Field kept horses & exercise/clipping

Sanolly

Sanolly

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My two will be wintering out this year, however I will be riding them about 3/4 times a week and hunting 1/2 times a month. I don't want to rug either of them but as they are both natives they will get very hairy and I am wondering about how warm they will get during exercise especially hunting. I am hoping that they should dry between finishing hunting and getting home but if not should I just put a fleece under a rainsheet and turn them out? Will that compromise their coat and mean I have to rug regularly (I'd rather not as the cob is a dark rug destroyer!) again after hacking just rug with a fleece underneath and turnout or just turn out naked as they will get wet anyway when it rains?

Sorry for rambling post!
 
If you're hunting then you ought to be rugging them. Even if you think your native has dried/is drying off satisfactorily on the hack/box home from hunting, a tired horse can often break out again and would face a pretty wretched night as a result. Can you not just rain rug your horses from, say, November onwards, and then you have the option of slipping an extra light one under the rain rug post hunting. You'd be checking your horse last thing, I hope, anyway, and you can then see how hot/dry/cold or not it is.
 
The problem is that I haven't really got the money to keep up with the amount of rugs the cob destroys (and I do mean destroy!) - average every 3 days and not just his own! It wasn't to bad at the last yard as he was out on his own and the mare wasn't rugged. I won't be hunting very much - once a month after checking the dates - and I really don't want to compromise their coats as their field is in a valley and the weather here got very very cold last year!
On a side note what can I put in the cobs feathers to stop the snow building up? I had to leave him in to "defrost" several times last year but obviously this won't be an option!
 
Bit of a dilema...

If you can't rug them because the rugs get wrecked then you can't clip them, if their not clipped I really don't think you should be doing any strenious excercise like hunting with them....
 
If they are hairy natives then the chances are that they will be fine with a bib clip and no rug. I've had natives live out with a low clip before that were toasty warm and no problems. It does help if your field has some natural shelter.

As for feathers pig oil is supposed to be good, or even spraying then with mane and tail conditioner should help the mud to slide off.

Eta I usually clip in the Autumn and then leave the coat alone, which means that they have a reasonable coat for the worst of the winter weather.
 
I have native crosses (about 25% native blood at a guess with one, and half that with the other - daughter of first, crossed to a WB) and mine grow a hell of a winter coat.

Absolutly no way would I even consider hunting mine if they were not fully clipped - would be downright cruel to them as they would be so so hot, and take a long time to dry properly.

If you really really want to hunt, can you not clip & rug well so they can live out, or stable them at night at least?
 
Agree with others. Certainly wouldnt be hunting, even once a month, on a hairy that hadnt been clipped.
Plus would never put them out in field without a rug afterwards.
Every chance of them breaking out (sweat) and collicking.
Do you have to hunt?
Cant you keep them in?
Do you have a shelter you could put them in overnight?
 
I've wintered out a cob that was hunter clipped, lots of roughage and decent rugs (doubled if necessary!) I've also had to foil/foyle rug destroyers - cribbox spray, with added cayenne peppers and chilli powder sprayed all over the rugs works, but make damn sure you DON'T spray it ON the horse wearing the rug OR inhale it, coz OW!! Failing that working, muzzle the rug destroyer! As long as there is access to hay/hayage and possibly hard feed, he'll be fine.
 
my new forest grows a thick coat like a mammouth his legpits get so hairy he sweats in walk - there is no way i would consider hunting him without clipping him. i don't hunt but hack out and jump and have lessons in the winter and he would be really boiling and dripping in sweat if not clipped so he has a chaser clip. He lives out in a field with natural shelter (woods) and is rugged appropriately.

he also gets hot traveling as well and i made the mistake of traveling him in a fleece in feb and he was dripping in sweat on his unclipped areas and this was a short journey in the lorry of 30 minutes.

if you are going to be doing a lot of galloping and jumping and your horse is very hairy then i think you are going to need some sort of clip to keep him comfortable.

there are some very tough rugs around if you are worried about ripping or you could pop a cheap LW on top of a MW to protect it.
 
S_N said:
I've wintered out a cob that was hunter clipped, lots of roughage and decent rugs (doubled if necessary!) I've also had to foil/foyle rug destroyers - cribbox spray, with added cayenne peppers and chilli powder sprayed all over the rugs works, but make damn sure you DON'T spray it ON the horse wearing the rug OR inhale it, coz OW!! Failing that working, muzzle the rug destroyer! As long as there is access to hay/hayage and possibly hard feed, he'll be fine.
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Wonderful thanks for the tip! Last year wasn't so bad because it was only his rugs I had to replace (at £60-£90 a WEEK!!) but this year it will be 3 ponies who will be rugged so I really can't afford to keep replacing them.
There are no stables available near me and there is nowhere to put him indoors. I've just had the thought that there is no electric down there to run clippers off so I'll have to rug up early to avoid the coat coming through too thick.
 
You could always invest in some electric fencing and keep him separately? Might actually work out cheaper? Just make sure that you have a back battery that is charged. As for clipping him, could you not take him somewhere else to clip?
 
touchstone said:
If they are hairy natives then the chances are that they will be fine with a bib clip and no rug. I've had natives live out with a low clip before that were toasty warm and no problems. It does help if your field has some natural shelter.

As for feathers pig oil is supposed to be good, or even spraying then with mane and tail conditioner should help the mud to slide off.

Eta I usually clip in the Autumn and then leave the coat alone, which means that they have a reasonable coat for the worst of the winter weather.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I do think that natives are far hardier than we give them credit for. To be honest, I do think that if the pony you hunt is bib clipped and not unusually hairy, plus is already fit enough for a couple of hours hunting (I don't know about you but my hunt is far from the days-worth of flat out galloping and jumping that the stereotype suggests) then I don't think he will 'suffer'. You obviously know your horse better than any of us and if he manages well on a fast or long hack then he will probably be fine hunting. Perhaps try wintering him out with a bib and no rugs (he can always turn his back to the rain or use his shelter) and see how he goes on a hunt: that way you can always make adjustments early enough in the winter. Remember that you can always take hair off but you can't put it back on, and there is little point in giving him a 'number 1' and piling on rugs that will at some point be heavy, damp and dirty, if he can thrive on minimal interference.
Let us know how you get on!
 
When you say bib clip do you mean this? Obviously not as high though!
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If he's just getting a bib clip then I wouldn't rug at all to be honest, especially if he's a good doer; if you are going to go for rugs anyway you might as well do something like a blanket clip.

The riding school where I worked had all the ponies low trace clipped and turned out rugless, although they did come in at night.
 
Do remember before all the fad of having light / medium / heavy-weight rugs, native type ponies that hunted were trace clipped and wintered out without rugs as long as they had shelter and a good quantity of forage to keep them warm. Horses are perfectly OK in the cold as long as they have the chance to get out of the rain/wind.
 
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