Last night -16, anyone still out 24/7 unrugged?

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Crazydancer

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Sorry - I know so many people have done this to death already, but for the first time I feel a bit under pressure.
So my ArabxWelsh is out 24/7, and unrugged. All the others are rugged. They have ad-lib haylage, but no shelter as such, other than a hedge on 2 sides of the field. Up to now, I haven't worried, he is fat and fluffy and when I visit during the day he seems happy and warm. But last night we were down to -16, and the YO (who's opinion I do value, as she is very experienced) said she felt sorry for him.
So I'm a bit in two minds now. I really don't recall it ever being this cold, and I'm only getting to the yard during the 'warmest' part of the day as I'm getting a lift with another owner who has a 4x4 (as I don't!) so am worried that he is getting cold at night.
Any thoughts?
 
Does he look miserable and cold? If not, leave the boy be. He has natural shelter from the wind with the hedges, and its not wet. If it were cold AND wet, maybe it would be a different scenario, but its just cold!
 
Does he actually look/seem cold?:) Is snow sitting on top of his coat or melting? Is he dropping condition?

When the UK isn't having our winter -16C is normal (during the day) I totally ignore the temperature regarding the horses, if they are cold I rug, if they aren't I don't. Simple. All the usual applies (hay, shelter blah, blah,blah, ad nauseum)

You know your horse best (although your YO probably has a good idea too, I know most of my Boarders better than their owners do) Do as you think will benefit him the most.
 
Why does she feel sorry for him? Is he cold?
My 2 are out with little shelter, hay and unrugged. They don't come running to the gate, are both healthy and neither looks miserable whereas some of the other rugged ones around us do. And one is trace clipped :)
 
My miniature is out 24/7 unrugged - he's super hairy and can afford to drop some condition. However my 2 oldies are very well rugged because I want the feed I give them to turn into fat and not just "feed the weather" (i.e. be utilised on keeping them warm). So basically if he's a reasonably good doer and well covered i'd leave him as he is. If you're trying to put weight on then stick a rug on him.
 
joeanne said:
Does he look miserable and cold? If not, leave the boy be. He has natural shelter from the wind with the hedges, and its not wet. If it were cold AND wet, maybe it would be a different scenario, but its just cold!
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Agree with this, if he is still fat and fluffy i wouldn't be worrying. If he starts to drop condition or look depressed then i would rug. I keep getting snide comments about my youngster being out without a rug but he is so fat i can only just feel his ribs, if he starts to lose weight thats when i'll rug :)
 
I know what you mean. I have a highland who is out naked 24/7 at the minute, there is also a section A unrugged as well. This morning the naked ones actually felt warmer than some of the rugged ones -when you could get through their super duper winter coats to feel! Both ponies have grown even better coats than usual, I am quite sure they would be colder if I rugged them now as it would just flatten their natural insulation. If it was wet as well I might feel differently, but at the moment they are both staying naked.
 
Mine are all still out 24/7 and no rugs, TB's, TB x's and friesians - horses are brilliant at coping with dry cold - their metabolism adjusts, they are not like us where they are going backwards and forwards from warm buildings to outside so we never get a chance to acclimatise.
As long as they have shelter to get out of the wind and add lib hay/haylage, the breakdown of which generates heaps of heat, and have a good body condition then they are much better off and far happier being out and not smothered in heaps of rugs. If it gets wet and cold then my TB's get a rain sheet, and they have the barn to shelter in, but at the moment none of mine have even ventured into the barn at all this winter.
 
My friends highland is out in this 24/7. But if the snow comes again he will have to go in to isolation as he woolfed down the hay put out for the TB's so much that he put almost 50kgs of weight on during the last bout. She is desperate to get him to drop some weight before the spring & he spends half his life in a grazing muzzle. but a muzzle in the snow does seem harsh. So he will be put in a small paddock with a ration of hay, for his own good.
 
It just depends on how the horse copes...my lad normally winters in a lite to mw rug un-clipped but this year he is naked so he does not come out of winter overweight like last year! He is coping really well and has a great big woolly coat.
It has been hard for me thinking of him out in -10 etc with no rug but he has been perfectly warm when checked and has not lost any weight at all! I do tend to pop a rain sheet on though if it is due to be lashing wind and rain...but so far it has just been cold and mainly dry.
 
I have struggled with this as this is my horses first year out 24/7. My old boy is rugged to the eyeballs and has a shelter - he feels the cold and drops weight like you wouldn't believe in the cold.

My welsh is unrugged - last year he was in full work clipped and rugged and stabled. thsi year he is having the winter off, and is out with natural shelter - lots of hedging overhanging the field, and has a small feed and hay mornign and night. This morning he was 'frosted' to say the least but ears were warm and he seemed fine. More problematic is the frozen lumpy ground on his unshod feet.

Ditto the comments that if it was wet and cold I would rug.
 
I think our night time temps her in the midlands is about -10.

Our ponies are out unrugged. They are a mixture of NF and welshies though, so they are hardy and well roughed off for the winter and are not clipped. They are all holding weight very well, but they tend to put weight on anyway at the 1st sight of winter (typical ponies!)

Weve only had, so far 3 inches of snow and when we do hay them, they get bored of it very quickly and would rather forage around, digging. This is keeping them warm.

In fact, my old mare pushed the hay out of the way with her nose, snorted in disgust, and then turned round and peed on it!!. Then in her 'busy old independant old lady way' proceeded to walk away from the hay and continue digging to get the long grass we are lucky to still have under the snow!!.
 
My Arab x Welsh was perfectly capable of living out in these conditions when he was younger, so I suspect if your boy is looking fat and fluffy he's fine. My pony is fine as well, and she's never worn a rug in her life.
Beware of feeling sorry for your lad and putting a lightweight rug on him, his natural insulation is keeping him warm at the moment, if you flatten his hair you will need to compensate for that effect.
 
Tinypony said:
My Arab x Welsh was perfectly capable of living out in these conditions when he was younger, so I suspect if your boy is looking fat and fluffy he's fine. My pony is fine as well, and she's never worn a rug in her life.
Beware of feeling sorry for your lad and putting a lightweight rug on him, his natural insulation is keeping him warm at the moment, if you flatten his hair you will need to compensate for that effect.
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Agree with this, youll notice first time you put a lightweight on they will feel cold under it for a good few days but I find they start to warm up , i prefer to use a lightweight to keep them dry rather than worry about an unclipped well weighted horse being cold
 
My section A mare is still out 24/7 and totally naked. She can certainly afford to drop some condition- although she hasn't really done so yet :rolleyes:. She has a thick coat- gets hay- has a lovely shelter and seems very perky in this weather, so atm I'm not worried at all. If he's happy and seems well then I'd leave him as he is.
 
Alexart said:
Mine are all still out 24/7 and no rugs, TB's, TB x's and friesians - horses are brilliant at coping with dry cold - their metabolism adjusts, they are not like us where they are going backwards and forwards from warm buildings to outside so we never get a chance to acclimatise.
As long as they have shelter to get out of the wind and add lib hay/haylage, the breakdown of which generates heaps of heat, and have a good body condition then they are much better off and far happier being out and not smothered in heaps of rugs. If it gets wet and cold then my TB's get a rain sheet, and they have the barn to shelter in, but at the moment none of mine have even ventured into the barn at all this winter.
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^^^ this.

I have 2 out naked and they are fine. The one was out last year naked and came through the winter fatter than I would have liked. I have rugged the third as he struggled unrugged last year, but he seems to be the least warm of the lot. Horses cope far better with this weather than rain and wind.
 
There is one unrugged mare living out, and she seems to be coping fine. The hay filler is never empty when its like this and she looks well.

An easy way to ease your mind though would be to maybe put a weight tape on your boy and then you can see how he is coping.

Logically (and I don't know for sure as I haven't done this so I am asking the question!) if your horse is unrugged and has the requisite fluffy coat - if you do put a rug on albeit for a couple of days - would this impact the cover that your horse had previously? i.e coat being flattened etc? or is that just rubbish? I rug but that is also to do with me placing human emotions on my horses and wanting them to look snug. When my old boy lived out, he was heavily rugged..!
 
I have some still with no rugs on and out 24/7 natural shelter on 2 sides of the field, was temped to rug them as they are the only ones i have not rugged but they are looking the best they have looked this year with no rugs, compared to the last couple of years with big rugs on, the rest are only in l/w or m/w/
I would leave him as he is if you start to rug it is then unfair to take the rug off as they will feel the cold a bit more, YO prob meant felt sorry as he was the only one unrugged and putting human emotion into it but if he is happy leave him be
 
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My 5 year old NF mare is in a mw, no neck with a mw with neck on top, hay and a hard feed of grass nuts and alfa a chaff once a day.

She had previously run on the forest but has fairly receently had a foal and was underweight so was brought in and sold to me. Vet thinks another 20kg of weight and she will be "normal" weight :)
 
Its the first winter any of mine have lived out, they have a field shelter - only so far used when its snowing - and hay. The welsh C has put on loads of weight and is going to be a nightmare come the spring. The newfie 2 year old who was skinny at the start of winter looks great, they both have coats like yaks and the ice doesn't melt on them. The welsh C isn't coughing - always is by now if in 0 and they are as bright as buttons. If my hunter mare wasn't such a blouse she'd be out too.
 
My Section A just has a rainsheet on to keep any rain/snow off his back (he's prone to rainscald). He's a porky one and he's actually starting to shed some weight so am happy to keep him with just a sheet on so he's trimmer for Spring :)

Dealer who's yard is opp ours has had his TB's out all winter unrugged....I always feel bad when I'm tempted to put rugs on my little'un - we don't give horses the credit they're due when it comes to cold temps! (Obviously excluding those who are elderly etc etc)
 
Both ponies out last night without rugs.. and plenty of hay and a little mud!

They have LW turnouts on if its wet/snowy, but otherwise seem quite happy (and still plenty round enough!) naked when its cold but fine and/or not too windy
 
My Section A is in at night but is unrugged 24/7 if that helps?

If he was out 24/7 he would still be unrugged. However, he is very very fat and I am actually trying to get him to lose some weight before the Spring!!
 
Thanks for the feedback. It probably seemed a bit of a numpty question... but to be honest although I've had him for 17 yrs, this is only the 3rd winter out since he was a little 'un, and is by FAR the coldest. He's the only unrugged one, and YO made a comment about feeing sorry for him, so just wanted some feedback on what everyone else was doing. He is fat, and has put weight on in the last month as we are feeding ab-lib haylage, and seemed warm and happy earlier. So I've left him for now and will continue to monitor.
 
There is a standard-bred stud near us. The horses are out 24/7, unrugged. There is very little natural shelter for one group but they all look absolutely fine. They have plenty of haylage available and are fed carrots in bulk. I'm sure yours will be ok. Most horses only wear rugs because their owners don't appreciate how well they can cope without.

ETA, I've just read that he has put weight on recently. In that case, he's doing great. Most horses with enough to eat don't need rugs.
 
I have two out rugless at the moment and have no plans of rugging them any time soon! They are still fat and fluffy and seem more then happy out 24/7. One is a 2 year old Section D, the other an older Section A.
 
My youngster is in a middleweight rug, the oldie mare I look after is in a heavyweight with neck, my Clydesdale is unrugged, very hairy and fat enough. They all have constant access to haylage, lots of natural shelter and a field shelter. The baby is only rugged as I've not had him long and he was used to being rugged, next year he won't be as he's a hardy type.
 
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