Horse Rug Design

[lynseyhandley]

I am working on a design project for college, whereby myself and my team are looking to design and manufacture an outdoor horse rug. To give us a starting point I would be grateful to hear what you guys rate as the best features that appear on the rugs in todays marketplace. Please also feel free to mention any features that you also dislike and thus recommend we avoid.

Thank-you for your help.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

My two favourite rugs are the Horseware Rambo Duo and the Bucas Smartex Rain. I have lightweight horses that live out 24/7 even in the winter. I also like the Horseware Rhino wug design but I never use full neck covers or combo rugs because they always rub the bottom half of the mane out and are very tight over that area when the horse has it's head down to graze.

Duo with the 300g liner in (no neck cover of course ).

Smatex rain (yes she is in the garden ).

Rhino Wug.

ETA. Ballistic Nylon is my favourite material for horse rugs and the higher the denier the better (so 1200d is better than 600d, although the Rambo is 1000d it is tougher than 1200d polyester).

I like nylon linings best except for the 'stay dry' lining that the Smartex Rain has (fab).

 

[snopuma]

You'd have to improve on a Premier Equine rug and that would be hard!

The are deep, well cut, long lasting, i have one that is a heavyweight its eight years old, never been reproofed, always washed at the end of the season and its not got one single rip on it and nothing needing to be replaced - a huge warmblood stomps round in the winter in it and it never leaked or let him get cold even in snow. It doesn't rub him or his mane and it doesn't slip, its blue, its still blue its never faded, and it cost me originally £60

Good Luck with you project!

 

[starryeyed]

I really like the style & fit of the Amigo rugs, as they seem to fit every shape and size, I've never found them to rub or move about and they seem to be durable too. It's important that rugs are really breathable too, so that the horses don't sweat under a plasticy material - I've found this a problem with some of the cheaper rugs. As mentioned above a lot of people recommend the premier equine rugs but I personally find them a bit too pricey, as much as I'd love one - so a slightly cheaper version would be fab!

I dislike rugs which rub the mane (as faracat said), but do use full neck ones throughout the year so try to use ones which aren't too tight over the neck. Also dislike leg straps after hearing many horror stories over them, much prefer the one fillet string which just goes under the tail.