Fat ponies and cold weather

[PinkvSantaboots]

My Arab's currently resemble yaks so they are only having thin rugs on both are a good weight Louis is looking a bit too good, so today I took the rugs off as it was sunny and cold and the ground is frozen so they won't roll hopefully

I'm probably going to clip and start riding again next week once it warms up a bit, not done much was busy with Christmas then was ill.

 

[Gloi]

Isn’t all rain torrential now?

No , we also get the horrible wetting drizzle with a visibility of about 50m

 

[P.forpony]

They are much much hardier than we ever give them credit for.
I lived in Canada and my quarter horses were all out 24/7 down to -40 and never rugged, as long as they had hay they were happy.
The biggest problem was chipping the icicles off them so you could tack up!

My shetty is fully clipped and turned out naked. He is also perfectly happy, especially because it means he gets the same unrestricted good grazing as the TB (who is of course the exception and always cold and precious!)

 

[HollyWoozle]

My retired mare is essentially KWPN x TB and we’ve done -13 in those awful storms some years back without rugs and no problem at all. She has free access to shelter and plenty of forage and I don’t worry about her at all in the cold weather (she’s 21 now).

 

[Polos Mum]

Isn’t all rain torrential now?

Here we've got sun (that funny yellow thingy in the sky) and the snow is blowing around but fingers crossed no rain !

 

[Sprogladite01]

My little fat welshie is currently unrugged and clipped and he is perfectly happy. And now he's clipped he is actually starting to lose some weight (after 2 years of trying!!). He got a light stable rug last night as it went down to -3 and was happy as larry this morning but this is very much the exception. Honestly he probably would have been fine without it but my mum laid the guilt trip on me

 

[TRECtastic]

My little Irish cob has a chaser clip and is unrugged , lives out 24/7/365
Him and his field mate have access to hay and a large field shelter , both are on the 'chunky' side atm but are living out quite happily atm
He has CPL so ideally needs to be out moving , whatever the weather

 

[ponynutz]

13.3hh connie is unclipped and unrugged - she's thriving. They don't get unlimited hay because neither are exercised aside from turnout but they're given a night net anywhere from 9-11pm so it sees them through as far as possible to keep them warmer.

 

[lauragreen85]

How are you all managing yours?

I’ve got a chunky welsh c, farrier passed comment he’s looking rather “well” for this time of year. He’s on hay, won’t touch it soaked so I give him the less good stuff (I’m on a livery yard so it’s hard) plus with the cold weather the vet doesn’t advise soaking anyway. He’s in work every day, only has feed (hand full of ease and excel) before exercise but he is carrying more weight than I’d like.

He isn’t rugged, however temps are dropping to around -7/8 here in next few days so I’m wondering if it’s reasonable to keep him unrugged during this?

He has a decent winter coat too which makes him look bigger than he actually is! to add - he’s stabled overnight.

We have one pony, no rug and hes happy, ive a fluffy mare too who actually shivers, even though shes stabled and has hay. somtimes standing still can be cold. we rug our older ones too