Leaving a native naked through winter.. Should I even in snow?

My natives love snow, they fluff up their coats and are always warm. They also like the extra hay they get when it snows :). They do have natural shelter, and a big shed to use if they want to. I have never needed to rug them yet.
 
I would get yourself at least a good lightweight turnout blanket. Always better to have one at hand even if you never use it than not having one when you do need it.

Horses are fine in snow. In fact, snow is good, better than ice, better than rain, better than mud. It isn't wet, and as long as it stays snow and not that godawful wet slushy muck the UK gets then horses are fine.

What causes the trouble is when it starts sleeting (said slushy muck) combined with wind and that is when horses need some shelter or rugging. If a native has the option of shelter, and ad-lib forage available then they cope fine. Low temperatures are fine too as long as horses are dry and can find shelter.

My rule of thumb is to take each day as it comes, keep a close eye, and hand, on your horses condition. It is mid September, and about 15C, I am freezing, the fire is lit and it hasn't stopped raining for two days solidly (like being back in dear old Wales :( ) I have three mares in rainsheets because they were cold and miserable - the point I am making is that there is NO set day, date or temperature to start blanketing horses, if they can benefit from some artificial help then, do it! and sod what anyone else says - your horse, your business.

I blanket my horses because I don't see the point in feeding the weather, in my part of Ontario -15C is average merely a bit nippy, snow is normal, feet of it, for months, but most of mine are actually more than capable of dealing with winter naked. Anyone saying "Oh, but they are used to it" is wrong (sorry) my babies deal with their first winter perfectly well, they are no different from a British horse experiencing a colder than normal winter.
 
I have various native x tbs. All live out 24/7 with good shelters.

One is always rugged for large parts of the winter because she feels the cold.

One hates being rugged and so pretty much isn't. I usually offer but she makes it clear she would rather not be.

One has the most amazing coat. When I put my hand in it is lovely and warm. I would still rug her if she needed it. Last winter was so mild I did not rug her at all.

I have rugs available for all of them though.

I also have no issue with riding a wet horse just take the worst off the saddle area with a towel. Once ridden that area is dry.

Every horse and every set up is different so what suits one will not suit another.
 
As many others have said, snow per se is no problem, but the combination of wind, wet, and no shelter. I'd much rather have a sharp snowy winter than one hovering just above freezing with endless rain and mud.
 
I have a x breed, a cob, an old WB and an old TB, only the oldies get a rug, the last two winters rugs were only MWs, both were toasty warm on my late night checks, (by torchlight) the younger ones had ample winter coats to cope, I rug to the horses, if they feel chilly, they get extra hay and or a warmer rug, snow itself insulates and provides heat, strange but true
 
No it wont need a rug in fact research has yet to find a well fed, healthy horse that has suffered in anyway due to being cold, hundreds die every year from being overheated though. Good food, some natural shelter and room to move are the only thing natives need. In fact the winter is usually a good time to get weight off them.
 
Just a word of caution regarding the myth that all natives are hardy and never need a rug.

Twelve years ago my horse's field companion pony died of hypothermia. She was a native, unclipped and not often groomed, so she had plenty of natural oils in her thick coat. She had access to a large, east facing field shelter, which was bedded down with deep straw and there was adlib hay provided, plus she had a token feed daily. The pony belonged to a neighbour, but I saw to her daily. She was holding her weight well going into November, but the weather forecast predicted a drop in temperature. I expressed my concern to the pony's owner, suggesting that she needed a rug, but the owner didn't agree.

Sure enough, the temperature dropped. I put my boy's turnout rug on him. It wasn't below freezing, but we had that awful 'mizzle' where the air felt damp and the atmosphere was grey and quite misty and very chilly. I went to the horses in the morning and did the usual poo picking, feeding, fluffing up the field shelter bedding etc. Both looked fine and were eating when I left. Then I got a phone call from a paddock neighbour after lunch to say that the pony had been down in the field for a while and my horse was stood over her looking concerned.

The owner and the vet were called, but we couldn't save her. After an hour or so of trying to get her warm and to coax her to her feet, we were starting to lose the light and the weather was getting colder and she was deteriorating. Sadly she was PTS.

It was too late and too dark to move her and my poor horse wouldn't leave her side, so he stood vigil over her body through the night, and I took hay and water over to him whilst he stood over her, because he wouldn't leave her.

The neighbour had more or less dumped the pony on me and paid nothing towards her upkeep for the two years she was with me. I should have gone out and bought her a rug, but at the time money was tight and as I was paying for her upkeep, I just wanted the owner to take some responsibility for her and to contribute to her upkeep.

She was in good health, was boss in the field (so no issues over access to the field shelter and food) and she was 19 years old. It's my belief that a decent turnout rug would/could have saved her life. I've had to live with that thought all these years.

Whilst I appreciate that a lot of horses don't feel the cold, some do, so please judge each horse as an individual and rug accordingly. If your horse looks cold and miserable, it probably is!
 
Cobbytype, I suggest that the pony in question was actually sick and developed the hypythermia as a result of lying down and not moving.

I come from the era when only the wealthy had rugs on their horses, I had ponies and horses for decades that never wore rugs and no one got the sniffles, cold or laminitis!
 
suestowford said:
My natives love snow, they fluff up their coats and are always warm. They also like the extra hay they get when it snows :). They do have natural shelter, and a big shed to use if they want to. I have never needed to rug them yet.
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You mention the coats fluffing up.....
Horses do this when cold and the fluffing up the coat does keep them warmer....
This is why when people suggest a lightweight rug you could actually make the horse colder as you prevent the coat fluffing up (the horses natural way of keeping warm), and if the rug isn't warm or very insulated you actually could make the horse colder.
We have TB's unrugged in the winter- granted they are in barns when wet and windy but most horses, if left fluffy, don't mind cold.
Just ad-lib hay or haylage and it will be fine!
 
Mu highland went through last winter blanket clipped, coming in for a few hours during the day to eat his hay, then out all night and the heaviest rug he wore was a no fill rain sheet. That was for my benefit really, to keep him clean enough to ride without spending 4 hours scraping the mud off! He was perfectly fine, and as DryRot pointed out above, he is a bit of a southern softy pony, given the choice he would stand in his stable 24/7 eating :) Mean owner made him go outside! Like the OP my previous horse was a TB, its like a whole new species :)
 
Cobbytype said:
Just a word of caution regarding the myth that all natives are hardy and never need a rug.

Twelve years ago my horse's field companion pony died of hypothermia. She was a native, unclipped and not often groomed, so she had plenty of natural oils in her thick coat. She had access to a large, east facing field shelter, which was bedded down with deep straw and there was adlib hay provided, plus she had a token feed daily. The pony belonged to a neighbour, but I saw to her daily. She was holding her weight well going into November, but the weather forecast predicted a drop in temperature. I expressed my concern to the pony's owner, suggesting that she needed a rug, but the owner didn't agree.

Sure enough, the temperature dropped. I put my boy's turnout rug on him. It wasn't below freezing, but we had that awful 'mizzle' where the air felt damp and the atmosphere was grey and quite misty and very chilly. I went to the horses in the morning and did the usual poo picking, feeding, fluffing up the field shelter bedding etc. Both looked fine and were eating when I left. Then I got a phone call from a paddock neighbour after lunch to say that the pony had been down in the field for a while and my horse was stood over her looking concerned.

The owner and the vet were called, but we couldn't save her. After an hour or so of trying to get her warm and to coax her to her feet, we were starting to lose the light and the weather was getting colder and she was deteriorating. Sadly she was PTS.

It was too late and too dark to move her and my poor horse wouldn't leave her side, so he stood vigil over her body through the night, and I took hay and water over to him whilst he stood over her, because he wouldn't leave her.

The neighbour had more or less dumped the pony on me and paid nothing towards her upkeep for the two years she was with me. I should have gone out and bought her a rug, but at the time money was tight and as I was paying for her upkeep, I just wanted the owner to take some responsibility for her and to contribute to her upkeep.

She was in good health, was boss in the field (so no issues over access to the field shelter and food) and she was 19 years old. It's my belief that a decent turnout rug would/could have saved her life. I've had to live with that thought all these years.

Whilst I appreciate that a lot of horses don't feel the cold, some do, so please judge each horse as an individual and rug accordingly. If your horse looks cold and miserable, it probably is!
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healthy horses of good weight and with access to forage don't just die of hypothermia.
sorry you had to go through an experience like that though.
 
OP, I would get your pony a rug. You don't need to use it all the time.

Dry cold suits ponies fine, even when it's deep snow and they will fluff up and keep themselves warm. However, wet windy and just above freezing weather is miserable for them including natives - I rug my welsh and shetland in this sort of weather with standard-neck lightish rtugs (not rain sheets). If their backs are dry they continue to mooch around exercising themselves in the field. I used my rugs more often in the very stormy but mild winter we had a couple of years ago than in 'big-freeze' winters.

You don't need masses of rugs - my ponies have two standard-neck turnouts (100gm to 200gm are useful weights ) and a cooler/dryer/thermatex type rug apiece. They are not used everyday but boy are they useful to have.
 
catkin said:
OP, I would get your pony a rug. You don't need to use it all the time.

Dry cold suits ponies fine, even when it's deep snow and they will fluff up and keep themselves warm. However, wet windy and just above freezing weather is miserable for them including natives - I rug my welsh and shetland in this sort of weather with standard-neck lightish rtugs (not rain sheets). If their backs are dry they continue to mooch around exercising themselves in the field. I used my rugs more often in the very stormy but mild winter we had a couple of years ago than in 'big-freeze' winters.

You don't need masses of rugs - my ponies have two standard-neck turnouts (100gm to 200gm are useful weights ) and a cooler/dryer/thermatex type rug apiece. They are not used everyday but boy are they useful to have.
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^^^
this
 
There is a SB stud in my area, the mares and foals spend the winter in the field with trees for shelter and the youngstock spend the winter in fields with no trees or sheds, just the ability to move around the hillside depending on the wind direction. They have constant access to big bale haylage and get large amounts of supplementary food in the form of carrots. They seem to do very well, although therre is regularly a chorus of outrage from the local dogwalkers in bad weather.
OP, If I were you, I would buy a couple of cheap light (not no) fill turnout rugs, just in case. I certainly can't imagine why your pony might need a stable rug. Robinsons sell perfectly adequate rugs for less than £50. And as others have said, be guided by your horse. Ours are feeling the effects of wet, cooller weather atm, as they are changing their coats, so have been rugged recently but probably won't need to be later in the year when their coats are thicker.
 
My highland is naked but I have a lightweight and medium, just in case.
Last year she developed an abscess and was in for a week - this meant when she did go back out she couldn't cope with the cold and wet after being inside so she spent from end December - February in a Medium weight. ()She had been given a high trace clip though and she is usually fine without being rugged but I listen to her and rug accordingly. I like to have the rug just in case.

I've also found that cold temperatures are fine but it is the wet and wind that make my pony cold. Snow just lies on top of her coat and doesn't bother her at all.
 
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Highland ponies probably do better in the Highlands where it gets very cold and the air is drier, so my 'wimp' comment was tongue in cheek! (Note the screen name!).

Damp air conveys heat away faster as water is a good conductor while dry air is not. I know I always feel colder in damp weather than I do when it is minus 10. The winter coats on some of my Highlands will be inches deep, though I have others that have a short but very thick coat. If I need to warm my hands on a cold day, I just stick them under the nearest mane. Both types of coat seem to keep out the weather equally well and I always tell people, the 30' x 12' field shelter is for me, not the ponies! When I see them out digging for fresh grass under the snow and see the field shelter looking nice and cosy with a fuill hay rack, I don't feel at all guilty! They'd much rather be outside, except in sleet or drivng rain with an east wind behind it.
 
Dry Rot, I know what you mean. Muds is absolutely fine in the cold but its the rain that gets him, he hates being wet. I do relent if its really bad and let him stop in, I tell him its to save his field to spare his blushes. Damp weather does seem to chill everything so much more than lovely cold crisp days.
 
My native is naked all winter and has even lived out. She's a Swedish draft and the winters here in Hälsingland are long and extremely harsh, but she's perfectly comfortable in nothing more than her fur and with plenty to eat. That said, I don't put her out when the weather is snowing AND windy, and on those days I choose to keep her in - she hollers to be brought in rug or no rug. Dry snow and bitter cold tempuratures are easy to cope with, but when the wind is strong combined with wet snow or rain, that's something else entirely in her opinion.

I think the simplest answer I can give is that it's not snow and cold temperatures that do the damage provided they have enough to eat - a horse that is eating is a warm horse - it's when the weather is a combination of factors like wind AND rain, wind AND snow.

If the rain or snow is flying horizontally it's time for a rug or to just stay indoors. Otherwise, an unclipped native in good condition just needs adequate forage and they are happy.
 
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