consistent they are boring--except summers which suck......BUT if the temps do drop suddenly from like the 60's to the 40's two of them tend to colic.  

We actually have to keep them off pasture part time most of the year (spring, summer, early fall) so my hay bill per month is in the $500.00 range with (mixed grass and alfalfa) everyone but the OTTB an easy keeper.    

I'm originally from the west and I might have one more good move left in me. Kinda looking at options.  I absolutely DETEST the east but what a long strange trip it's been....

Central MT area....Billings and north looks interesting.  Thoughts?  

They just do.....being here year-round makes them a lot tougher than some horses from elsewhere.   A lot of people pasture them year round with only a little feed on the coldest/deepest snowy days.

I don't own them myself but my aunts and uncles do (I use the Japanese Quarterhorse and his name is Honda ).

   My fiancée is in Colorado and going to move her horses up in April to start acclimating them to Montana, we are a shade worried.  The one was purchased from North Dakota so not much of a worry, however the other is from Tennessee and it had problems adapting to Colorado.....which is....NOT anything like Montana winters can be.

    If you pick an area around Billings/farther south you'll have a lot better weather/conditions than up here on the Canadian border.    We stay colder on a LOT more days than my friends in the Billings area.

For the most part, Montana horses (or in a smarter Montanan's case, mules) are as rugged as the people. I'll echo GrantS' comment about different climates around Montana. It's a big place, and the Kootenai Forest is a world apart from the "high plains".

Kinda what I was hoping not to hear but.....

All of our horses are southern bred....(FL and TX) which helps in the Summer heat and humidity.  They would be hard put to survive up north I'm afraid.  Thank you for the information.  

Don't worry, they will adapt.  When I was a boy my family moved to Texas in the summer.  We adjusted as did our horses.  5years later we moved back in the winter, it was hard but the horses and all of us adjusted.  If you are really worried about them put blankets on them.  Really though they will be fine, just make sure they have a windbreak to put their butts up against.  Your horses will adjust better than you.

 I'm a northern white boy.......These summers of heat and humidity down here are far far harder on me than any Montana winter I went through.  

I warned my little paint that if he didn't knock off his belligerent attitude this morning that I was dragging his ass up to Montana.  He raised his tail and took a dump.  

I forgot the blanket option.....we never use them down here.  Thanks.

As said, they will adapt, I know a lot of people who have moved here with their southern horses and they used blankets the first couple of years and they have adapted just fine and run around naked now.

I know zero about horses. Just a word of caution on the blankets. The last house we lived in had a pasture out back. The owners of the lot would rent it out to someone that wasn't very diligent about checking on their critters. One day I noticed one of the horses standing next to the barb wire fence in an area he didn't usually spend much time at.  I didn't really think much about it at the time. The next evening I noticed he was still standing in the same spot. At that point I figured I better go take a look as it was very cold out and he should have been with the others seeking refuge from the wind. As I got near him I could see the issue. The spring loaded clasp by his neck that holds the blanket on had somehow gotten caught on the fence. He was very gentle and let me unhook him from the fence. He was happy to be unchained. Probably a freak deal.

After living with and around horse for over 20 years now, I can say, it was a very freak deal, but I also don't know anyone who uses barb wire fence with their horses, always a bad idea!

Wow....feel good story.  Thanks.  
Horses are sometimes like having an 1100lbs 3 year child running around.  If there is any chance they can get into trouble they will----guaranteed.  Some owners aren't much better.  Protecting them from each other is sometimes a challenge.

They've got their winter coats on now.....in Central Florida.  

I will echo they will eventually adapt.  However the first winter I'd recommend having a building for them to go in, in addition to having blankets.

 Just a thought, I ain't used to them so I don't know how well blankets work.    I just am a pessimist and assume a hard 40 below zero winter for their first adjustment period lol.

Which is why smarter people have smarter animals, aka mules.

I'm also on the pessimistic side of things.  What could go wrong is a serious question that I try to answer.  

One of the determining factors on a move is; "do I really want to take them to a place where they can literally freeze to death"?

The major threat here is lightning strikes.....and the occasional hurricane.  I think I can protect them against cold.  I've spent large amounts of time in wilderness areas and high mountains and thought I knew lightning.  Living here I am now truly afraid of it.  There is nothing predicable about it.  

Horses live in cold climates and do quite well actually and compared to a lot of people my care taking philosophy is let them do and be what horses are as naturally as possible so...

My Arab/Friesian mix gelding was bred/born in CO then moved to AZ for almost 10 years before I bought him back and moved him to WA - he did just fine (and colics super easy), then we took a road trip in February to move from WA to VA (I'm military...).
Horses can Absolutely adapt, you just have to do it smart - transition them to whatever hay you'll feed on the way, and stock up with a few weeks of that hay for once you arrive in MT, mix the hay like you would your dogs food when you switch brands.
*edit* I cheat and add gatorade mix to their water when moving horses - this can also help keep an easy-colic horse hydrated and is a good idea in high stress times (like moving).

If you have to move in the fall, you'll probably have to blanket and/or stall them during storms. If you have the option to move them at another time of the year, try to hit spring right around the last frost date (you can look that up on farmers almanacs), horses adapt very well on their own. Watch them close for the first winter, have mineral oil and banamine on hand if they're an easy colicer, but you'll be just fine as long as they're not elderly.

As far as laughing at blanketing horses in central FL, I used to laugh hard at that, too (grew up in central CO). But I lived there for a 3 year tour, and with OTTBs that are used to 70+ year-round, if you get a cold snap that falls below freezing you do have to blanket them because they just don't adapt that fast. ...still sounds ridiculous though, haha!