Over-rugging..........

Last night was very mild here both mine are clipped the warmblood had a thin fleece on overnight the Arab had a very thin quilt, neither froze to death today is very sunny and warm yet in the field next door to my house the horses have full neck heavy weight rugs on its crazy!
 
Havent read all the replies but this is something that irritates me too. If people must rug their horses at least do what is appropriate for your horse, as several posters have said already, you cant have one rule that suits all. My little DIY yard is a case in point. Every single horse or pony is a native breed, no blood horses at all. The only one not in a mw or hw rug today is my shettie x who is naked (the shame). My highland who is fully clipped is in a lw sheet as showers are forecast. Everything else was looking quite hot and bothered when I popped in a few minutes ago under the weight of the neck covers, high neck rugs and combo rugs! Its about 12 degrees atm, Im not sure what the world record is for the amount of rugs 1 horse can wear but I think it could well be broken this year. I do appreciate that some horses have a need for extra rugs but Im talking about unclipped and largely under worked natives.
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
and thats the thing, if mine were out naked today they would be tucked up and miserable.

horses for courses (or rugs for horses lol), whats right for one is very rarely right for all.
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Definitely, even in the depths of winter mine will not have anywhere the thickness of rug that CS and Fig have on ever, but he'll be happy and they'll be happy, so it's almost irrelevant what they all have on!
 
tedmunster said:
I wouldn't have thought a HW with a MW underneath would be appropriate for any horse today - it's very mild for November.
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but you dont know the horses so perhaps just accept that as ive already stated they are not hot or uncomfortable, that they are ok and rugged appropriately?

i never tell people they have under rugged as i dont know the horses in Q, and actually having Bruce as retired and un-clipped has been eye opening as to just how warm a natural coat is and what a diff its made. Previously (fully clipped incl legs, head and in hard work),he would probably be in a 450gm rug now, but unclipped and super furry, he's in a 220gm rug and would be too hot in anything more.

so i appreciate how esp unclipped horses can be in very thin rugs still.

the 2 in question ARE fully clipped, one has EPSM and one is an incredibly cold, poor doer, and are happy in their double layer :)
 
Why add more than one rug? Serious question - don't the manufacturers up the tog size (like duvets)? If they don't why not? Wouldn't it be more comfortable, easier and definitely cheaper just to have the right weight for the right temperature? I know it seems a numpty question but my horses don't do rugs (but if they were cold I'd be reconsidering). It just seems such a faff to pile rugs on top of each other!
 
doriangrey said:
Why add more than one rug? Serious question - don't the manufacturers up the tog size (like duvets)? If they don't why not? Wouldn't it be more comfortable, easier and definitely cheaper just to have the right weight for the right temperature? I know it seems a numpty question but my horses don't do rugs (but if they were cold I'd be reconsidering). It just seems such a faff to pile rugs on top of each other!
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Layering adds more warmth as pockets of warm air get trapped between the rugs (much like a natural coat traps air for warmth) At least when layering up various rugs I can then strip them back if the horse is too warm, whereas if I had one massive 800g rug I'd then have to change it :)
 
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JennyConnor said:
Layering adds more warmth as pockets of warm air get trapped between the rugs (much like a natural coat traps air for warmth) At least when layering up various rugs I can then strip them back if the horse is too warm, whereas if I had one massive 800g rug I'd then have to change it :)
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Lol, of course that makes sense :o
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
but you dont know the horses so perhaps just accept that as ive already stated they are not hot or uncomfortable, that they are ok and rugged appropriately?

i never tell people they have under rugged as i dont know the horses in Q, and actually having Bruce as retired and un-clipped has been eye opening as to just how warm a natural coat is and what a diff its made. Previously (fully clipped incl legs, head and in hard work),he would probably be in a 450gm rug now, but unclipped and super furry, he's in a 220gm rug and would be too hot in anything more.

so i appreciate how esp unclipped horses can be in very thin rugs still.

the 2 in question ARE fully clipped, one has EPSM and one is an incredibly cold, poor doer, and are happy in their double layer :)
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I will never believe that a horse can be as comfortable in two or more heavy rugs than in just one, or none at all. The weight alone that they have to lug around all day for one. Many horses can be over-heated and uncomfortable, but will not become sweaty or give much indication, and they certainly can't tell you if they want a layer off.
I'll agree to differ on this one.
 
I am always quite astonished by the amount of rugs some people put on their horses but obviously they know their horses and how warm/cold they get.

However, I have had quite a few horses and all of them have been hunter clipped and rugged accordingly. They either wear a LW, MW or HW out in the field depending on how warm it is and generally only a fleece and/or rug over the top until it gets really cold when I will put a duvet in between.

Obviously I can't speak for the horses themselves but I'm sure it must be uncomfy to have masses of rugs on. I do buy good quality rugs which I'm sure helps. I also check the weather forecast every night to see what the weather is doing the next day as I work and can't nip home and change the rugs if there is a sudden snowstorm!!

My current horse is a 20 year old ISH who is hunter clipped. He is in a LW during the day at the moment because it is so mild and a fleece and thin rug at night in the stable. He would boil if he had anything more on.
 
unclipped and allowed to grow a long greasy coat-yes definately more comfy in none or one thin one, but clipped to the max,no. layers trap heat and modern rugs are so very light unless we are talking 10's of rugs, the weight wouldnt be an issue i dont think? certainly mine roll, gallop, play, leap, buck, rear etc with ease and i can carry both their layers at once over my shoulder easily.
 
Sometimes I do think people need to realise we are having a mild November and if you're rugging to hilt now, what are you going to do if we have mega snow/big freeze and it drops to minus double figures?!

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what upsets me, is finding horses standing in their stables all day in layers of ill fitting rugs, which when checked, have nylon buckled chest straps that pull the mountain of rugs back over the shoulders so tight across the shoulders it must feel like they're being abraded with sand paper.
Which is actually the case come Spring or out Hunting after the New Year and you see naked horses out and about after a winter bundled up and so many horses have rubbed bald shoulders and manes.

This is my pet hate. Not only over rugging but layering badly fitting rugs.
 
My hairy native is unrugged. He wore a l/w for most of last week due to it pouring with rain 24/7, at which point he makes a bit of a fuss at the gate asking to be brought in so rugging resolves that. It also means I can ride if it does happen to stop raining for a while. It was so mild last night that he is naked again, and probably will be for the foreseeable if the weather forecast is anything to go by.

My old mare didn't need to be rugged much at all when she was younger, but over the years she became less able to regulate her temperature. One year I really struggled to keep her warm and had to borrow additional rugs from friends as I didn't own anything heavy enough, so I do understand that some horses may actually need rugging to that extent, but your average, unclipped beastie shouldn't need to be rugged to the eyeballs at this time of year. I was paid to look after a couple of geldings in the mornings for quite a while and remember having a steaming row with their owner due to them being rugged in m/w turnouts with fleeces underneath - in May. Neither actually looked sweaty because the rugs wicked the moisture away, but they steamed when I took the rugs off to adjust them and you could see them physically breathe a sigh of relief. I felt so sorry for them as the owner was adamant that they weren't to be unrugged. In the end I refused to do the horses anymore.
 
Does my head in!!

My lad is fully clipped and in a Mediumweight T/0 24/7... with... ***SHOCK HORROR!!*** NO NECK COVER!!... (Well, they didn't have them in the 'old days' did they!)... he is perfectly warm, if a little too warm sometimes...
 
Prince33Sp4rkle said:
but you dont know the horses so perhaps just accept that as ive already stated they are not hot or uncomfortable, that they are ok and rugged appropriately?

i never tell people they have under rugged as i dont know the horses in Q, and actually having Bruce as retired and un-clipped has been eye opening as to just how warm a natural coat is and what a diff its made. Previously (fully clipped incl legs, head and in hard work),he would probably be in a 450gm rug now, but unclipped and super furry, he's in a 220gm rug and would be too hot in anything more.

so i appreciate how esp unclipped horses can be in very thin rugs still.

the 2 in question ARE fully clipped, one has EPSM and one is an incredibly cold, poor doer, and are happy in their double layer :)
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The point made by the OP was that the owners couldn't seem to see that over-rugging was making them sweat/keeping them sweaty and were rugging regardless. Some horses DO need stupendous amounts of padding to stay warm, some don't, but any horse that is too hot will sweat but many owners don't seem to see this or choose to ignore it. I've seen it too - horse dripping with sweat when the rug comes off and owner saying something like "have you been running around today?" and then carrying on with the same rug configuration regardless.
Horses can warm themselves up but they can't cool down so over-rugging is always worse than under-rugging IMHO (just as I'd always rather see a slightly underweight horse than an overweight one.
 
so does this count me as mean that my two girls (13 yr retired WB and 22yr welsh) are unclipped and unrugged unless its raining then just a sheet on and nothing at night except maybe a fleece if frost? and my sister tb, brother lean lami and the tank have only just gone into their heaveys?

im too lazy to use to over rug my horses :/
 
I hate being hot so am really careful about rugging. My girl is a bit strange though and never gets too hot/sweaty. She was on full livery and was left in a full neck heavy t/o on a really hot March day and I was furious, but she was just a bit warm.
She has a full clip and is in a heavy weight full neck in at night and out afternoons, but are fields are on a hill and the wind has been crazy! Even after galloping round like a knob on Saturday she wasn't too hot. I always judge temp by ear base temperature.
I agree with PS too modern rugs are so light now that as long as the fit I don't think the weight is anything to a horse. I hate seeing horses in rugs that are too big though as I think that must seem really heavy with it hanging off the back. Each horse is different, but YO and I have decided everyone is an idiot. Makes life much easier once you accept this.
 
Both mine in medium combos because it gets to about 5 degress at night off all day though - they'll survive 11 degress (Welsh D with no winter coat and cob with full winter coat though he's an oldie and doesn't even get really warm in medium)
 
Over rugging is a bug bear of mine too!!! They are horses fgs. It is something that is totally down to lack of common sense IMO and that people feel the need to Molly coddle their horses. Arghhhh.
 
My two are an oddity.

Fully clipped ISH, evented to BE novice level this season, just back in work after 6 weeks holidays. Proper "hot horse" she is in a medium Combo during the day (exposed hilltop field with little shelter) and in a medium combo stable at night. She is out on decent grazing and had double netted weighed haylage at night as constantly on a diet!

Unclipped Connemara pony, throws no coat at all, feels the cold and loses weight quicker than the drop of a hat! Currently only just warm enough (ears and pits test) in a heavyweight, out on really good sheltered grazing during the day and in at night with same. Fed ad-lib haylage overnight.

Just goes to prove you can't generalise based on breed or type, all you can do is rug and feed what you see in front of you!
 
You have to treat each horse as an individual and rug accordingly.

Unfortunately, as can be seen by how many 'what rug is your horse wearing now' threads we have on here a lot of people don't seem to be able to make this decision themselves using their own common sense. Especially in livery yards there seems to be a sheep mentality so that when the first person rugs everyone else immediately follows suit, regardless of whether their horse needs those rugs. Then there is a sort of one-upmanship which comes into play along the lines of 'my horse must be fitter/faster/jump higher/or I love it more than you do yours as I have put two full neck rugs on and a fleece!'
I think it is similar to clipping, once the clippers come out on the yard how many ponies/horses get clipped even if they aren't doing the work to warrant it just because the horse next door is being done?
 
I have to be sooo careful not to over rug mine, he has just been fully clipped for the first time.

Today we had a lovely day, about 10', he was in his 40g pe rug and no neck! He was lovely and warm, in overnight and has a 150g underrug with snuggy fleece body over the top and again no neck on.

I am very contentious of the fact that in a month/two months time it is going to get COLD, not 5' ooo its chilly but minus figures. If I had him in HW now I would literally run out of rugs to put on him.

Really hate it when rugs slip back and go tight on chest and over shoulders too. People just seem to have no imagination of how uncomfy this must be!!!

Also on my yard I am the only one who uses an elastic surcingle over the top when layering rugs, invaluable to stop twisting and slipping... does anyone here use them still??
 
My two fully clipped, hot blooded boys are currently in x1 non-neck lightweights during both day and night... and shock horror, coping fine.

Hate to think what OP liveries are going to do when it gets to minuses if they've already got 2-4 rugs on now!
 
muddy_grey said:
I hate being hot so am really careful about rugging. My girl is a bit strange though and never gets too hot/sweaty. She was on full livery and was left in a full neck heavy t/o on a really hot March day and I was furious, but she was just a bit warm.
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I've had this problem before. Horse had a rug on the majority of summer few years back, due to medical reasons. However it was just to hot for it some days. I went down to yard on several occasions to find horse sweating in rug.

Current horse is in a MW stable - in majority of day/night now due to wet weather, but have just taken down a MW to for her instead of the 40g there ATM.
 
I bought a horse last year after a break of 18 years and I struggle with what weight of rug to wear. In my day you had your New Zealand rug and that was it, no lightweight, middle weight, heavy weight etc to choose from. I am consistently checking the weatherforecast to decide what weight rug he should be wearing and when I am sat at work miles away looking at the weather feeling guilty that I made the wrong choice. By the way he is an unclipped anglo arab in a medium weight turnout at the moment. I have a heavy weight which I am saving for the coldest days and I seem to have collected numerous weights of stable rugs. Wears a medium weight stable rug at night at moment. I find that He seems to feel the cold more when it's wet rather than just the temperature dropping. I do worry about both over and under rugging.
 
Blimey why all the rugging. Our big boy lives out 24/7 is completely clipped out and is happy in a medium (250gr) with neck. Happy and toasty all the time and my unclipped mare gets a rain sheet. Happy as a clam. People, they are horses not humans!!!!
 
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