Horse wet and shivering?

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RockyNutmeg

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Today has been raining all day and my 22-year-old horse is wet and shivering. He's normally out all year round with no rugs on, at the moment I've brought him in to have his dinner as I always do but have popped a waffle rug on him for a little bit of warmth.
Is he fine to go back out in the rain rugless? Or should I wait for him to dry and pop him out with a light rug on?

*edit*
Also he is on a diet at the moment (overweight cob) should I give him more grazing if he's shivering? I noticed his poo count has dropped today.

*edit* it's about 14 degrees at the moment and isn't supposed to drop to lower than 13 tonight.
Thank you for reading
 
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Hi, it's 14 degrees. The only worry I had with putting a rug on was I was told to leave it off otherwise his coat won't come through for winter and he would need to be rugged all winter. Thank you for your reply.
*edit* It was a vets advice to have him unrugged this winter for weight control.
 
It's still fairly warm and if there are no other medical issues I'd be tempted to leave unrugged at your vets advice.

I left my 22yo unclipped and unrugged all last winter as he needed to lose weight. He was fine!
 
I would leave unrigged but give enough low calorie forage to allow the horse to generate his own heat. I do not agree with starvation to promote weight loss for this very reason. Ifyour horse isn't used to eating straw chaff I would rug him tonight, as he will grow his coat despite this, one night really won't make any difference and this is exceptional weather at this time of the year. Horses tend to grow their coats according to daylight length.
 
My 23yr old was the same today so I am told (Im at work but OH up there) although he recons she was shaking with fear at his umbrella lol I will clip her tommorow and the rugs will come out. Don't usually clip this early but can't see the point in persevering with the nakedness if its chucking it down anyway. She might as well be warm,dry and not needing to be hosed after every ride! She already has an epic winter coat which gets madder each year
 
My 9 yrs old-age was shivering too, i rugged her,the temperature had dropped by 16 degree in less than 18 hrs and it was raining too. I won't leave shivering horses unrugged out in the rain
 
I too would put a rug on but over the waffle rug. It's the sudden change in temperature that has had them suddenly feeling the cold. It is also very wet and windy. I would not out a horse out rugless just so it would lose weight. There are far more humane ways.
 
My 23 year old was shivering too. I put a lightweight rug on for a couple of hours and then took it off again once it stopped raining. However, she is rather a poor doer these days and I don't want her losing weight at this point in the year.

If you'd rather leave unrugged I'd offer a bit of hay which should help warm him up. I know some owners that are happy to leave a fat horse to 'shiver the weight off' but I've never been able to bring myself to do it!
 
RockyNutmeg said:
Hi, it's 14 degrees. The only worry I had with putting a rug on was I was told to leave it off otherwise his coat won't come through for winter and he would need to be rugged all winter. Thank you for your reply.
*edit* It was a vets advice to have him unrugged this winter for weight control.
Click to expand...

Horses coats change with the daylight hours rather than how warm or cold it is. If their hides get wet through and they cannot get warm again they shiver. Would get a rain sheet just to keep the wet off him.
 
My 17 year old Welsh d was quivering all over when it rained overnight last weekend. Not especially cold but she's muzzled & as lean as I can get her so think hungry & wet. I popped her in the stable with a fleece & she was fine. Quite surprised as she's normally find but she was wet.
 
Thank you for everyone's advice, in the end I kept him indoors for about an hour with a waffle rug on and by then the rain had stopped and he was dry. It was forcast dry over night and considerably warmer without the rain so turned him out again ruggless, checked up on him later that night and he was quite happy and not shivering.
For future I will put a light sheet on him if we have any bouts of costant rain. :)
 
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