Roughing Off/Turning Away

[southdowns]

Hi

I am planning to turn my horse away this winter to recover fully from a fractured pedal bone and bring him back in the spring.

He is ID X TB but is more TB type than ID! Has anyone got any tips for roughing off? At the minute i am getting lots of oil into him and hardly brushing him and not rugging him. He still has a sleek TB coat though.

Ideally i'd like him to be totally turned away, no rug or anything but i'm a bit of a softy and worried that he'll get cold and wet!

Also this may sound like a daft question but is he likely to get rain scald? I've only had him for a year but he's been quite well rugged during that time so how does his body adapt to now dealing with the rain??

Sorry a rambling post!

 

[louisesb]

I personally have never had to deal with anything horrible like rain scald so can't advise on that part. All I will say though is it's amazing how well they cope with a change in circumstances.
My TB mare broke down and we were advised to turn her away, before this she had been an eventer, fully clipped, three rugs plus a duvet, shoes every 5 weeks, buckets full of feed etc etc (you get the picture). Well now she's a changed horse. I had her shoes taken off and turned her away at the beginning of one winter. Her feet with no shoes on are far better than they've ever been. She only has 2 NZ's, one full neck HW and one half neck MW. You will need a rug, but I would advising holding off until the temperatures start to fall. Yes it's been wet recently, but not really cold. I would just advise lots of hay and make sure you do check under the rug every week to make sure your boy doesn't drop off too much weight. Sorry for the long reply but I hope it helps!!

 

[Dressagebabe]

I turned my TBxID away for 2 years whilst deciding what to do with his Kissing spine, I couldn't bring myself to leaving rugs off totally so he was turned away with a heavyweight Rambo with full neck, this kept him totally warm & dry but he still grew a thick winter coat under it like he had never grown before!

 

[SpottedCat]

I had a TB type mare who I turned away - she went from blanket clip in work one day to chucked in a field the next. For the first couple of months she had a HW full neck rug on, then went down to a MW rug, then nothing, and now she is a broodmare so I doubt she gets rugged.

I find they adapt just fine - it is early for him to have grown much coat yet, so I'd see how you go - if he's not losing condition then you won't need to rug, if he is, then you probably will, you have to listen to what each horse tells you they need.