Once you've put a rug on should you leave it on?!

Moomin1 said:
I am quite old school on this subject, and (to a certain extent) dislike seeing rugs being taken on and off on a daily basis. Obv a rainsheet isn't an issue, but I tend to think that horses should be allowed to regulate their own temperatures as naturally as possible, and that removing rugs and putting them back on when the sun goes in or comes back out again is just going to play havoc with their temperatures. However, in extreme temperature or weather changes then I do think it's necessary to remove or re rug. If it's just a couple of degrees here and there, I say do one or the other, not a mix of both.
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I agree with this as well. Once they are out of rainsheets then I like to keep a rug on.
 
It was freezing this morning and I got to the yard at about 6am and dragged my naked pony in out the field, he was a fluff ball and toasty warm!

I think people get confused about how to tell if a horse is warm. If you touch the coat of a horse and its cold, that's brilliant! It means all of his body heat is under the coat where it belongs. I always dig into the coat in a few different places, elbow/armpit, base of ears, in between the back legs. All of these places are toasty warm under the coat.

My friends with rugged horses however, tuck a hand into the rug (where it is very warm) and think lovely toast pony. In my opinion if its toasty inside the rug then the horse is far to hot. If they ever touched my boy they would think I was neglecting him.

People mollycoddle horses far too much these days, and as previously said the rug companies take advantage of this!
 
None of mine are rugged. I don't actually own a rug. :eek: None are clipped though and they have access to shelter 24/7. In the last three years I have been observing them closely for shivering (all at home btw) and I have only seen my tb shivering twice in that time. The weather was constant rain,cold and biting wind. The others are Welsh and Shetlands.
Incidentally the only time I have seen them sweating was when a strange horse broke in from the next field and there had obviously been lots of high jinks. No shivering then either as they dried.
 
Why is it shivering has become the marker point of it being cruel? Shivering is the horses body choosing to use that as a way to keep warm .... its not the beginning of it melting or dying......

Taking a rug off a horse in the sun should be the norm - I know how warm i get if the sun comes out and I have a coat on, nevermind a furcoat that is the equivalent to 17 rugs....
 
I don't know about cruel but shivering occurs when the core body temperature drops below a certain point so it is an indicator of a cold horse imo. We shiver when we are cold too. :) It's the body trying to increase temperature.
 
Hmm. I don't think anyone said it was cruel for them to shiver? I just know that my pony is miserable when he's shivering - so for him I use that as a marker of when he is uncomfortable and I can make his life easier. The rest of the time he's fine and pretty happy.
 
Very interesting discussion. I always feel that my horses cope fine with any amount of cold but when (as this year) it rains for days on end until they are literally soaked down to the skin and the wind blows, they get chilled and miserable. Also I have seen too many with rainscald from neck to croup and that is painful and nasty. I don't see how a sodden horse can raise its coat to add insulation when that coat is sodden and stiff with mud. Sure it works fine with horses in the intense dry cold of Colorado but in England? I clip and use a rug!
 
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