Out overnight - is it really cold enough to shiver?

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l_i_z_z_i_e

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I have had my mare for 11 years and this is the first year i'm planning on leaving her out overnight in the nice weather.

I went home to do her yesterday morning (about 5.30am) and she was standing there shivering! at 8pm the temperature was 14.5 degrees so not exactly cold!

She had a medium weight rug on last night (a couple of years old so not as thick as it was) as was just about ok this morning.

does anyone else have a horse thie pathetic?! Or any advice on toughening her up a bit?!

She has plenty of grass in the field and some hay to munch on while she is getting used to the transition of living out.

p.s. she is a welsh D, so not a TB!

Thanks!
 
My TB and WBx have been out nekkid since March :eek:. They're comfortable nekkid down to 0 degrees celsius, give or take.

If a welsh D is shiverring in 14.5 degrees I'd suspect lack of sufficient fibre fermentation in the hind gut.
 
It was definately shivering from cold and not fear, she was not stressed/nervous at all, but was cold to touch (including base of ears). When I checked her this morning with a medium weight she was ok, but certainly not warm, I would have said a little on the chilly side.

I don't think she lays down and sleeps yet in the field (she does during the day but I don't think at night). If she was over-tired could this make her cold enough to shiver? I am well aware she isn't a child ;-)
 
There is hay left over in the morning (she would have eaten all of it inside the stable), and plenty of grass in the field, so she has as much as she can eat. She is prob eating 60% of the hay she would eat in the stable at night but obviously grass as well. I'm sure she is eating enough.

Added: it was 14.5 degrees at 8pm so would have got colder than this in the middle of the night, but not that cold i wouldn't have thought
 
It has been dropping to 3deg in the night the past two nights. .so a bit of a change if used to living in.
 
Don't take shivering as necessarily a bad thing - it's a heating mechanism, don't forget - and I'd rather a horse was too cold in a field than too hot. If they're really cold, they'll run about, but too hot, and there's not a lot can be done short of drowning them in cold water. If he isn't tucked up as well, I'd try not to worry too much.

And remember, we put them out during the day in far worse conditions during winter!

It's always a difficult time of year unless they're at home and you can nip out and pop a rug on last thing at night and whip it off first thing next day. Mine's out naked now, because I felt it was too warm to rug her at teatime, and she seems fine, though I still worry about her and check the weather app on my phone ten times during an evening!
 
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we have one, a Welsh section B who shivers when the temp drops the slightest bit or if it rains. If she has a field shelter as soon as she feels the first drop of rain she runs for cover lol. We just watch the forecast and rug or unrug as necessary, no point in her being unhappy.
 
Horses have to learn about living outside .
My TB has never been out at night when he arrived we got him out overnight last summer it took him a while to get the hang of it.
Now he's out at night unrugged very happy and doing well I do put a no fill rug on him in heavy rain as he hates getting wet .
I would not worry about a bit of shivering they are designed to do it.
 
I went home to do her yesterday morning (about 5.30am) and she was standing there shivering! at 8pm the temperature was 14.5 degrees so not exactly cold!
Click to expand...

But much colder at 5.30am and overnight generally - clear skies mean temperatures drop like a stone.
 
I guess it will take a while for her to aclimatise to being out, until then i'll just keep a rug on her when its chilly. I don't finish riding until about 8pm so it goes on her then and comes off by 6am so she won't get too hot.

Having spent the first 8 years of her life out 24/7 (before I brought her), and being a welsh cob I thought she would be tougher than that. Apparently she has become used to a more pampered life now!
 
I guess she can keep the rug whilst its chilly then. I'm up there until 8pm so will rug between then and 5.30am so whe won't get hot.

I thought she would be tougher having spent the first 8 years of her life out 24/7, but apparently she has become more used to a pampered way of life for the last 11 years!

Thanks!
 
To get her to acclimatise, bring her in during the warmer part of the day (say from 2pm onwards till around 8pm) with a small hay/haylage net, then cover her with fly spray & turn her out.
She ought to be hungry-ish & be moving about eating grass - this will help to keep her warmer at night.

Yesterday morning at 05.45 my car was reading 4 degrees going to the yard & was 20+ by midday - today at same time of the early morning it was 10 degrees. We've still got a couple of chilly nights to come, down sarf (around 11pm to 4am)
 
Take her rug off during the day so that she gets used to being warmed by the sun and then replace it at night for a couple of weeks - then leave it off all day and night when you get a lovely balmy evening - just before sunrise is always the coldest - she would only have been feeling the cold for a short time
 
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