Mats can be beneficial for a variety of reasons, bedding and it does provide a cushion. The blankets are or can be a pain in the @ss. Ours wear 2, or a heavy thermal type. The main reason, is cooling off, after they have been worked in the cold temps, the objective is to start them off with 1 or a light blanket and keep the winter coat from growing out, so they cool off and dry off in the cold.
From my perspective, and aside from the purpose stated above, I think they are a royal pain in the @ss to use. We have so many, every year you have to sort, fit etc., horses change, not all stays the same. They eventually get pretty darned "rank" need cleaning, straps unhook, blankets shift around, need to check an re-fit them.
Then you get the oddball weather, things warm up, and you have one horse that may sweat under the blanket, so you have to check on that, we have one, and I catch flack for doing it, he sweats and I take it off. The worst is, they catch on things, Oh yes, if you have numerous blankets, be sure to know someone with a HD sewing machine, or own one, I have threatened the latter, just saw one I would have like to try my luck with, in working order with a table for $75. They will catch on the eye part of a "screw-eye" you know that little gap where its bent to ? Horse can rub one of these and get caught, it happened to me, no one around, that horse could have thrashed around, was leading him back into his stall, that fabric fed into that little gap like twine through a baler knotter, was perfect. Horse pins me against the jamb of the stall door, one arm extended holding him, and the other extended trying to free the blanket, I had all I could do to unscrew that "eye" from the wood jamb with one hand. Though another horse could have either tore that blanket, or otherwise freaked/spooked, this guy stood right there, as if "hey, your'e going to get that right ? He stopped as soon as he got caught, 1649 lbs of him, he can be a bit cocky at times, but is smart when you need him to be, darned blankets !!!!
I would agree, plenty of hay, pasture, water, grain 2x a day with a run in shed, (I think they should have a place to get out of the weather is pastured), let em grow that coat, they're happy, healthy and fine all winter. Last year the snow got too deep for em, and we did have a wicked cold, -15 cold spell, that kind of cold could get em sick, so we got em all in one barn, but there is a lot of fussing with blankets and such, just makes a lot of work, and a big ole pile of laundry/sewing repairs in the spring.
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