Rug obsession!

T

tkmaxx

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Firstly, hello all!
Secondly, rugs. Our yard has had lw turnouts on most the horses over the summer! Fair enough it's not been a fantastic summer but is it really necessary?
Reading a few posts, it seems there is a lot of over-rugging going on, as the 'consensus' on yards is that they should all be rugged. Why ever is this?
I haven't touched a rug since last spring. Was fuming when someone bought mine in and rugged her behind my back and all rugs are now safely hidden at home for the winter! She's roughing off and will not be needing them!
She's not shed an inch of condition, so it's hardly like she needs it! Fair enough, she's no thoroughbred, but there's only two on the yard! The others are all fat ponies who are still rugged to the nines!
 
Well, yes, but I get the impression there seems to be more over rugging going on this year. My yard have all told me I'm cruel for not rugging hence why mine was rugged without my permission! They felt sorry for her!
 
Well, people shouldn't touch your horse without your permission.

But when you say "over rugging", that's your perception, in the same way as to the people at your yard your horse was under rugged......
 
Since i don't know you I have to assume that you do in fact know what you are doing, that your horse is holding good condition and is not at any risk.

Equally when somebody posts here that some cruel horse owner on their yard is neglecting their horse, failing to rug it as it wastes away in the field and asking for suggestions as to how to deal with it - we have to assume that they are acting from a position of knowledge and experience too.

If you are confident about what you choose to do, then you need to find a way of educating people at your yard that you are making the right choices, without that necessarily becoming a comment on how they choose to care for their horses. There is no right or wrong, there is just appropriate for the horse and what it is doing.

For example, I have an unclipped Highland pony wearing a medium rug and doing very little - it isn't ideal and I know she shouldn't be rugged, but she suffers with rain scald if unrugged - and if she only has a thin sheet her coat can't fluff up and she won't keep warm, so I have chosen to deal with it the way I have. A casual observer would certainly think i am over rugging the horse.
 
I agree to a point my old mare a Conn x Tb has not had a rug on all summer, but she did have a field shelter to get out of all that summer rain we had, she wont have a rug on till about December its the wet that bothers her not the cold! I should mention she is retired & has more hair than a polar bear in winter.

My Warm blood x Tb on the other hand is a real wimp it only has to drizzle a bit & he will stand shaking wanting to come in, so he did have a rug on most of this summer.

what I object to is people putting a rug on just to keep the horse or pony clean, fare enough if your going to a show or something, but I do think horses should be aloud to be horses.
 
Both of mine have been rugged pretty much all summer because it's been horrible, and are now in 2 LW rugs, a fleece and a LW t/o. They are both pathetic in rain and wind and my old mare especially hates the cold!
 
Problem I find atm is that it's warm during the day but then really plummets at night so I've been pulling my horse's rug off during the day although i seem to be the only one doing that on our yard. All the rest are rugged day and night bar the oldest horse on the yard a 32y.o. cob who isn't rugged at all yet. I think people do get a bit silly with rugs these days, on our yard the first horses to be rugged were a coloured cob, 2 Welsh cobs and a fat Welsh A!!! These ponies were rugged long before my TB and TBxID and the other horses there which are a British WB and an ID. Seems a bit OTT when these ponies are built to withstand winter on the Welsh mountains and then their owners are complaining they're too fat and putting grazing muzzles on them
grin.gif
Oh well everyone to their own I suppose...
 
Here here MyMills! I have 2 horses that are complete opposites! My 7 yr old welsh D loves to be out in the middle of the field when it's p**sing it down,doesn't worry about the cold would live out happily 24/7 without rug on, since doing an injury she isn't clipped in winter so this year she'll have no rug on in the day, L/W on at night,in depths of winter i.e) snow she'd have a M/W on,she would have less on in an ideal world but she has early stages of arthritus in her hip so she has to have it covered when cold as she gets v.stiff and sore.
My new 4 yr old Warmblood X however is a wimp! She shivers when it's spitting,stands by the field gate wanting to come in if it's under 9c,and is a cold morsal,she is v.thin skinned though,she is unclipped at the mo,her routine rugs will be: if sunny,rug off in the day, M/W on at night,when clipped M/W daytime,when frosty at night H/W or kept in and stable rugs on.
 
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