Do we mollycoddle our horses, to much?

Fii

Fii

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A while ago there was a thread about turnout rugs, and which ones people use.
Someone replied that for their horse they had.
A heavy turnout for verycold wet weather.
A slighly lighter turnout for when it was cold/dry.
A no fill turnout for when it was warm but it was windy or showery.
A summer sheet for sunny days to stop the coat from fadding.
An excersise sheet.

So do we wrap our horses in cotton wool ? (or rugs :D)
And are there times that we should just let them be........ horses ??
Discuss.;)

Disclaimer: this is not aimed at, nor picking a fight with anyone, each to their own, just interested in others views. :)
 
I think a lot of people do, yes. At our yard, most people bring their horses in over night during the winter "because it is too cold/wet/windy".

They think I am mean because mine live out, all year round. They have full clips during the winter and are rugged accordingly and are always toasty and warm.

I also do not have shoes on my horses which a lot of people seem to disagree with.
 
My horse has more rugs then I have clothes for the winter months, he is a usually clipped and is a poor doer, I take away his natural source of warmth so have to replace it.

During the summer though he is more or less rug less the whole time, I would only rug him if we had really heavy persistent rain.

My other two beasts are hairy and fat and were not rugged all winter.

It all depends on the individual horse and it's needs IMO, some people will look at my TB and think he is Molly coddled, others will think he is a poor abandoned beast that needs more molly coddling, sometimes you just can't win. :rolleyes: :D
 
i'm cruel my boys naked,in the day but i have to bring him a night due to many idiots have driven through the fence,dosn't get hard feed just hay,he does have all the regular checks though.Like back and teeth

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my horse wasnt rugged at all this year (only because i cant get one on him lol) and i must say he had a lovely fluffy winter coat what was really shiney and soft probablly the best on the yard, but if i could get him to wear one he'd be in a medium weight max, were nearlly over his phobia of rugs and is wearing a fly sheet through the day and a fleece rug while he eats his dinner, so im hoping he will have a rug for this winter, its too much hard work getting his thick winter coat out lol,

so yes i think we do mollycoddle our horses, he survied all winter without a rug and didnt drop an ounce of weight, so why do i feel the need to rug him this winter?? its because i love him tooo much and dont want him to be cold while im all wrapped up and warm in bed lol
 
I'd prefer to see horses go without rugs etc IF they can. If a horse needs a rug, then fair enough, but I have seen instances where owners go OTT and have rugs in 100g increments - for hairy's!!

As long as it isn't detrimental to the horse's health, then I leave alone. - If it is, then I have to say something.

With regards to shoes, again it's down to each individual horse. I tried barefoot and it wasn't working. Feet and horse were far better with shoes on, whereas I've convinced a friend not to put shoes on as horse is going fine without them.
 
I agree about it depending on the horse.

My andy had to have front shoes on but have been lucky with my others.

As for rugs, my daughters pony wears a fly rug all the time as he rubs terribly and he gets well rugged up during the winter as he isnt a good doer but he's still out in the snow etc! Whereas my dutch mare is a real hot person and doesnt need as many layers in the winter (baring in mind they are both fully clipped).
 
Yes, way too much. I've heard of people not riding stating that "its abit windy today, x doesn't like the wind". I would understand if it was really windy but it was a light breeze.

I had my sec.d in a heavy weight during the snow so I'm guilty of fussing too much too. It did save me changing the rugs twice a day and he was kept out throughout winter. I keep telling myself that haylage is "fuel" but I'm a worrier!
 
I sometimes think I pamper mine too much but compared to others I'm well harsh :p I'm going to have a major clearout in the next few weeks - I'm sure I've got more things than my horses actually need. Admittedly at the old yard I needed a lot of rugs for the horse coz she liked to roll underwater :eek: :rolleyes: :confused: so needed spare dry ones but that isn't an issue now :)
 
I don't think they need all the pamering people give them but if it makes you happy and you like giving them 5 different blankets, then go for it. Horses are supposed to be fun. As long as your not hurting them then do what you like.
 
Of course it depends on the horse - but I do think it is better if they can go rugless if they can. Hugo was thoroughly rugged up last winter as he had previously lived in and I thought it might be a bit drastic to chuck him straight out in that snow!

I do have a vast selection of rugs though - for every different weather condition! Even though YO says once they are off, they don't go back on until winter. Her most frequently heard phrase, however is "it's a horse, for heaven's sake!" ;)
 
Yes but, we can't help it!!! If we could I'm sure we would bring them in the house in winter!! That's just our nature. We love them, they're like family and we want to mother them :)

If they were in a huge herd roaming vast acres of land with the shelter of valleys, forests and things then I would probably not bat an eyelid no matter what breed - even an arab grows a winter coat. The reality is, they live in a patchwork quilt of very restricted land so no running to keep warm and if stabled, not enough hay to last the night so not even much internal digesting warmth, I think we are right to rug. If there is the room and forage i.e. 10+ acres (5x horses) with shelter & grazing then I would leave for a warm coat to grow.

Another thing is, if you rug over a winter coat, you have make sure that the rug has the same insulation capability as the coat or more. Flattening a coat with a thin rug will only make a horse colder.

So yes, I hate rugging but I DO mollycoddle my horse. I have to.
 
I think it does depend on individual horses as obviously poor do-ers and real veterans need a bit more TLC all year round at times than others in order to keep good condition if out, etc, but I was rather worried about a healthy, well covered horse on our yard one night this week when it was a glorious warm evening and he'd had a rug put on before 6pm and was still in that rug gone 9.30am the following morning when it had been really sunny and warm since dawn (my car said 17 degrees). He was looking very hot and tired in the field. So in my opinion that wasn't mollycoddling but someone who couldn't be bothered to check out the weather forecast properly or be sensible enough to return to the yard at a decent early hour in the morning to whip the rug off before it got too hot. I contacted them as wasn't going to leave the yard if they weren't en route and leave the horse like that sweltering. So in some respects mollycoddling is fine if it's got the horses best interests at heart but can't abide laziness and stupidity which can cause more problems than prevent them.
 
Yes I think we do tend to molly coddle a bit too much but as long as the horse doesn't suffer for it then I don't see that there is a problem. I draw the line at over rugging though. A girl at my old share horse's yard used to over rug her horse in the winter. On one occasion I saw he was wearing 4 rugs AND a quilt she had brought from home :eek: When I asked her why he was wearing so much all she could say was that she didn't 'want her baby to feel the cold' :eek: :rolleyes: That was a real head meets desk moment ;)

My youngster was out in all the snow last winter naked but the other one had a MW all winter. Youngster came in every day for a hard feed whereas Ebony had the odd handful of Healthy Hooves and both had ad lib hay. Both came out of Winter a little lighter than they went in as they should do.

As for shoes then it depends on the individual horse. Bella will prob need just fronts as she's a bit flat footed although her hinds are great. Ebony needs shoeing if she does road work as she has rubbish feet and gets sore easily.
 
Yes i agree which is why I am looking to make alot of changes this year which will include only rugging when the weather is really really bad :o I feel mean just thinking about it but she is cob!
 
If we hadn't have clipped mine over the winter then yes, he would be naked with maybe a no fill turn out to keep him dry. But he was clipped and we felt bad when it was -20^C so on went the heavy weight :rolleyes:
It's not too bad I guess, I'm just replacing the natural coat I took off.
I've known people to put 3 or 4 rugs on theirs :O
 
Oh harking back to the "good old days" when horses had one jute rug for the stable and blankets stolen off our beds at night and a New Zealand for outside. It was always green, heavy, waxed cotton with a thin sewn in woolen blanket inside, leather buckle at the front, circular surcingle that went all the way round the horse and two leather crossed leg straps at the rear. And do you know what - they didn't die! Oh and Laminitus was very very rare in horses and pretty uncommon in ponies too!

There is a cob up my yard that waddles it is so fat (owner cannot see it, says he is "just built that way"!!) - it was drizzling for all of 10 mins yesterday - on goes the lightweight!

Yes we do over rug - well not all of us!
 
See it far too much - have fat hairy cobs on the yard still in rugs in May because it might rain ... can't have a horse getting wet :rolleyes:
Bought my new boy in September - he'd been 24/7 stabled & I gradually introduced turnout & he is now out 24/7 (even survived subzero December out - although I did buy him a nice toasty rug)
He hasn't seen his rug since the end of Feb & is looking fab.
 
Mine are naked - in summer they may wear a very light sheet to protect the coat from the sun.

At one time UK horses rarely wore rugs unless they were stabled or clipped - horses living out only had a trace clip and a canvas rug with a wool lining - no neck rugs either.

They lived!!

They ate grass in large fields and didn't get laminitis or insulin resistance (some ponies got lami if allowed to get too fat.

We didn't hard feed everything in sight and they ate meadow hay - Lucerne was rarely grown and far too expensive for the general horse - might be fed to racehorses. We fed the basic foods, no peas or soy. Corn was for racehorses only.

And still they lived.

We put shoes on them and the livery horses trotted for a steady hour on the roads, they were fit and sound

And still they lived.

The modern horse owner is bombarded by so many adverts for the absolutely must be fed or worn by equines that they get brain washed - and broke.

Now they get every disease known to horses - Lamminitis from frosty grass! Insulin resistance - stemming from the damage soy does to the metabolic system and all the gallons of mollasses added to feed.

For the fatties we used to turn out in the day as horses spend a lot of time standing around in the shade - and stabled them at night as the time was generally more than 12hrs - they got meadow hay - not soaked ........and they lived and got slimmer too.

Horse care has gone crazy in the last 20 or so years and not for the good. We need to go back to the basics and care for our horses in a more natural way.
 
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lexiedhb said:
The short answer is YES.

No idea how horses survived before the invention of the full neck Rambo!:rolleyes:
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And horrors, before full neck rugs we actually had to plait a full mane instead of only the top half. It's so useful that these high neck rugs make the mane fall out, isn't it :) ?

I actually think some of the rugging I see is abusive, especially in spring. Horses left with a rug on all day because it was a tad cool the night before when the owner last saw it. Now standing miserable and swealtering in a rug when it's 15 degrees or more and the sun is on its back :(
 
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I will totally admit my Welsh Cob is, he does BD and has 'special needs'.

He has eggbar shoes for heel support, has to be rugged 24/7 when out as he comes in covered (from head to toe) in lumps, has special clipper oil as he has very sensitive skin, etc. In winter he will not go out so is in 24/7. In summer he's normally out 24/7 but now can't be due to his heel pain, so he's out 14 hours.

My HW cob has shoes too as she was in hard work, lots of road work.

My other 4 all out 24/7 365 days with no rugs though (even my WB!).
 
Yes but I don't care, he's 32 and I'll give him the best life I can give him for what I can afford, he's a spoilt brat, I have

2 - heavy weight with necks 1 removable
1 -10 oz no neck
3 - 6 oz 2 no neck 1 neck
2 - light weight slight filling
3 - no filling 1 with neck
numerous fleeces/coolers 1 with neck
Ride on rug with neck covers him from head to tail
Pink equisafety 360 degree vision exercise sheet
Masta quarter sheet
Thermatex type exercise sheet can't remember the name
Scrim cooler

I could go on .............................................
 
BonneMaman said:
Oh harking back to the "good old days" when horses had one jute rug for the stable and blankets stolen off our beds at night and a New Zealand for outside. It was always green, heavy, waxed cotton with a thin sewn in woolen blanket inside, leather buckle at the front, circular surcingle that went all the way round the horse and two leather crossed leg straps at the rear. And do you know what - they didn't die! Oh and Laminitus was very very rare in horses and pretty uncommon in ponies too!

QUOTE]

And in those days Lottie was a tough little irish hunter who got too hot in her NZ except in the deepest depths of winter! Back in the 'good old days' I don't think horses lived as long or were as functional.

Now she is a stiff little old lady who likes to have her ruggie on at night whether it's a cotton summer sheet or fleece if she is in, a big stable rug with neck in winter. or a thin waterproof if she is out in the summer at night, though she will do July and august naked 24hrs a day.

Don't even try to turn her out if it's really cold in winter without a warm rug, she will not go! But she is 31 and still in ocassional work and very happy. If she gets cold, her joints stiffen and lock which causes her pain. Simples.

Ice has a fly sheet in summer as she rubs her tail if she gets bored, other than that she just gets wet if it rains. In winter she is quite well rugged as I don't clip her so I rug to keep the fur growth down.

Beau lived in someone's kitchen and slept by their stove as a baby so when I got her she was very nesh. Apart from walking round the field with her squealing at other horses and threatening them with my legs to show her how to look after herself (she lived alone from 6 months to 2 years old)!! it seemed natural to substitute rugs for the stove as I didn't have space in the kitchen for her. She also has very sensitive pink skin and if she gets sunburnt I can't ride her or cuddle her as it hurts too much so a full fly sheet is compulsary!

I think we have bred and created horses that in some instances require a bit of coddling.
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cptrayes said:
And horrors, before full neck rugs we actually had to plait a full mane instead of only the top half. It's so useful that these high neck rugs make the mane fall out, isn't it :) ?

I actually think some of the rugging I see is abusive, especially in spring. Horses left with a rug on all day because it was a tad cool the night before when the owner last saw it. Now standing miserable and swealtering in a rug when it's 15 degrees or more and the sun is on its back :(
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yeah definitely, unless they are special needs horses as some have described here, I think to see horses NOW with rugs on is a bit ott.

I do mollycoddle mine considering he is a hardy little blighter but I draw the line at rugging past 1st March unless we have baltic spell and won't unzip the rugbag 'til about November... also, I do see my winter wug as protection from nasty shod horses hooves!!! (Different field in winter and by golly they play a bit rough sometimes! Grrr)

Mud? Poo? It brushes/washes off.
 
It always makes me smile - when I was working in NZ the eventers and SJ I groomed for were all turned out 24/7 on the steepest hills you have ever seen! No boots, rugs were typical old fashioned NZ canvas, and only on when either very sunny due to harsh UV over there, or if wet.

I try not to spoil mine too much, he is Spanish but rarely rugged, no shoes (not that I think that shoeing is mollycoddling them, he just copes with a full workload without them), only use boots if schooling as his balance isn't great yet. My main 'extra' is high viz - he is usually decked out top to toe in the stuff!

BUT - my 39 year old pony was spoilt rotten! My youngster has to earn that sort of mollycoddling!
 
In short, yes we do mollycoddle our horses.

In the coldest depths of winter my horse wore a 300g rug (she's spoilt! :o )
Just along the bridleway the polo ponies are turned away for the winter, many without a rug and they were perfectly happy.


My mare is currently out 24/7 with no rug. The two other horses in the field are out overnight with rugs on, surprise surprise they are "well covered"!
 
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