Rugging and clipping a quick Q!

[lucky7]

My welsh D is ridden around 3 - 4 x per week, just bringing him back into work. He lives out and TBH he is a bit of a poor doer.
At the moment he is out rugless but is starting to grow his fluffy coat.
I have just bought him a medium weight TO rug with half neck. He has never been clipped before as he has had the last winter off. He wintered out badly last year despite being rugged and dropped weight. However this past month or so he has started to really fill out and grow into himself and he's looking good, i don't want him to lose weight again. He is on better grazing this year and there is still plenty of grass about.
Now this is the dilema! he is looking fairly fluffy and after exercise he does get sweaty so could do with a clip, weather is fairly mild at the moment , is it worth clipping him if he is ridden only a few days per week?- so, we have a cold boy, who will have a low trace clip if i do clip, what rug would you put on him for now? i don't want him cooking in the medium weight and i only go down once per day..... (someone checks them throughout the day) do i get him a thinner rug?
WWYD?!!

 

[twiggy2]

If you clip at this time of year they ideally need a rug change am and pm as the temperature varies so much, non of us on here know how warm or cold your boy feels to touch so commenting on what rug we feel would be right is subjective-personally I would not clip yet, I find clipping this early just means I have to keep clipping as the coat grows back so fast. I will clip at the end of the month when she is in at night but she is ridden 6 days a week and does ground work one day per week-yes she is getting hot and sweaty but it is mild enough that turning her out damp is not an issues as it is warm enough there is no risk of a chill-I also only clip horses that get very sweaty from head to toe.

Edited to add even with a full clip last year my mare wore nothing more than a medium weight with a rain sheet neck-when clipped I keep it neat by doing every 4 weeks so that was with a very short coat even in the coldest of weather, be careful the weight loss is not due to being over hot-he should not feel toasty to touch just not cold when you put your hand against his skin under his leg (arm) pits and behind his ears.

 

[Goldenstar]

I am in exactly this situation the horse is getting very sweaty even with gentle work and is not drying ,if I done clip before I know he'll be getting skin issues before I know it.
I have bought a 50 g rug I am going to clip and use that at first . It's the damp muggy weather that's difficult .

 

[milliepops]

I think it's the only visiting once a day that will cause you a problem if you clip at the moment. I've clipped mine but the horses are at home and I work from home, so can change rugs as often as needed. At the moment I've only got a LW on overnight and in the rain, and during the dry daytimes it's so mild here that they are all naked.

I wouldn't want to have to commit to one rug for a 24 hour period at the moment, so I'd say you will have to wait. His natural coat will do the best job for him at this changeable time

Like Twiggy I only used a MW on my fully clipped horses last year, as we didn't get a very cold winter here. 3 years prior I was turning out with 2 HWs on as it was so bleeding cold. You can't really predict what you will need until the weather hits.