my mare pulls faces/bites when i take her rugs OFF

[blissful-nat]

recently my mare has started to pull faces when I take her rugs off! sometimes when i put them on too (but not as often). Its usually when I take her stable rugs off to put her turnout rug on. she has been doing it for about a month now and has never done this before.

she is a fussy mare and does no how to take her rugs off and i have on many occasions found her in her box and she has taken up to two rugs off!, she will also tell me what rugs she wants on by pulling them down while I'm standing their and trying to flick them onto her back (yes she is very clever). she is in a Medium weight turnout at the moment so i turned her out naked this morning to see weather she just wanted a role but no she moped at the gate for her rug!

the only theory i have for why she is doing this is that she spent the whole of last winter in her box on 6 months box rest (for her second tendon injury) and she doesn't want to go out in the wet cold mud etc as she will napp and wont come out of her box sometimes. but i thought it sounded a bit far fetched.

any suggestion on whats causing this and how i can stop it?? please

 

[PandorasJar]

Worth checking her back?

We had one who'd do this and drop whole body down with it after a while.

 

[blissful-nat]

thankyou her back doesn't seem sore when i ride check it etc but she is due for back to be seen by the chiropractor soon so i will ask her

 

[imr]

My oldie does this too He loves being warm and snug in his rugs and doesn't like them coming off or having a cold rug put on. I wouldn't be surprised if yours was the same !

 

[ROMANY 1959]

My sons nesh tb mare does this, had lots of people look into why, back, vet, ulcers ect, there is no reason for it just hates her rug being took off!!! If she is fed at same time she is distracted and will let it be undone without fuss. We just put up withit as one of her quirks. She is nice sweet mare once it's off. But she is known for pulling it off rail if its cold and she is in stable. She is telling us she wants rug back on! Horses eh.

 

[blissful-nat]

Thanks guys I think I'm going to put it down to not wanting her nice warm stable rugs of!

 

[merry mischief]

Might be static building up in the rug and giving her a shock?

 

[0310Star]

My mare does this when i put her rug on when her winter coat starts forming, but with her she is just weird... She hates her winter hair! Once she is clipped she is fine although this year I am trying not to clip so we will see how that goes!

 

[blissful-nat]

Ha my mares a bit wierd like that too! She doesnt enjoy malting in the spring so I usually slip her out to