Mine do this and I love it (do your horses or do you think it’s nuts?)

[canteron]

My horses have always done this - I offer them a blanket and they let me know if they want one, same with fly masks. I don’t know if I deliberately taught it, just noted their reaction when putting on blankets. They are much better at reading the weather than we are.

 

[TheMule]

Generally if mine bog off across the field I don’t bother trying to put a rug on! Only problem being that I’ve seen the weather forecast and they haven’t, so sometimes they make a poor choice

 

[meleeka]

One of mine used to pull his rug off the rack if I'd made the wrong call and it was colder than expected. I'd had this vision of him yanking it off and expecting it to magically fly onto his back. He must have been so disappointed when it fell to the floor . He never touched the rugs otherwise.

I'm another who would show them the rug and gauge their reaction.

 

[HaplessHorse]

Yes, Saus has only ever been 100% “yes please” about a rug twice, the rest of the time I’m putting a rug on a vaguely grumpy pony because I know there will be torrential downpours overnight, but she doesn’t

Apparently Cob simply destroys rugs if she is displeased by them. Thus far, I’ve never had the (dis)pleasure of having to rug Erin and hope for the rug’s dear life.

 

[Elia]

I may have missed it but how do they tell you?

 

[little_critter]

My boy would always say “no”. He fusses every time I put a rug on (and I try to put them on as little as possible)
But he has a high proportion of TB blood so doesn’t grow enough coat to be comfortable in winter.
Also I’m not enamoured by his ability to smother every square inch of coat in mud…but I let him be a horse and do it anyway.

 

[Landcruiser]

I may have missed it but how do they tell you?

With body language. It's a matter of being receptive to it. If you are, they learn that it works, and tend to become more communicative. If you always ignore what they communicate, they tend to shut down. This is a massive generalisation and I think most people are somewhere in the middle. I try to "listen" and look for signs - moving away, tail swishing, ears back, leg lifting are all obvious, but facial expression, head elevation, general "feel" are more subtle. But sometimes they just have to suck it up, because they don't know everything that I know.

 

[canteron]

With body language. It's a matter of being receptive to it. If you are, they learn that it works, and tend to become more communicative. If you always ignore what they communicate, they tend to shut down. This is a massive generalisation and I think most people are somewhere in the middle. I try to "listen" and look for signs - moving away, tail swishing, ears back, leg lifting are all obvious, but facial expression, head elevation, general "feel" are more subtle. But sometimes they just have to suck it up, because they don't know everything that I know.

Love this explanation.

 

[Lady Jane]

Yes normally but not with this horse. He is a connie, always says no and will get filthy. Aren't I mean!
I can tell if I made him too warm when I take his rug off as he will have a scratch.

I'm not sure their opinions are always right for turn out but with my last horse I realised I had been over rugging and if he said no he would be fine in the stable. He was a thin coated warm blood but was unclipped.
Whilst gadgets are often laughed at /frowned on I realised I had been over rugging when I got the Horseware Horsepal device, it was very insightful

 

[Lady Jane]

With body language. It's a matter of being receptive to it. If you are, they learn that it works, and tend to become more communicative. If you always ignore what they communicate, they tend to shut down. This is a massive generalisation and I think most people are somewhere in the middle. I try to "listen" and look for signs - moving away, tail swishing, ears back, leg lifting are all obvious, but facial expression, head elevation, general "feel" are more subtle. But sometimes they just have to suck it up, because they don't know everything that I know.

Agree, the more you 'listen' the better they get at 'talking'

 

[kerrieberry2]

oh both of mine absolutely tell me! my mare turns her head around with pinned ears, looking at me like I'm some kind of monster! but if its cold or really wet she doesn't bat an eyelid at being rugged! my gelding chucks his head up if he doesn't want it on! Autumn is the worst time, as sometimes at 5pm its still warm but it goes does to 2 or 3 degrees, so they're going to need them later on in the evening, as they're both clipped.

 

[tristars]

I put a rug on the horse stood there happily, turned him out , went back two hours later

He must have thought he was a bit too warm

It was on the floor in many pieces, totally beyond repair, such a shame it was nearly new , red with lovely trees all over

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

I could put a lion on Dex's back when I bring him on of a PM and he wouldn't remotely react - he's a sucker for a full haynet.

 

[Bonnie Allie]

We had a pony loaned to us that had never been rugged. Once we rugged him in winter he was very clear about whether or not we were allowed to take his turnout off in daylight hours. If it was a crisp morning and I needed to take rug off early before going to work as I knew it was going to be warm later, I would have to chase him around the field to be allowed to take it off.

In the evenings if I was home late and it was getting chilly, he would have pulled it off the fence and would be standing on it. He only ever pulled his rug off the fence, never one of the other horses rugs.

He was a Shetland btw……………and we are in sunny Sydney. No understanding of ancestry clearly!

 

[Boughtabay]

My TB mare once stood in the gateway of the field SCREAMING (literally) in an unexpected downpour on an unusually chilly summers day. She always made it abundantly clear that yes, she would like a rug please

 

[starbucker]

I think someone needs to create an online rug calculator / app where you can add whether your horse is a hot / cold horse you add your location, and rug options and it pings out the right rug xD My horse is a hot horse, but i did once find her quivering in a 0g in april which i felt terrible about ! it was very wet. not happened since but it is a guessing game when the weather is so changeable!

 

[Korg]

My mare has a lot of opinions, but unfortunately she lacks common sense sometimes. She likes having blankets on, but doesn't like me putting them on her back. When they're on, she's happy and talks to me. But if you were to listen to her all the time, she would get even more upset due to Weather. Weather is worse than blanket.

My former pony, and Irish one, did not talk. He opened up some after some time, but not near as much as my mare or most other horses. I always had to guess which blanket to put on, as the only clear sign he showed if it was wrong was shivering. He seemed to freeze easily though, so he often got a thicker blanket than I thought was ideal. He seemed relatively pleased with that.