My horse is always sweaty...plse can I ask for advice?

Chestnutmare

Chestnutmare

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I have only had my new mare a couple of weeks and was underweight and undermuscled when I got her, she's a 16.1 irish tb who was (as i believe) living out in a m/w no neck.

I rugged up her soon as she arrived with me, cooler and a fleece cooler with a l/w stable rug and she was nice and warm but not overly hot.
This past week she has been increasingly HOT and sweating in anything other than her m/w turnout, I obviously do not want to over heat her nor let her get cold, so am stuck in a bit of a rut with her. I am not used to a horse not feeling the cold and being a tb thought she would feel it.

She's turned out everyday for a few hours, in every night has big haynet with excellent quality hay, she's currently fed: Alpha A Oil, barley rings, topline conditioning nuts and sugarbeet, however I will be changing her to allen and page calm and condition after speaking with several people that have suggested this as I also do not want to blow her head either.

Does anyone else's tb's get too hot? theres me thinking in this really cold weather that she will need rugging.

Thanks for any advice. (she is my 1st tb)
 
I wouldn't worry about the breed, I'd just look at the horse in front of you. If she's too hot, take some rugs off.
 
If she's too hot take rugs off! She wont melt!

A lot of TBs have a very fast metabolism so the more food they get the more they produce heat - a friend of mines is like a furnace and lives out unrugged so long as she has adlib hay!

You must make sure you are giving salt in her feed though else she will start with muscle problems.
 
Thank you TigerTail I've taken all layers off now I guess its getting to know her, she gets adlib hay I'm just worrying over nothing Im sure as she is perfectly happy in herself with things.
 
Relax my friend :)

My TB does not really feel the cold. He is out during the day in a medium with neck and at night just a medium stable.

Too many rugs and he gets really too hot.

My last TBxWB did feel the cold and needed many layers to stay at a good temperature.

They are all different as we are - some feel the cold and others don't.
 
My TB will sweat up in anything other than a LW if he's not clipped. You are over feeding cereals and sugars. Feed her adlib haylage and a basic feed once or twice daily for minerals and vitamins. Maybe add something such as micronised linseed.
 
I shall be changing her diet gradually too she is only on this as this is what she was being fed so didn't want to change it so suddenly, but she is going onto calm and condition.
She has access to her mineral lick in her stable too.

Thank you everyone for the helpful advice appreciate it.
 
My TB is very prone to overheating in winter. He's a poor doer so I'm careful to rug well when the temps really drop but I have to constantly check temps & reassess my rugging! If he's slightly too warm he sweats through his rugs! Even something that seems minor, such as when he's due for re-clipping & a bit hairy means I have to tone it down with the rugs! People are often surprised that thier fatter, better doers are rugged more than my horse. I also have to be careful all year round when travelling as he pours with sweat in the lorry if I've got it wrong.
 
I can totally relate everyone at my yard thinks I am under-rugging my boy but he is toasty in his middle weight, I came down to find someone had put a fleece under it, NOT happy, made very clear that it was my horse and no-one was to change his rug set up but me. His heavy weight will be kept for minus temps and persistent snow etc.
 
Left her tonight in just her m/w and she is nice and toasty under there so if she's happy then i'm happy :D

I'm slowly cutting out the barley rings, sugarbeet too she gets plenty of hay and is doing really well with the weight gain and her coat has got a lovely shine to it now.

I'm still getting to know her at the moment, all a learning curve for us both but cannot fault her sweet gentle nature.

Thank you everyone for your words of advice, I'm just over doing it and will now stop trying to pamper her too much ha ha

Batgirl: I wouldn't be happy either if someone felt the need to change or pop another rug on my horse.
I must say if she gets cold or warm the yard manager does let me know the staff are brilliant where she is.
 
I do have to agree about not stereotyping breeds as my old TB mare used to grow a lovely woolly coat every winter and, even with a blanket or trace clip, never needed anything heavier than a medium weight rug, even during the coldest snaps. And her WBx foal (now 5), who DOESN'T grow any discernable winter coat to speak of, is the same - even without the natural thick coat her dam had. She gets itchy and irritable if I put anything heavier than a 200g rug on her in sub-zero weather, and she's trace clipped too. If I turn her out during the day in anything heavier, she just comes in with damp patches on her flanks and I have to let her dry off a bit before putting her stable rug on. Plus she's mega itchy when she's too hot. I feed mine a 100% fibre diet in winter and it certainly helps to keep her warm. :)
 
Another one with a hot tb.

Unclipped at the moment mine would be in a very lightweight rugs at most in the stable and until the snow recently he was going out in the day in a rainsheet just to keep him dry.
I only ever had him in a hw stable rug when clipped on the coldest days of the year


This year, the plan was to turn him away over winter which I did right in the middle of the snow last week. I did put a hw on for that and did worry about him the first night. I had someone checking him the next day and as soon as he saw the headcollar he was off. Tough little horse, free range and happy.

See how you go with feeds but mines a happier horse if I keep him sugar free. He gets speedibeet, bran (only because we are low phosporous), linseed and I use coolstance copra in very small amounts for condition.
 
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