Is this a 'grey' area in horse welfare?

[shanti]

Im generally a black and white person when it comes to horse welfare, however, I have been discussing a situation recently with various people and hardly anyone has found an issue with it, which surprised me, so I thought I would pose the question here to see if I'm just flat out over-reacting.

Two horses are paddocked just down the road from my place, they have been there for around 12 months. They seem ok to look at and always have hay and water. My issues are that they are always fully rugged head to toe no matter what the weather is like (I'm in Australia, it will very occasionally get to 5 degrees some winter mornings but that's as bad as it gets) yesterday it was 24 degrees and they were fully rugged all day. They have absolutely no shelter at all, their paddock is roughly 1/4 of an acre and there is not a single tree, shrub, bank or built shelter near it, its just a fenced off square flat paddock. So, fully rugged with no shade at all.

Surely I cant be the only one who would find these conditions totally unsatisfactory?

 

[spacefaer]

What sort of rugs? Fly rugs or sweet itch rugs? or proper waterproof ones?

I'd have an issue with the whole situation - the size of the turnout paddocks and lack of shelter and of horse interaction as well as the rugging.

 

[Starzaan]

This sounds like typical Australia for me! I used to be an account manager for Weatherbeeta, and I spent a lot of time working in Australia (WB owns Horseland). I was ASTONISHED at the rugging. Horses wearing five rugs in autumn in Victoria. FIVE!!!!
To me it’s totally unacceptable but it seems to be an Australian thing.
That and horses in tiny paddocks all by themselves, often with no shelter at all. All very bizarre.

 

[shortstuff99]

I guess the issue is we don't know lots of factors that could be contributing to why they are wearing a rug. Do they have sweet itch? Are they elderly? Are they in poor health/ condition? Do they have PSSM? Are they sun reflective rugs?

Hard to tell really.

 

[shanti]

Sorry, should have clarified. They are full winter turnout rugs, with neck attached, fill is 240, only know this because I have the same rug sitting unused in my tack room. I have seen them both ridden and jumped in the joining paddock and they do look fine, shiny coats, not underweight at all and they are not clipped.

 

[Winters100]

Maybe they are oldies. My old schoolmistress is always in at least 100 g more than the others are wearing, often more. I also start with her rugs at least a month before the others need them.

ETA just saw your answer. 240 g does seem a lot - I am only using this weight of rug when it is well below 0.

 

[ihatework]

Sorry, should have clarified. They are full winter turnout rugs, with neck attached, fill is 240, only know this because I have the same rug sitting unused in my tack room. I have seen them both ridden and jumped in the joining paddock and they do look fine, shiny coats, not underweight at all and they are not clipped.

Yes to me that’s a welfare issue.
But (and I’m not condoning it) they will have acclimatised somewhat to it

 

[MuddyMonster]

Are you sure it is the same rug as you have? And doesn't just look similiar.

My friend had some issues at a yard as she uses a liner system so the same outer was used as a 0g, a 50g, 100g, 200g etc depending on time of year.

Another livery was convinced her horse was wearing the same 200g rug for most of the year as the livery had the same brand of rug in the same colour in a 200g weight without being aware the company make their rugs in a variety of colours and with/without the liner system and the colours don't correspond to liner system or weight.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

No horse needs a full neck turnout on in 24 degrees regardless of age that's just cruel so yes definitely a welfare issue, I know of someone near me that used to leave her horses in turnout rugs in those temperatures because she was too lazy to get up there and take them off in the morning.

 

[Birker2020]

Im generally a black and white person when it comes to horse welfare, however, I have been discussing a situation recently with various people and hardly anyone has found an issue with it, which surprised me, so I thought I would pose the question here to see if I'm just flat out over-reacting.

Two horses are paddocked just down the road from my place, they have been there for around 12 months. They seem ok to look at and always have hay and water. My issues are that they are always fully rugged head to toe no matter what the weather is like (I'm in Australia, it will very occasionally get to 5 degrees some winter mornings but that's as bad as it gets) yesterday it was 24 degrees and they were fully rugged all day. They have absolutely no shelter at all, their paddock is roughly 1/4 of an acre and there is not a single tree, shrub, bank or built shelter near it, its just a fenced off square flat paddock. So, fully rugged with no shade at all.

Surely I cant be the only one who would find these conditions totally unsatisfactory?

I'd have an issue with the over rugging but not the paddock size. I hate horses that are over rugged, I find it unbearable to be too hot so I can only imagine how a horse must feel, the ones I know that have been over rugged in the past have all been moody and miserable which isn't surprising when they wear rug after rug.

On our yard we mostly have individual turnout as do nearly all the yards I know in the area as this is what clients prefer on livery yards these days and my paddock certainly isn't massive, but its adequate.

I don't have shelter either but unless its torrential rain or driving wind and rain I don't see the issue. In the summer my horse is out overnight so sun isn't really an issue or at least not for hours at a time like it would be if he were out in the day.

 

[Lyle]

Multiple rugs is, sadly, very much an Australian thing. The temperature dips below 15 degrees and horses are wearing 5 layers.
Rugging is certainly a grey area, because horses are so individual and health/age/paddock layout can make all the difference. I know on our property, the exposed hill can be utterly freezing when a southerly is blowing, but down the bottom where its sheltered can be t-shirt weather. Education over time is the best method to combat this.

 

[Northern]

Im generally a black and white person when it comes to horse welfare, however, I have been discussing a situation recently with various people and hardly anyone has found an issue with it, which surprised me, so I thought I would pose the question here to see if I'm just flat out over-reacting.

Two horses are paddocked just down the road from my place, they have been there for around 12 months. They seem ok to look at and always have hay and water. My issues are that they are always fully rugged head to toe no matter what the weather is like (I'm in Australia, it will very occasionally get to 5 degrees some winter mornings but that's as bad as it gets) yesterday it was 24 degrees and they were fully rugged all day. They have absolutely no shelter at all, their paddock is roughly 1/4 of an acre and there is not a single tree, shrub, bank or built shelter near it, its just a fenced off square flat paddock. So, fully rugged with no shade at all.

Surely I cant be the only one who would find these conditions totally unsatisfactory?

Not a grey area, it's downright cruel but the relevant authorities don't seem particularly interested in it. My horses live on a big agistment and around half these horses are inappropriately rugged for this time of year. There is a paddock of 4 horses further down who have Bucas rugs on in 25 degree weather. These haven't been removed since the start of winter. Don't particularly care that these rugs have a huge temperature range, if its warm, sunny and/or humid they don't need to be on. Then you have the "lazy" owners who put their rugs on at the start of the winter and go off feeling all fuzzy and caring, but they don't show up again until November when it is forecast to be 30 degrees for the first time . It's a sore point, can't you tell?

There is a common misconception here that heavy rugging promotes a nice, short and shiny coat. Probably ignorance rather than anything else, as there tends to be less interest in educating themselves about proper horse management than listening to XYZ next door who knows everything!

 

[silv]

You see this all too frequently in NZ too. To me this is a welfare issue but seems acceptable to many

 

[Cloball]

you see it over here too at the first sign of some winter rain. I was out riding at mid day last weekend me and the horse were sweating profusely as it was so warm and sunny without a breath of wind and came across more than one pony rugged up the to the eye balls.