clipped good doers, cobs, rugging & feeding......

cob&onion

cob&onion

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Planning on hogging and trace clipping my cob in the next few weeks, shes getting very hairy. Shes never been clipped/hogged/rugged before as shes an extremely good doer and goes naked whatever the weather and v v hairy!! this winter she won't be in hard work atall, but enough work to make it hot and uncomfortable for her not to be clipped.
She will be living out throughout winter in a sheltered field with ad lib hay and a fair bit of grazing (hopefully) she has a few handfuls of happy hoof at tea time with her supplements in it.
So question is do i just clip, hog and then stick her in a medium weight rug with a neck cover?! i don't want her to boil as she is a warm girl but i also don't want her cold neither?
I am used to my TB who is a poor doer and a wimp so always gets rugged up well, never had such a good doer before?

What do you do with your clipped good doers?
 
Mine are good doers, One is hunter clipped as he's in a decent bit of work, he goes out in a standard neck medium, I don't use full neck as they rub his mane out. My now retired cob lives out 24/7 is a very good doer and was hogged, and clipped out fully and was comfy in a MW full neck. Hope this helps.
 
That would depend on where you are! :eek: My trace clipped ok-doing cob is still naked (and I don't plan on rugging till it gets really bad. My fully clipped out good doer (but slim) highland is still only in a rainsheet or a lightweight at night...
 
Mine a fairly good doer and he's fully clipped and out 24/7. He's currently in a L/W, most of the winter will be in a M/W with snuggy hood, only ever need to put a H/W on when the weather's really awful! He keeps a good amount of warmth even fully clipped. He's like a yeti he ges that hairy!

He gets 2 big haylage nets a day and a small dinner of beet, chaff, vit supplement in the evening along with some BOSS i've started adding to see if it gives him a nice shiny coat. :)
 
If she's not going to be in hard work why not give her a slightly bigger than normal bib clip and leave her naked?
 
Mine is in medium work, he will be having a blanket clip will be in a medium weight heavy if it goes to -12. He's in at night, fed happy hoof & baileys low cal and has speedy beet over winter.
 
My very good doer had a trace clip and heavy rugs last year.

Dengie came to the yard with a weighbridge a few months ago and I was advised that he should be wearing lighter rugs so he uses his energy keeping warm rather than storing as fat.

He is in at night and out on vvv restricted grazing during the day, he gets the recommended of light balancer and a handful of hi-fi good doer in the evening and 2 slices of hay in a double small holed net, soaked for 24 hours. He is schooled for 1 hr 4x a week, fast / long hacks x2 at weekends , so not much more I could do routine-wise to keep off the podge! On the weighbrige he was on the fat side of ok and condition score of 3.5/5.

This year I decided to give him a hunter clip (all off except legs, saddle, half his face, and a heart shape on his bum!) to save buying new lighter rugs, I figured trace clip + light rug = similar to hunter clip + heavy rugs!
 
My good doer is hogged and trace clipped and lives out 24/7 she currently naked and will be for a while yet as she could do with loosing a few pounds especially with them moving to winter grazing this weekend and theres a lot of grass out there!!

She will wear a rain sheet if its really wet and windy but will only be going up to a medium weight when the weathers at its coldest providing shes the same this year as the past 2/3
 
My two mares are good doers and presently have trace clips (but with the whole neck off). I haven't put lightweights on them yet as they still have fluffy, warm coats on their backs, rumps! I also read somewhere that a lightweight can make them feel colder as it flattens the hair down as opposed to being rug less when the hair can fluff up! I will give them full clips at the end of the month and they cope most of the winter with just medium weights with neck covers on! I only put heavy weights on last winter during the cold, snowy period!
 
My good doer cob had a blanket clip last year and spent the winter out 24/7, she only had a 100g rug on even when it was minus 12. She didn't lose much weight. This year she is having a hunter clip and will rug her according to need, she will live out as much as possible.
 
ours are both good doers, and although Tom can get cold easily, Ron certainly doesn't.

Ron is hunting, so pretty fit and active. Tom is more or less roughed off, just hacked out lightly twice a week. Both are out for a min 8hrs per day. every day, regardless of the weather.

Ron is hunter clipped, Tom has a bib clip. Both wear a Horsewear Supreme turnout from end of november to end of feb, with Ron in a raincoat and Tom in a m/w either side of that.

Both are fed ad lib haylage, and then varying amounts of speedibeet, alfa oil and lo-cal balancer. Works a treat!
 
My good doer cob was fully clipped two weeks ago. Was naked until a few nights ago when I put a light weight turn out on and last night he had a mid weight on. I will keep mid weight on now for as long as I can. But when snow and ice comes I have to admit he goes in his toasty heavy weight. On soaked hay, top spec balancer, few handfuls of chaff and in top end of light work.
 
I'm going to get hate mail I know!

My chap was trace clipped and only saw a rug (either a lightweight or Fal 40gram) if it was cold, wet and windy last winter. He was out in the snow with no rug and perfectly warm.

I prefer to be able to give him more to eat and let him burn the calories keeping warm.
 
My 2 ponies are very good doers and i look forward to winter where they finally lose their summer belly! My cob who goes into full work after having every summer off with pollen allergies had never been clipped till the super hot week last week where alongside him and my little welsh, both had a bib clip. I'm classed as the 'mean mum' at our yard because my boys don't get their LWs till it's wet and properly frosty. When it snows, I find they are eager to have their rugs off and have a crisp cool air over their backs! I keep them naked as long as possible as it keeps their metabolism going. They only ever had a few sections of hay a day and then bales left out when it snowed and they were fine:D
 
Smitty said:
I'm going to get hate mail I know!

My chap was trace clipped and only saw a rug (either a lightweight or Fal 40gram) if it was cold, wet and windy last winter. He was out in the snow with no rug and perfectly warm.

I prefer to be able to give him more to eat and let him burn the calories keeping warm.
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I don't think thats mean - I think thats perfectly sensible, if you've got the time to checking him, and he's happy with it!
 
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