Winter in KZN has started and the infrared lights come on at Summerveld and Ashburton and more use is made of blankets.

Former jockey and now trainer Garth Puller said, “An old racing guy, one of my clients, told me the winter in KZN always starts on Easter weekend and he is right. We have a few cold days before that and we think this is it but there is always another couple of hot days before Easter. After Easter weekend the humidity normally drops.”

He continued, “The infrared is not that hot, it just keeps their back warm a little bit and when they come out they are not hitting the cold. They come out with light sheets on and with blankets over the saddle and they are excercising so they stay warm. They later walk themselves cooler after excercises and go home with their light sheets back on. They are then wiped down (dried) in their boxes and  they then get blanketed again if it is still cold. A lot of the guys haven’t blanketed yet. Last night we didn’t blanket but we did put the infrared lights on.”

A layman would probably ask how would horses then keep warm in the wild?

The answer of course is they grow wooly coats.

The probable chief reason for keeping racehorses warm is to prevent the winter coat which can reportedly cause a horse to overheat and also makes the horse’s coat harder to dry after excercise.

A horse’s well-being can also be seen in their coats. 

So trainers like to keep their horses well fed and most like to see them with nice shiny coats.

The infrared lights are expensive to keep on due to elecricity costs and a lot of trainers would only have them installed in the colder stables of their yard.

Picture: The Wayne Badenhorst and Barbara Kennedy-trained Capetown Beauty (Capetown Noir), who won her last three starts to join her full-sister Admire Me as a four-time winner, is staying nice and warm throughout the night under her infrared light during the current cold snap.