Does rugging prevent a horse's coat from growing too thick?

Does rugging influence horse's coat growth?

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Wagtail

Wagtail

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I'm not going to say where I stand on this right now, for obvious reasons :rolleyes:

Anyway, what do you all think? Does rugging up a horse early or more snuggly slow down or lessen the growth of its coat? Or will a horse just grow the coat it's going to grow regardless of rugging? Do you find that you are able to keep your horse looking sleeker for longer by 'tactical' rugging? What makes a horse grow it's coat? Is it the cold? Is it the daylight hours? I have noticed horses seem to be changing their coats rather early this year. Why is this?
 
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I'm in the haven't a clue camp. I rug according to need of the horse, not my needs.

I"ve got a native so very little rugging needed. She owns 2 fleeces, 1 mw stable rug, 1 lw and 1 mw turnout, 1 fly rug and that's it.
 
Yes, and I will rug to try and control both the growth of coat and shine/cleanliness of it, (idle me!!!) Generally I rug far less though than many people I know, I am a shocker for making rugs live long beyond their natural lives and for recycling rugs which others would throw away. Definitely not obsessed with new rugs or collecting rugs.
 
Hmmm im undecided :p In the winter if there clipped then yes i do think it prevents it growing back and keeps cat hairs away. I always find my horse to get cat hairs on the neck but not on the rugged body. But in spring/ summer im undecided. My gelding was rugged right through until about march last year but his summer coat still came and he got too warm so if i had of continued to rug he would have melted :eek: We couldnt rug him from about april until end of sept when he got clipped (unless it was cold then he could have a wee sheet). My mare wasnt clipped when we bought her but she was rugged due to the snow etc but have had to unrug the past few days dew to the heat. But i have found that if i use a waffle cooler under a summer sheet she doesnt hot up so can remain rugged unless its really, really hot.
 
Ihave always thought it was the amount of daylight that controled hair growth.
If you rug it lays the coat down, so it looks shinier or flatter.
Non of mine are changing their coat yet.
 
I have voted yes. A fellow livery owned a New Forest and was obsessed with rugging her. She hardly grew a winter coat at all. Mine (WPB) was allowed to go au naturale most of the time and grew her own thick waterproof outerwear.
 
Only rug up in winter when pony is clipped & last year only had to do him once in November (he's a sod to clip) as I gave him a few more layers to keep his coat short which it did. Had been advised to keep him rugged over summer to keep coat off but to me its far too hot!! He's a bit of a fatty Irish cob
 
Yes. My friend has rugged all year and her coats are much thinner than mine on similar horses. They aren't just flatter, they are thinner. I have to clip my hunter much earlier than other people because I won't rug him before he needs it just to keep his coat looking nice.
 
This is all very interesting. I did have quite a strong view on this but the horses changing their coats earlier this year has started me questioning it.
 
I thought is was sunshine (I was reasonably convinced until I was about 14 that horses were like plants and used chlorophyll... Oops!) that regulated the hair growth. Tbh, all our horses have had full clips throughout the winter and have been rugged appropriately as a result so my experience is limited!
 
Since my tb realised there was going to be none of this racing yard pampering and he would be positively neglected when it come to rugs, he grows a much thicker coat in the winter than the first year I had him.
I think daylight hours and hormone levels influence when the coats change though.
 
I have a wooly mammoth of a warmblood that has always been clipped throughout winter and rugged accordingly. It didn't matter how early I rugged her, she was still always the first on the yard to need clipping (at the beginning of September). Last winter, as she was retired she was not rugged and I expected to see the hairiest horse ever, but actually, although she was quite wooly, she was nowhere near what I expected. Another mare on the yard has such a fine coat she never needs clipping. As she was off work this winter we decided not to rug her to perhaps encourage a thicker coat. No, she did not grow any more than previous winters and so we were forced to rug the poor thing as she was cold! Another similar warmblood I had on the yard was the same. It didn't matter how you rugged her, she would still only grow a lovely fine silky coat. So I came to the conclusion that horses will just grow the coat they are meant to grow regardless of rugging. It must be down to the length of the days.

However, I have started to question this view because of the horses changing their coats earlier than usual this year. Surely, if it is down to just daylight hours, this would remain the same year after year?

For the record, I voted 'no' but I am questioning it. Is there another factor at play, I wonder? We had a very dry spring but July has been unusually wet. Could it be weather pressure systems? A combination of factors? The horses have been rugged lightly because of the rain (more often than they were last year) so surely this would have delayed the winter coat starting to grow, not bring it forward?
 
I mentioned that mine grew a thicker coat as I rugged less but it didn't happen instantly.
The first year I had him he came from racing and he grew hardly any coat. He was turned out in the day whatever the weather, rugged but not excessively.
Year 2 his winter coat came through much thicker than the previous year. In december we had issues with allergies and vets advised to keep him rugless, he was on box rest at the time. It was freezing and snowing but I did what I was told and he was fine. Nested down in his big straw bed and survived.
Year 3 he grew a much thicker coat and now gets really fluffy every winter so I think they do adjust but it does take time.
 
criso said:
I mentioned that mine grew a thicker coat as I rugged less but it didn't happen instantly.
The first year I had him he came from racing and he grew hardly any coat. He was turned out in the day whatever the weather, rugged but not excessively.
Year 2 his winter coat came through much thicker than the previous year. In december we had issues with allergies and vets advised to keep him rugless, he was on box rest at the time. It was freezing and snowing but I did what I was told and he was fine. Nested down in his big straw bed and survived.
Year 3 he grew a much thicker coat and now gets really fluffy every winter so I think they do adjust but it does take time.
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Yes, it will be interesting to see if my mare gets a thicker coat this year after no rugging than last year. Maybe it IS a much slower process that we think. My sister's unrugged TB that lives out all year (with access to a barn for shelter) is really fluffy.
 
Does with mine. He has a real fear of clippers but was too woolly to do much with him the first year I had him, so I rugged as little as I could to help him lose weight. Last winter he was slimmer and I wanted to keep riding over the winter, but he would have got far too sweaty if his coat had grown like it did the first winter. I rugged as much as I could, and his coat barely grew. May have helped that the Cushings pony next door had a SAD light to try and fool his pituitary gland - day light was extended a little that way :D
 
Not that I want to be picky or anything, but your title question is incorrect.

Rugging cannot change the thickness of a coat.

It does, however, control the length of the hairs.

And yes, rugging does limit coat length. I do try and leave mine off as long as I can to ensure Dorey can get fluffy. Also, rugging prevents natural "goosebumps" (hairs standing upright rather than laying flat) which then decreases the coats ability to act as insulation.

A shorter, flatter coat will give an impression of a thin coat I suppose, but what's missing is air, not hair.
 
Personally I would say No based on the following. My dutch warmblood mare doesn't tend to grow much of a coat whether she is rugged or not. She started the winter unrugged, and because of the lack of her coat, I then rugged her. She is very thin skinned as well and her summer coat is like silk, un rugged or otherwise.

My gelding who is a TB x Connemara grows the thickest coat imaginable in the winter and it usually starts to appear during september . He looks like a yetti in the winter yet he wears a lightweight turnout going into winter, depending on the weather ( mainly to keep him clean as he is grey) and at most a mw during the harshest winter months and only ever a lightweight stable rug. He is never clipped as he is not a fan of the clippers.

With my gelding I have noticed that he tends to grow his coat according to the wheather and has produced his mammouth like woolies during the last 2/3 years ( I have had him 7 years now) His coat is always silky and also incredibly soft. I have found him to be a very good judge of the coming winter weather!
 
TicTac said:
With my gelding I have noticed that he tends to grow his coat according to the wheather and has produced his mammouth like woolies during the last 2/3 years ( I have had him 7 years now) His coat is always silky and also incredibly soft. I have found him to be a very good judge of the coming winter weather!
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Could do with him here then. The weather forcasts have been shite lately!
 
hmmmm i think when you start to rug probably plays a part in how thick the coat grows on some horses,I don't rug my big girl until late in winter so she's already grown a pretty good coat but no where near the same as the welshies do.
In the same vein, does clipping encourage hair growth i wonder? nature trying to replace what we keep taking away:confused:
oh and for the record, mine aren't changing coat yet:p in fact the shettieX that we sold last week still had fluff on his belly as does one of my friends ponies:p
 
Coat growth is controlled by the amount of light hitting the horse's retina not ambient temperature. Rugging will flatten a coat giving the impression of restricting growth but leave the rug off for a while and the coat will "fluff" up again to keep the horse warm. Having said that, the amount of coat grown by a horse or pony is highly individual to that animal. I've had two New Forests, neither of which were ever rugged; one grew a coat like a yak - about 4-5 inches long and so thick you couldn't find his skin in the winter. The other one would eventually grow a winter coat but it was never as thick as the other one. People might say that their horse is fully rugged and therefore doesn't grow much coat but it would probably be the case that the horse wouldn't grow that thick a coat even if it wasn't rugged. I have an AngloArab x WB who never grows much a winter coat despite being left without a rug as long as I can - I only rug her because she lives out and gets really cold when it's wet.
 
I would say definitely yes. I have a native pony with sweetitch who wore a snuggy rug, without the neck until late October, with a turnout when wet. When I took the sweetitch rug off, there was a very noticeable line at the neck where the coat was much thicker and longer. It wasn't just that the coat was flattened as it stayed like that all winter, even when she hadn't worn a rug for a week or two.
With reference to an earlier post about a NF pony coat, I have two NF's and compared with other native ponies I own/have owned, their coats don't appear to grow as thick or long as I'd expect. My friend's NF also seem to have quite a fine coat in the winter too.
 
I saw the results with my last horse over wintered rugged one year and unrugged another. He most certainly did not grow such a thick coat when rugged, but did on exposed areas. Cat hairs were only present when unrugged too.
 
Not read all responses, sorry. But answered no, as I have until now firmly believed it was all down to sunlight. Also I know that rugging a horse will make a thick coat lay flat, potentially giving the impression it's not a winter/hard coat. Happy to be enlightened tho!
 
I agree coat growing and shedding is triggered by daylight entering the eye but I also think temperature is a factor in how thick/long the coat grows, which would explain why the rugged horse might not grow as much.
 
Where are you, Wagtail?

We did have an "artificial" early summer this year, with warm temperatures and a lot of sun early on and now a return to a more normal English summer - I wonder if that could have screwed up the horses' seasonal triggers.

Great, so along with the other concerns of global warming, we might get extra furry horses! ;)
 
criso said:
Since my tb realised there was going to be none of this racing yard pampering and he would be positively neglected when it come to rugs, he grows a much thicker coat in the winter than the first year I had him.
I think daylight hours and hormone levels influence when the coats change though.
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I tend to agree with above, TB brood mares that are kept outside [un-rugged] have a longer coat than broodmares stabled without rugs.
Show people and racing people rug up for different reason, show folks want a summer coat to come in early and racing people want to prevent sweating, but the end result is the same, .........less hair, or should I say same number of hairs, less of it.
I was told by one show person that the coats changed in spring according to their birthday, but others have denied any correlation. I am no expert!!!
 
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Daylight should trigger shedding, however the type of coat grown is breeding x temperature

I had full brothers with one rugged for sweetitch - I used to purposefully over rug him so that he could cope in temperatures of up to 30oC in his sweetitch kit and his coat was significantly thinner than his brothers as he didn't need to put so much effort into keeping warm.

I have to confess I keep them toasty in the winter if clipped so that I only have to clip 2 or 3 times max (i hate clipping)
 
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