A couple of things that have been bothering me!

I tend to rinse my mare's legs off as I'd rather that if her legs are wet anyway, they're better off clean than plastered with mud. Means I can make sure she hasn't done herself any mischief as well. They are then left uncovered to dry out though I can see the logic in putting some sort of wicking material on them. I don't towel try as this means you are rubbing skin which may already be quite wet so you are just rubbing in any bacteria. I only shampoo the white bits when going to a show so as not to strip the natural oils. She's in a heavyweight stable rug at night (with the neck up) and has a chaser clip. Last year she had a hunter clip with several of rugs on and dropped weight dramatically (I was ashamed to take her out) so lesson learned - she was being fed like a body builder and still lost weight so was obviously cold. She is never sweaty under her rugs so I rug to what suits her. It seems to be a point of pride to have a horse that is naked in minus temperatures among a lot of members but it doesn't make it wrong to make sure your horse is warm especially if being cold causes other problems.
 
Horse is clipped out and for the first time ever I have started washing legs off and drying when he comes in at night, but only because he is turned out for me in the morning and I cant expect the person who's turning out to brush off his legs every day.
Dont know how this is going to work, its a first for me, so we shall see.
Rugs, he's still in a no-fill combo turnout and lightweight stable, but will up the weights as it gets colder.
 
I don't normally rug my horses until the temperatures reach around -8c, -10c but this Fall we've had a larger amount of rain than is normal and the windchills have been brutal. Had the weather been dry I wouldn't have the horses in blankets but due to the wet I rugged them all last week. It's beautiful today but there's a very nippy cold north wind blowing so they are still in their rugs.

All the horses here live out 24/7 so no I don't wash their legs off. No mud fever here as we don't really have mud and only one horse who came with it from another farm last year is susceptible to m/f or rainscald. He hasn't shown any signs of him getting it here.
 
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Agree that every horse is different! My tb is in a lightweight still because he's warm when I check him so no need for any extra fill at the moment. My friend's horse is a warmblood and wearing 2 rugs, because he stand's shivering in anything less.
Regards to hosing off legs, I wash my horse's legs off and try them off with a towel then spray the Nettex seven day mud away in the morning before he goes out. Think my horse is the only one without mud fever at my yard so far! I don't like putting him to bed covered in mud.
 
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