Horse ripping rugs??

[haz.rob]

My horse has a history of ripping her rugs. It used to mainly be fleeces as she would get static and bite them so we stopped using fleece rugs. This helped and it seemed to be under control for a while minus normal wear and tear. In the past few months she has started ripping her rugs again in the stable, some of which she has had for years without problems. someone finally caught her in the act this morning and the only thing that's changed is that she's been being turned out before any others in the week to keep another horse company in the field and we think she might be doing it if other horses get fed/turned out/etc before her. and I mean she literally ripped the side of her brand new rug to shreds this morning and pulled out all the stuffing. has anyone else ever had a horse do this? or have any ideas how to stop her other than feeding her first because that's just not practical on a busy livery yard. I don't want this to be a lasting behaviour, in 8 years she's never been a horse with vices or an attention seeker.

 

[whiteflower]

Maybe she's too hot. It's been very mild lately, why not just remove the rug. Problem solved.

 

[Lintel]

Sounds to me like she is too hot. If not and it's just an odd habit I would be investing in some heavy duty 1200d++ turnouts for in the stable too, less chance she'll be able to damage them.

 

[Goldenstar]

If she’s doing it the stables I would leave her unrugged.
Yes ,I had one out door rugs where his thing including those on other horses , he also removed grazing muzzles from Fatty.

 

[Shay]

Echo that. Why do you feel she needs to be rugged at the moment? She clearly doesn't!

 

[asmp]

Or spray the rug with one of those nasty tasting sprays. I have one at the yard when youngster went through a period of ripping oldies's rug but can't remember it's name.

 

[Red-1]

Jay Man would do this if he was ever too hot. He would take them off over his head, but rip them in the process. If he could not budge them then he would eat his way out of the side. I soon learned to under rug him rather than risk this!

New horse is a different kettle of fish, she likes being warm.

 

[haz.rob]

Maybe she's too hot. It's been very mild lately, why not just remove the rug. Problem solved.

she could be but we left her rugless while it was hotter but she was cold and was getting a snotty nose every night so we put her lightweight stable rug on her again so i'm not sure?

 

[haz.rob]

Or spray the rug with one of those nasty tasting sprays. I have one at the yard when youngster went through a period of ripping oldies's rug but can't remember it's name.

this is a good idea... might try it. thank you!

 

[haz.rob]

Echo that. Why do you feel she needs to be rugged at the moment? She clearly doesn't!

she's only been rugged at night and was left without over the hotter weather but even then was cold when we were getting there in the morning. its still down to like 5/6 degrees at night so not that warm.

 

[Pinkvboots]

she's only been rugged at night and was left without over the hotter weather but even then was cold when we were getting there in the morning. its still down to like 5/6 degrees at night so not that warm.

5 or 6 degrees is not cold for a horse unless a horse is very fine coated most can cope being naked, they don't get a chill like we do so I very much doubt the snotty nose has anything to do with being cold, I have Arabs one is very fine coated and he only had a 100g turnout on last night out in the field.

 

[nikkimariet]

Might be too hot but not always the case. Nova will rip rugs in sun rain wind and snow. Weather he is in a fly rug or a heavy weight. His stable rugs meet a sad end too. Very annoying!

 

[eggs]

I also doubt the snotty nose has anything to do with her being cold. FWIW my fully clipped out horses are now out at night and last night they were not rugged and it was supposed to drop to about 5o. If they have plenty to eat that will keep them warm enough. One of my horses will grab his rug with his teeth if he is too hot. I once had a horse that used to rip the rugs of the other horses but that was a different problem altogether.

 

[ponios]

I had a horse that did this when I first had him. He was put in confinement when he first arrived (yard policy) and I think he was really stressed. It was the middle of the winter and Baltic cold, horse was clipped so no rug was not an option. He had to stay in confinement for two weeks so I was limited in terms of what I could do living wise but I put turnout ontop of indoors and sprayed a ton of cribox on and we made it through! In the first two days he went through 3 rugs. The last he did as I walked around the corner to get the skip bucket- he had it on less than 5 minutes!

 

[Andie02]

You could try a bib attached to a headcollar that hangs just below her muzzle that fits just around the sides of her mouth so that she can still eat her hay but prevents her grabbing hold of her rugs. This would only really be practical whilst in the stable and would need to be removed for her to eat her feed, and then replaced as soon as she has eaten her feed. This method worked for me on a youngster many years ago, but you do have to make sure that there is nothing in the stable that she could get hung up on with the headcollar like door hinges and door bolts. We did not buy one but improvised with part of an inner tube of a tyre cut to size, a thickish/stiffish piece of leather with slits cut in to fasten to headcollar with either little straps or baler twine would do the job.