need advice with rugs please :)

[jalapeno]

hello, i have got a warmblood x native horse (but more warmblood!), he is nearly 4 now. he has never really had a rug except for being outside. i was wondering whether i should rug him up this winter. i used to share him but the other lady has dropped out now leaving him to me. she has always said it will toughen him up if hes not rugged up and if hes left without one he will grow his own winter coat. he looked quite poor through winter but he was growing! advice please? my immediate thought would be to rug him up but i know shes going to start going on at me if i do! help ? all advice is very very gratefully received! p.s he is in at night, hes quite a good doer and is in light work.

 

[ofcourseyoucan]

a lightweight rain sheet to keep the wet and worst of the weather off him is nice for him and you (as he will be a little cleaner) and not molly coddlying in any way. a stable rug at night will keep him warmer as he cant move around a lot in a stable. no need to pile the rugs on but a light outdoor and a light indoor will make both your lives a bit nicer. you could buy a good lightweight rambo or fal and he could wear the same rug in stable and outside! (thus saving you time, rug will dry quickly, wont smell, etc)

 

[Supertrooper]

I only (generally) use a lightweight rain sheet during winter (I'd advise having two so you always have a spare if other is wet) and a light/medium weight stable rug for inside if it's very cold. He isn't clipped and grows a nice thick coat. He is a shire x cob and coming into last winter he needed to loose weight so it was a good way of doing it. He had lots of fibre (hay, chaff, fast fibre) to keep him warm from the inside. We did relent when it reached -15 and he wore a medium weight turnout then inside and out. We only really put the lightweight on if it was wet as his coat can't insulate him if it's flattened down.

Basically what I'm trying to say is if you want him to keep weight on then you may need to rug him, you may get away with it though by making sure he has plenty of fibre xx

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Unless the horse is clipped, or a poor-doer, or vulnerable in some other way, it really doesn't need a rug either inside or outside. If the horse has plenty of fibre it keeps itself warm through the digestive process, so it really doesn't matter that it can't move around, horses are not like people. Very often a lightweight rug causes more harm than good, as it flattens the hair, so the horse can't fluff up to keep warm but the rug itself isn't thick enough to do the job properly.
If he does look poor, that gives you room to feed a bit more, which will help him to keep warm. Your sharer is quite right in that rugging will stop him growing his own coat properly. If she has more experience than you, I suggest that you continue to take her advice.

 

[jalapeno]

thankyou so much for replies. my only concern is, in winter his turnout is very much restricted and sometimes goes days without being out or if he is out its only for a few hours... will this prevent him from growing a thick coat or prevent him from being able to keep himself warm? thankyou