Christina Wright, who owns Four Points Alpacas in Penn Township with her husband, tends to her animals Friday outside their barn.

When the mercury dips down to frigid temperatures, most large pasture animals are naturally prepared.

Cows do pretty well while horses can need some special care.

However, alpacas are at home even on the coldest days.

Christina Wright, who owns Four Points Alpacas in Penn Township with her husband, Don, said the natural habitat of the llama-like alpaca is high in the Andes Mountains. She said many farmers using them for pack animals over the centuries did not provide them with shelter, so they have evolved a thick, warm coat.

“I've never heard of anyone ever losing an animal (because of low temperatures),” Wright said. “They can withstand a tremendous amount of cold.”

She provides a large pasture and run-in barn where her 52 alpacas can get out of the wind, which they do not like.

Wright said the alpacas' fleece is so thick that an attempt to touch their bodies would cause a hand to sink 6 to 8 inches down. If the weather is extremely cold, but not windy, the animals will happily run around and play in the pasture while their human counterparts hunker down inside.

Wright said the alpacas' ability to tolerate even the lowest Pennsylvania temperatures precludes her from having to worry about them in the barn at night after she closes the door.

“They could be out in the cold 24/7,” she said.

The animals' feet, Wright explained, are like a dog's paw with two toenails. She said when their feet get cold, the alpacas simply lay down and tuck their feet into their fleece.

“Their body keeps their feet warm,” she said.

After the show season in the spring, the Wrights shear their animals in May. The thick, insulating fleece is processed into some of the warmest clothing available, which they sell in the Four Points Alpacas gift shop.

Another large animal that tolerates the cold fairly well is the dairy cow.Jim Marburger, owner of Marburger Dairy in Evans City, said when the temperatures dip below normal, the 120 dairy cows that usually roam the farm's large pastures simply remain in the barn.Marburger said while the barn is not heated, it stays 10 to 15 degrees warmer than the outdoors. He said while cows grow some additional hair in the winter, their coat is nothing like the thick hair grown by horses.He said groups of 30 cows are placed in the four partitions in the barn, which are known are “free stalls.”“They can get up and eat or go lay down when they want to,” Marburger said.Milk production is slightly affected when the temperatures are far below zero just as it is when the weather is especially hot and humid. But Marburger said low temperatures also kill the germs that can result in bovine diseases.Marburger said the cows, which are milked every 12 hours, eat a mixture of hay, silage, protein and minerals year round, regardless of the weather.

Unlike their hearty cow counterparts, horses require some special care in the frigid temperatures.Ann Seebacher, owner and manager of Spring Valley Stables in Mars, said special care is required for most of the 20 horses that call her facility home.Seebacher explained most horses will grow a thick and insulated winter coat of hair that will serve them as long as they remain dry. But once the coat gets wet, it loses its insulating properties and the horse gets chilled.She said while many ponies will grow a long, dense coat in the winter, warm blood horses, such as Morgans, Arabians and other breeds imported from overseas, often sport a less impressive winter coat.“They may need some protection from blanketing,” Seebacher said.She said horses being ridden daily are almost always outfitted with a special horse blanket to prevent a growth of thick, winter hair. The coat would cause the horses to sweat unnecessarily while being ridden, Seebacher explained.She said all of the horses at her barn are blanketed in the winter. In the extreme temperatures covering Butler County lately, some horses require several blankets to stay warm and to prevent a winter coat, Seebacher said.In severely low temperatures, Seebacher uses her indoor ring to allow each horse some exercise. She said horses must move around to promote digestion, so she either walks them on a lead or turns them loose in the indoor ring for some exercise when the temperatures plummet.She does the same on icy days, when horses can injure themselves if they slip and fall on ice in the pasture.“They're like kids,” Seebacher said. “You turn them loose and they just take off running.”Another way to help horses through a brutally cold winter is to provide warm water all day. Seebacher uses heated water buckets.“Just breaking the ice in their water buckets isn't enough,” Seebacher said. “They prefer a nice fresh bucket of warm water.”

Veterinarian Robert Kissick, who owns Silver Springs Equine in Portersville, said a constant water source in the winter is imperative since horses can develop colic without sufficient hydration.He said colic is the umbrella term for gas, cramps and fecal impaction in horses.“If they don't drink enough, all the food they eat gets dried out and it gets stuck,” Kissick said.The typical treatment for colic is placing a tube into the horse's stomach through which water and mineral oil are fed. If dehydration is severe enough, Kissick said an intravenous line may also be administered.Veterinarian Jan Kennedy of Harmony Equine in Butler said a horse's winter coat has a layer of downy fur beneath the coarse outer fur.“Air is trapped between those two layers and that's what keeps them warm,” Kennedy said.She said if that layer becomes wet in extremely cold weather, the horse could develop hypothermia.“They can be wet or cold, but they can't be cold and wet,” Kennedy said.She said the heat created by digestion means horses should get additional hay in the coldest temperatures.Regarding their feet, Kennedy said horses's blood vessels open more widely in cold weather.“It keeps blood flowing so that their feet don't freeze,” Kennedy said.She advises keeping horses in the barn in extreme cold to prevent frostbite.“I've treated cases of frostbite on the tips of the ears,” she said.She said because they lose fat as they age, older horses should always wear a waterproof turnout blanket in the cold weather.