Anyone else leave their horses naked last night?

The 36yr old yes but only a lightweight at night unless it's chucking it down. The shire x certainly not, he'll be staying with no rug for most of the winter xx
 
As far as I'm aware, my pony has never worn a rug. He is a hardy ho Welsh D and he even stayed out 24/7 in all the snow at the beginning of the year naked. His pansy Gelderlander field mate kept him company rugged up to the eyeballs but he is also still naked at this point in the year. I personally rug according to the needs of the horse but if you rug when its unnecessary surely they won't feel the benefit when it really gets cold?!
 
MrsMozart said:
This :D

Looked happy this morning, soaking up the sun :)
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I was cold so leant on the Phillip he was so toasty I warmed up in no time :p


Prince33Sp4rkle said:
mine are in 280gm combo's and snuggy hoods in the day (one full clipped and one still in perfect summer coat), and then 450gm combo's and leg wraps at night when in.
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Can I ask, as a genuine question, what weight rugs do your horses have when it hits minus degrees then?


Inky_and_Sunny said:
If we start rugging now how on earth are they going to cope when the weather actually gets cold? How many extra rugs can you possible put on your horse each time the temp drops? It gets to the point they can move...
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This. Phil has a low trace clip last year and a 200g rug for the whole of winter including the snow, dropped about 20kg that he needed to (:p) and was still in a big open field with very little natural shelter (enough but they never use it anyway!). I know he's a native type but I'm always curious about horses that need rugging. If Phil isn't loaned this winter he won't be clipped and won't be rugged. He'll shiver off all the weight he needs to hopefully but so long as they've got enough forage to keep their insides warm I'm happy :D

P.s I've only ever seen him shiver after a bath or the other day when he was ill :(

A complimentary picture for my rambling post :p

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EllieBelly1 said:
I personally rug according to the needs of the horse but if you rug when its unnecessary surely they won't feel the benefit when it really gets cold?!
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Agreed, and when it drops to 3degs at night like it did here, personally i think thats cold enough for me to rug my horse. If you want to leave your horse out, naked or both then that's fine. Like you said, you rug according to the needs of the horse and only you know your horses needs. :)
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
its flipping freezing! am full cliiping the clipped one again tomorrow and will add a thin fleece under day and night rug after that.
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We were going to clip our pony shortly but someone mentioned (as they do) that it spoils their coat if you clip to early? Ours is still being clipped or he'll look like a mammoth come winter!

My horses are in at night with rugs on too, out during the day in rugs now. You are right, it's freezing!

When I lived in Australia for a while my friends horses had their rugs on during the day and sometimes it would be 22c (their winter day) so it's each to their own and what's best for their horse.
 
Yes my horse was (and still is) unrugged. He is in during the day and out at night, all of the time naked. His coat is coming through, was fluffed up yesterday so I know it's doing its job properly, and he has enough fat on him so I see no problem with him being unrugged. He is probably the only horse at the yard naked now though...

I'm going on hols in Oct for a week and I'm hoping to leave him unrugged til I get back (which means I won't clip) so that my YO doesn't have to mess around with rugs. I'll clip him and rug him once I'm back home.
 
Sorry, obviously if horses are clipped then they will need rugging! But otherwise its ridiculous to be rugging MOST horses already - apart from injury/illness.
 
My TB had a rain sheet on and my Connie X TB was naked. I'm the mollycoddler on my yard, my horse was the only one out with a rug on. When I took it off this morning he was a bit warm and I considered not putting it on tonight but then I saw it was forecast rain so I did put it on at about 7pm. We forget that they are a lot tougher than us, just because we feel a nip in the air doesn't mean that they do. They're horses and are designed to live outdoors!
 
My 35yo has a lightweight (unfilled) on at night and left on if it's raining with a cold wind. He's hard to keep weight on and I don't want him shivering even an ounce off!


My cob would love a rug on! :D Unlike most cobs he's not a 'good doer' and he feels the cold and now stands pathetically at the gate asking to come in. However, I've hardened my heart as he's not clipped yet and it's not 'that' cold here yet. Once we start getting frosts or I clip I'll stick a lightweight on as he'll tuck up and drop weight otherwise.


My lovely mare and her daughter are naked but are both 'hot' girls. I'll only rug if I clip but they'll live out all winter anyway!
 
flamehead said:
People need to man up, its ridiculous to be rugging this early (unless you're in Scotland!)
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I'm about as far north in Scotland as you can get before you hit Norway and mine are unrugged and out 24/7. They wore rugs for about 2 weeks last winter but it's been the worst winter in 30 years and I thought after a week of blizzards I'd give them a break. TBH they were too hot and as soon as the driving wind dropped the rugs came off. I still say I only rugged to make me feel better, not the horses...
 
flamehead said:
Sorry, obviously if horses are clipped then they will need rugging! But otherwise its ridiculous to be rugging MOST horses already - apart from injury/illness.
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Is it wrong that I am considering giving mine a bib clip and leaving him unrugged...?! He will have either a blanket or hunter clip at the end of Oct when I come back from hols.
 
chestnut cob said:
Is it wrong that I am considering giving mine a bib clip and leaving him unrugged...?! He will have either a blanket or hunter clip at the end of Oct when I come back from hols.
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As I said, I gave mine a bib (plus girth area as he's very sensitive to the fur coming out there) last year and turned him out naked - he's still alive! :D Out 24/7 and in love with mud, so not great for looks but much happier. I did rug after a week or so as the temperature dropped dramatically and I then had to give him an Irish Chaser around 3 weeks later, but I love clipping so didn't mind :)
 
We just put LW no fill ones on tonight for the first time, one is a TB and the other is elderly and drops weight very quickly - we're in Torquay and it dropped to 3/4 degrees last night; brrrrrrrrrrr!!!!
 
my appy x welsh is out/ was out naked along with the exmoor. they both have fluffy coats and even though appy is fine (as fine legged as my tb mare) he didn't feel the cold at all (must have welsh thick skin :P)
my mum insisted that out tb mare have her 200g neck combo medoum weight on though *sigh* she is sooo fluffy though, needs clipping soon!
 
Sedgemoor Chaos said:
Each to their own...do whats best for your horse and not someone else's opinion that doesn't know the full situation on a forum full of sweeping statements.
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Spot on. Horses are individual creatures. There is NO right or wrong. As long as you rug according to your horses needs.

Regardless of the time of year, if it cold, raining and windy some horses will not cope.

My horse is still living out and I went down one morning A few weeks back and it had dropped temp during the night and had been raining. he was shivering, tucked up and uncomfortable. and this was august!

I rug or don't rug according to how he feels. People shoudln't be made to feel guilty or that they are a bad horse owner because they have put a rug on in august or september.

The same goes for people who don't rug at all and people say "that's cruel, they should be in a rug" that's wrong too. People should be free to make their own decisions and not be made to feel guilty.
 
ok, this is like the yearly argument, so ill trot out my reasoning.....no snobbery intended BTW....mine (not so much mums, but def mine)is a competition horse with a job to do, he works hard 5 days a week and come shows is expected to give me 150%, i very much hope he will be a GP horse.
i pour endless money in to getting the perfect food combo and i dont want a single calorie shivered off, i spend yet more money on massages and sports therapy to keep his muscles in tip top order which is pointless if he then has to stand with his body tensed to the wind/rain etc because he's cold, and he has to look his best for competitions so a dull stary coat wont do. theres a pic somewhere on this thread of a clipped horse in a MW rug and IMHO its coat looks very dull and standing up, and thus cold.

like someone else has said, 5 degrees is the same temp whether it be sept or dec, i rug according to weather not month! no need to man up, i dont want an ill horse and wasted money thanks!

when its in to minus figures they wear a thermatex,300gm liner and a couple of HW combos, and yes, they are perectly able to gallop, roll, buck, play and tit around.
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
like someone else has said, 5 degrees is the same temp whether it be sept or dec, i rug according to weather not month! no need to man up, i dont want an ill horse and wasted money thanks!
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hear hear!
Makes me chuckle when people WON'T rug just because it's Sept / Oct / Nov....The horses don't know what month it is and if they are cold they are cold!


Fair enough if the horse is warm then it WOULD be stupid to rug up but if my horses are cold in Aug/ Sept then I will rug them up.

As said above I do not have money to throw at vets because my horse needs to "man up"
 
i would be interested to know how hard and what level, the naked horses work? because if my boy was naked and doing his current level of work, i would simply not be able to get enough calories in to him to keep him warm, to keep enough condition on him, and to develop his muscles, he would look like an RSPCA case! so i cross out the keepig warm bit and use rugs.simple.

boogles-agree with you 100%
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
i would be interested to know how hard and what level, the naked horses work? because if my boy was naked and doing his current level of work, i would simply not be able to get enough calories in to him to keep him warm, to keep enough condition on him, and to develop his muscles, he would look like an RSPCA case! so i cross out the keepig warm bit and use rugs.simple.

boogles-agree with you 100%
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It all depends on the horse doesn't it :)

I had a sec D x Arab who lived off fresh air, never seemed cold, and charged about in winter looking like a tubby ball of fluff - she was a very hot horse and never seemed to feel the cold . Then I got a TB ex racer :rolleyes: and spent winters shovelling in haylage (4 nets a day, and he could still eat more) 3 feeds a day and rugging up and he was never fat. Although the most he ever had on during the day was an under rug and turnout, and at night an under rug and H/W stable rug plus leg wraps
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
like someone else has said, 5 degrees is the same temp whether it be sept or dec, i rug according to weather not month! no need to man up, i dont want an ill horse and wasted money thanks!

.
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our mare is the same.. We look at the weather everyday to look at temperature. She is tb and gets cold very easily and shivers. somedays its been warm like 10degrees but she is wet and she just stands there looking miserable and shivering. she is in medium combo at night but she hasn't been clipped yet but any less and she would be stood there shivering and she loses weight so easily.
my 2 and 3 year old are out naked atm because they aren't in work, have no muscle and are way too fat lol so they have some to shiver off. plus one is an exmoor so she will always be out naked :P
 
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