Rugging unclipped horses?? Feeding Hay and Hard Feed?? Scotland.

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treacle86

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Just wondering who is starting to rug / feed their unclipped horses, who arent in any work over winter ???? In scotland and elsewhere .????

Thinking whether to start rugging and feeding My lot probably in the next week or so , they wont be doing any work at all really over winter .


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i rugged up my mare 2 weeks ago and started feeding her grass isnt so good just now she still gets ridden not to a competitve level or anything though where in scotland u from?
 
Don't rug the unclipped ones 'till the frost is hanging off their noses
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, apart from LL 'cos he's a wimp. Leaving all for as long as possible, though LC will be clipped out again in next couple of weeks so he'll have to be rugged. Dizz is growing a wicked coat and lives out 24/7, so long may that continue
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We're not in the cold North though, more the damp Midlands
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One skinny old mare is rugged at night, during the day if it is cold or wet. Not feeding anything apart from the weaned colt at the moment. Rugging depends on the weather and if the horses are cold or not. They are doing better than me
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it was down to 0C last night, ice on troughs this morning, and I was out logging in fleeces, a hat and gloves today.

I won't start feeding until the grass runs out or the snow hits, whichever comes first, all depends though, if the horses start looking hungry then they'll get fed but they have plenty of grass right now.
 
I know it's time to feed because Star is hurrying to the yard, and dragging her toes back to the field.... LOL
She's been getting half doses of Lo-cal through the summer (to keep the hoof growth right for the winter), and is now on the full ration with Alfa A once a day. It will stay like that til she comes in at night in about a month.
 
Not in Scotland, but the Midlands - people at our yard have already got HEAVYWEIGHT T/O rugs on unclipped horses - during the day! What on earth are they going to do when they clip their horses and it really is COLD????
 
When I kept horses in very cold snow New England, the horses that were not in work were turned out 24/7 (except in the very worst weather - ie when the snow was falling so hard that any hay we'd scatter out would be buried before they could eat it). They were NEVER rugged and we took their shoes off for winter so they could avoid snowballs. And never clipped til spring if they were going back in to work. Mine were also hard fed in the winter, too. We never saw any weight loss or suffering for the bad treatment.
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Now in Scotland, my Welsh D works all year and got clipped for the first time this year in beginning of September, wears a rug day and night and is pampered silly. She isn't nearly as hardy as my wee herd of Morgans.
 
My 2 Arabs and 1 donkey (live out 24/7) are now in rainsheets overnight but unrugged during the day because the weather has actually been quite dry. They do also have a shelter. I've started giving 2 small feeds a day now instead of one.

The one horse who will stay in work over the winter is now Irish-clipped, and gets slightly bigger feeds. He'll also be the first to go into proper rugs.
 
my irish draught has a rug on during the day and at night just a rain sheet at the moment untill he gets clipped some point this week then will prob be in his medium wieght but he's been rugged since about the middle of september over night at least cant really give advice on the feeding as i feed all year round dont think its fair just to feed over the winter
 
My Tb is still unrugged (unless there's a very wet spell) she gets fed all year round and is on speedibeet, alfalfa, grass nuts and linseed. I've just started to up her ration a little bit.
 
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I am in the very far north of Scotland and my two (both unclipped tbx) are naked through the day if it's dry (current temps ranging around 10C during the day and 5-6C over night) and have light to medium weight on at night depending on wind/ rain. Both get two small feeds a day of lo-cal balancer and hifi lite year round with speedibeet added once winter sets in properly.

Somone I know had broken out the HW rugs by September for her IDx.
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