Is my horse the only one who refuses to grow a winter coat?!

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Ginn

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As the title says really. Ok, we do have a slight winter coat - we've gone from bright bay to very dark bay (nearly black on her neck!) and its maybe an inch long (at best!). Have tried being mean and leaving her unrugged (que cold shivering miserable pony who refuses to move/eat and drops weight overnight!) have tried rugging but only lightly (que grumpy pony who again drops weight!) so now I have given up and rugged her according to what she seems happiest in! She is now out at night in a full neck h/w and a m/w (with fleece underneath on cooloer days) in the day! I now have a warm happy pony again who is munching away and not dropping weight. Even charging around like a lunatic for 30 mins in her h/w (a weatherbeeta taka - yes I thought they were for clipped ponies in freezing conditions too!!) she doesn't even break a sweat!! Have checked her temp etc and thats all normal so I don't think she's unwell, just a wimp!

She is very thin skinned though - a typical tb coat and although I don't mind rugging her well I do worry that I am over rugging her but when I try to rug less warmly she is very good at showing me that she is cold. I will also point out that I rug her entirely on the weather - if its freezing she'll have her h/w on butif its mild I'll only put her m/w on.

My YO says its because of her type and that it is fairly typical for tbs to not grow a sufficient winter coat but I have wintered several tbs out all winter unrugged and in work! The only upside is that if this is the norm for her then I won't need to do much clipping when she's in work!

Sorry for the essay but am I alone here?
 
Nope, my mates TB colt isnt either. He has coloured skin his coat is so thin! Do you wnat to swap??!! My boy is like a hairy mammoth!!
 
Nope my horse refused to grown a winter coat too, she got slightly hairier on her belly but even that was still shorter than a normal horses summer coat
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I clipped her anyway at the weekend as she was getting a bit sweaty when being ridden and i wanted to start putting her thicker rugs on her now its getting a bit chilly but she looks a bit patchy as the clippers couldn't take off some of her coat as it was still too short. Whoops!!!!
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Your not on your own, my yearling arab has no coat to speak of and is currently rugged up from top to toe. I have found that rugging/not rugging doesnt really change how the winter coat is grown that much, obviously you can avoid a really woolley coat by rugging earlier in the year and keeping horse warm.
 
My TB is the same as yours, gone very dark bay, but still a very fine coat and i just rug him depending on the weather. Saves on clipping!
 
Try putting up with a wooly clydesdale x, in the summer. He has the thickest coat to die for for the winter! Don't make sence.
Each horse to their own really. Don't worry, just rug up accordingly and all will be fine.
 
I had this problem with 4 or 5 of mine. Seems like a really silly thing to do but I rugged all of mine and then a few days later took the rugs off - it worked! They have now shed the whole of their summer coats and are starting to look fluffier.
 
Nope... my boy will not grow a coat.
He's tb mind you, so has an excuse. Sisters full bred connie also has no coat...odd pony!
 
My TB grows some sort of fuzz! No proper coat, he shivers if I even think of taking off his rug. I think that's just TB's for you, they dont grow coats! I have heaps of hair left over when I clip the natives, maybe I could collect it up and put it in bags to sell to TB owners who could stick it on! LOL. Dont think that would take off.....
 
My American TB is exactly the same - he grows virtually no winter coat at all! His only concession to winter is to have a slightly hairier chin & some small feathers on his fetlocks!! Barely sweats when being ridden & saves time & effort on clipping. Great come the spring too as you don't get covered in moulting hair!!!
 
Nope you are definately not alone. Mine went through what i thought was the winter coat phase about a month ago, she went really fluffy and I thought great will clip her and be done with it. Now it has what looks like a summer coat again... I give up! Don't think this indecisive weather helps either though.
 
Been thinking about this one, and the leaves on our trees have'nt even dropped, does this mean that the seasons have slowed down and our horses know something we dont?
 
My Welsh C who is now 20 has not grown a winter coat in the last 2 years with me but I have seen him with a winter coat in a photo from previous owner about 10 years ago who didn't rug him. His winter coat is better than his summer one, he gets so glossy where he's rugged up and his coat goes pearlescent almost.

He's rugged up like I would if he were fully clipped.

He just gets slight fluff either side of the top of his hind legs on the outside only.

I love it!! No clipping, yeah!
 
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