Is it me or has everyone just lost the plot re rugging??

For the first time in 15 years i own a horse that requires rugging. I know i sound old but back in the day it was just a New Zealand for turnout and jute rug with roller in the stable. Blankets stolen from the airing cupboard if needed - folded to a point and secured under roller....and usually hanging round horses back legs in the morning.....ahhh the good old days 😊😊😊 I'm so glad my horses are at home as I'm constantly in and out taking rugs on and off whilst trying to get the hang of it all. My met office weather app is used more than Facebook and I reckon I've lost half a stone with all the running back and forwards to the field doing rug checks 😂😂😂
 
No, it's not just you.

And yes, I do feel it is my business when it's sometimes a welfare issue.

I have seen horses standing with the sun blazing down on their backs with a rug on, with no where to go for shelter. If I'm hot in a T-Shirt then I'm quite positive that the poor horses must be blooming boiling.

Always have and always will believe that horses would much rather be a bit chilly, than be too hot and not be able to escape the heat.
 
glamourpuss said:
So the thread title is 'is it just me or has EVERYONE lost the plot'

I can categorically state that it is just you. From what I see in the horse world the majority of horse owners know their horses better than any passing random & try their best to rug their horses to keep them comfortable & happy.
Sometimes people make choices that personally I wouldn't (this is with all aspects of horse care not just rugging!) but they make them because they know their animal & how they wish to keep them better than I.
Sometimes, just sometimes they [gasp] make a mistake. They put a warm rug on & the sun comes out so the next day they leave unrugged & the temperature barely climbs above zero. Does this mean they have lost the plot or they are a crap owner.....no, it just means they are human & liable to error!

I keep 3 of my horses at home, all are not clipped & living out at the moment. Today one of them is wearing a HW rug. Before you all gasp & condemn me to burn in hell with all the other over ruggers in the land of 'lost the plot' I can fully justify my reasons.
1) this is an incredibly poor doer who can literally drop weight over night. I'll be buggered if I'm going to spend all my money on the best hay/Haylage & feed I can buy for him to shiver off the calories.
2) He is a cold horse. He hardly grows a coat & always requires more rugging than any of my others
3) He likes to be warm. And yes I do know that. If he's cold he acts distressed in the field. He will charge along the fence line, pace at the gate, neigh constantly. But if he is warm then he is happy to stay out.
Whilst HHO wouldn't be the same without a few hundred over rugging threads condemning others for their horse keeping choices I agree with those who say it does get a little tiresome.
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Totally agree with this post! and to throw something else in - given the changeable weather and the fact not everyone can keep their horses close to work/at home, then sometimes it's a case of reading the weather forecast and rugging appropriately. if the weather changes during the day and they get hot, not everyone can pop back to change the rugs. I don't think it's a welfare case and people should get all the facts before casting judgements
 
I've seen a few instances of people with rugs on natives. Any healthy native pony worth it's salt should be able to winter out unrugged!!! I can understand people wanting to keep them clean to ride, or rugging if clipped/aged/have health problems but other than that it riles me to see them rugged.

I have a section A and a section C, both winter out and neither have worn a rug other than when they were being shown.
 
Each horse and situation needs to be considered on a case by case basis.

I do agree that an awful lot of people seem to lack common sense when it comes to rugging their horses and will rug them if they are cold themselves.
 
Optimissteeq said:
Totally agree with this post! and to throw something else in - given the changeable weather and the fact not everyone can keep their horses close to work/at home, then sometimes it's a case of reading the weather forecast and rugging appropriately. if the weather changes during the day and they get hot, not everyone can pop back to change the rugs. I don't think it's a welfare case and people should get all the facts before casting judgements
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AND not to mention the completely inaccurate weather forecasts! How many times have I left my oldie un-rugged because the forecaster says it'll be a nice, dry day only to find a poor sodden, miserable looking shivery pony at the end of the day because they got it totally wrong!
 
southerncomfort said:
AND not to mention the completely inaccurate weather forecasts! How many times have I left my oldie un-rugged because the forecaster says it'll be a nice, dry day only to find a poor sodden, miserable looking shivery pony at the end of the day because they got it totally wrong!
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Oh the amount of times BBC weather has told me it's going to rain then it hasn't and vice versa!
 
It has been very cold here this week, not going above 10 in the day and going down to 2 tonight! Ours are in MW's but might put something extra on tonight as he is full clipped.
 
minesadouble said:
I've seen a few instances of people with rugs on natives. Any healthy native pony worth it's salt should be able to winter out unrugged!!! I can understand people wanting to keep them clean to ride, or rugging if clipped/aged/have health problems but other than that it riles me to see them rugged.

I have a section A and a section C, both winter out and neither have worn a rug other than when they were being shown.
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Maybe other people are showing their then too? :)
Just because a native is out in a rug, it doesn't have a label on it to say 'my owner isn't showing me, I have a heavy weight rug on, please call WHW?
It might be clipped & hunting (mine certainly used to be, including several Fells, all clipped apart from legs & front of face).

Not just you, but I do think some people need to wind their neck's in a bit and not make guesses at animals they drive/ride/walk past :)

TFF, off for lunch :)
 
minesadouble said:
I've seen a few instances of people with rugs on natives. Any healthy native pony worth it's salt should be able to winter out unrugged!!! I can understand people wanting to keep them clean to ride, or rugging if clipped/aged/have health problems but other than that it riles me to see them rugged.
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Do you know for a fact that the natives you see are not ridden and are unclipped? My native is clipped, but you wouldn't know for sure unless you were quite close as the clipped and unclipped parts of his coat are the same colour. I wouldn't expect anyone without permission to be in his field to get close enough to tell for sure. My previous native was rugged when unclipped - our fields are exposed and he felt the cold, luckily he was worth much more than "salt". He was an individual and was treated as such by the person who knew him best.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people seem to know exactly what rugs other peoples horses are wearing and therefore have an opinion on the suitablity of the rugs for that horse. Do people go and check how many layers other peoples horses are wearing? Do they look at the labels on the rugs to see what weight they are?
 
CobsCanDo said:
It never ceases to amaze me how many people seem to know exactly what rugs other peoples horses are wearing and therefore have an opinion on the suitablity of the rugs for that horse. Do people go and check how many layers other peoples horses are wearing? Do they look at the labels on the rugs to see what weight they are?
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Isn't it obvious at a glance ? A horse trussed up like a Michelin man is easy to see.
 
CobsCanDo said:
I don't think it is easy to tell if a horse at a distance is wearing a MW or a HW. If the horse is wearing layers it may just be wearing a summer sheet to make it easier to keep the layer next to his skin clean and a MW rug.
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I was thinking more of horses that share a field and stable block, whose owners you see on a daily basis.
My eyes aren't good enough to see which horse is which, from a distance, let alone what it's wearing or how sweaty it might be.
 
Personally I'm not a fan of those hoods - the head things with peep holes! Doubt many horses really need them, unless you are possibly in Russia in a -40 blizzard?!? Or your horse is a sphinx cat? As for rugs, each to their own. I've given up caring about others, although do feel sorry if an error on the owners part was made in the morning at 4 degrees, then the sun comes out it turns out to be 20 degrees. Many an owner I'm sure has done that.
I don't own a heavy weight, but nor do I own a horse who remotely needs one.

Happy rugging folks !!
 
MerrySherryRider said:
My young collie looks healthy and nothing is wrong with him......but he has hip dysplasia and when it is cold has a fleecey rug on as I find keeping his hips warm.helps him cope with the cold and damp more.

Just because they look healthy doesn't mean they are.

But I do agree with the rug thing, some I know are in two/three rugs already
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MerrySherryRider said:
I was thinking more of horses that share a field and stable block, whose owners you see on a daily basis.
My eyes aren't good enough to see which horse is which, from a distance, let alone what it's wearing or how sweaty it might be.
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Yep this, I only judge owners when I know the facts i.e types of horses and weights of rugs. For example the obese unclipped welshies on my yard that have full neck HW turnouts on.... I'm not being condescending or anything I'm just genuinely baffled as to why?
 
This weather has been a nightmare ATM here! My tb who hates being cold is in a medium weight right now without a neck, my fat welsh dx is just in a fleece and my older Arab in a 100g with a neck and the younger one in a 100g without a neck. It's amazing how different each horse is and what they need.... Therefore i do believe we should know all info before saying anything
 
SpringArising said:
I do agree with much of your post, but do you not think that it's because you are rugging that he isn't growing a coat?
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No, I don't think this is the case (& it is something I've considered) I try, really try to encourage coat growth. I leave him naked as much as I can particularly in Autumn & on milder winter days. I don't use no fill rain sheets on him because I think that if it's warm enough to not require filling then it's warm enough to go without a rug....but no, other than a hairy chin his winter coat is pretty non existent. He is a TB.
My other 2 at home are again rugged very differently. My old TB who does grow a decent coat will wear a MW most of the colder nights & go up to a HW when it goes below freezing & again be naked as much as possible.
The pony will be naked all winter unless we get a really cold snap & her weight drops as a result. To rug her willy nilly would be cruel as her coat is so thick & warm.
I really think that this is one of the examples where an observer might be shocked at a horse wearing a HW where it's not expected but it's far from the owner not giving it any thought!
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
as long as every horse is healthy and comfortable, what business is it of yours....

we have one who is a very very cold chap, poor doer, in hard work and fully clipped....he's got a magnet sheet, fleece, no neck HW and a snuggy hood on at night, and a HW full neck and LW under rug on in the day when out.

The old boy is hairy as hell and only in a LW in the day and a LW stable rug at night with a LW turnout on top to stop the stable stains seeping through!

the baby isnt clipped but has no coat really, is in a MW in the day as shivers in the wind and rain even when not really that cold, but out the weather at night is plenty warm enough in a very thin fleece.

horses for courses. none are hot, or cold, or itchy, or sweaty etc.
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Couldn't agree more.
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
Maybe other people are showing their then too? :)
Just because a native is out in a rug, it doesn't have a label on it to say 'my owner isn't showing me, I have a heavy weight rug on, please call WHW?
It might be clipped & hunting (mine certainly used to be, including several Fells, all clipped apart from legs & front of face).

Not just you, but I do think some people need to wind their neck's in a bit and not make guesses at animals they drive/ride/walk past :)

TFF, off for lunch :)
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I'm afraid I am more than aware of what some of them are doing as there are quite a few on my yard!!!
If a native pony with a full coat, in full health Is incapable of wintering out without a rug then it is a poor excuse of the breed.

Our vet once had a similar rant at a couple of our liveries who insisted on rugging their Shetland ponies for the winter. They ceased to rug and amazingly enough the ponies thrived!!
Obviously there are situations where an owner rugs for the right reasons but I agree that many owners rug because they themselves are cold rather than the horse.
 
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Its something I've really noticed since moving here to Ireland. I arrived in June, there are horses everywhere, and I've yet to see a rug. I did think at one of my previous yards people over-rugged (it was a showing yard and they liked to pile on the duvets) but I wouldn't have said people generally over-rugged or did so on my most recent yard. TBH it was a bit of a shock when I first arrived, seeing these TB and ISH types out un-rugged in really heavy rain and strong wind. There are also a lot of Connemara's of course! They all seem perfectly healthy and happy though. Of course most seem to be broodmares or youngstock so aren't clipped and don't need to be kept clean for riding.

Actually I tell a lie I have seen one horse wearing a rug, it was a gypsy pony tethered at the side of a road.

As I'm not using my two at the moment (too busy renovating the house) I've let them get hairy and haven't yet put a rug on either of them. Of course the companion / daughter's lead rein rescue pony has only got one rug at the moment and judging from his reaction when I tried it on him after buying it I don't think he's ever worn one in his life (he stood stock still and refused to move until I took it off).
 
minesadouble said:
If a native pony with a full coat, in full health Is incapable of wintering out without a rug then it is a poor excuse of the breed.
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I have two natives:

A fine section B yearling that will winter out unrugged, he is oblivious to bad weather. he has a thin turnout rug in case of sustained bad weather but I am not anticipating using it

A beautifully bred section A that HAS wintered out unrugged but does not thrive on it, loses weight easily and wont lie down without a rug on, he gets very agitated and visibly tired by bad weather. he therefore does get rugged when appropriate and is miles happier for it

I think the fact that I don't rug both ponies to the same level shows I have some common sense! if one needs it then he needs it, I refuse to leave him unrugged on the principle that he should be able to cope because of his breed.
 
WelshD said:
I have two natives:

A fine section B yearling that will winter out unrugged, he is oblivious to bad weather. he has a thin turnout rug in case of sustained bad weather but I am not anticipating using it
I a

A beautifully bred section A that HAS wintered out unrugged but does not thrive on it, loses weight easily and wont lie down without a rug on, he gets very agitated and visibly tired by bad weather. he therefore does get rugged when appropriate and is miles happier for it

I think the fact that I don't rug both ponies to the same level shows I have some common sense! if one needs it then he needs it, I refuse to leave him unrugged on the principle that he should be able to cope because of his breed.[/QUOTE

I have 10 horse/ponies, 2 out of the 10 are currently rugged, both happen to be TBs. I very much agree that you should rug according to need.
Am surprised the B thrives better than the A I have to say (not doubting you for a moment btw) as Bs are generally the pussies of the Welshies when it comes to weather! My A unfortunately holds it's weight whatever the weather. She is beautifully bred and very successfully shown but it seems her goal in life to achieve the build of a Sumo wrestler!!
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