Rugging up pregnant mares...

[_jetset_]

A post in another thread on here has started me thinking...

Hannah will have a rug on right up until she foals. She hates being cold and gets cold quite easily. Even though she is an IDxTB and has a bit of feather on her legs, she is quite fine haired on her body. Even when I clip her out in November (obviously not this year, LOL) there is hardly anything comes off her.

So, I am now starting to worry about when she starts going out with her foal. She's due on 2nd March, and if it's anything like this year it could be really miserable. How much of a no no is it to put turnout rugs on a mare with foal if I removed the legstraps? Actually, don't know whether I could remove them, it's a Weatherbeeta turnout rug...

Same question for in the stable too... could she wear a stable rug at night that only has the cross surcingles??

Thanks for your help... I never realised how much you had to think about when having a foal until little things remind me!

 

[vic07]

pregnant mares are warmer due to the extra blood in the bodies. We did rug ours up when it was very cold but she didn't need rugs as much as she did when in work. - it was a struggle to find a rug that covered the belly! she did have a shelter as well!

 

[_jetset_]

Did you rug her when she had her foal at foot?

Thanks for your advice,

Rebecca

 

[vic07]

no. she didn't need it. had a shelter. she had one foal in April and the other in June, so this is a bit later than yours is due! you can only judge on how she is feeling. My horses take their rugs off if too hot! B*******s!

 

[_jetset_]

He he... Han is not intelligent to know how to take her own rug off thank god!

I just didn't know whether it was frowned upon putting a rug on a mare with a foal at foot. The foalie will have a baby weatherbeeta waiting for it so it can go out when it is born though??

 

[maestro]

Our foal was born in jan. and never had a rug on. They are born with lots of coat and unless sick acclimatise very quickly. Mare in foal do keep much warmer so unless showing signs they are cold are much better keeping the forage going into them.

 

[henryhorn]

I would start to rough her off as much as possible by not rugging her at the usual time. If you leave her a while she will get a thicker coat which should help later.
I wouldn't rug her up because to be honest the chance of the foal getting a leg/head caught in the leg belly straps is too great. others may diagree but we have never rugged up because of this happening.
By the time she foals on the days the weather is so bad she will need a rug you probably won't turn your foal out inthat weather anyway, so it won't be an issue.
We foal from May onwards by choice for that reason, ours live out and they need slightly warmer conditions to do that successfully.
Only one brood mare is always rugged over winter and we leave her until I am sure her coat is set, it's a long time to wear a rug when it only gets moved every couple of days. She doesn't get rub marks or bald patches as the rug fits well, high up her neck and shaped round the back end.
I wouldn't worry about the rugging, as I said, she will sort herself out regarding the weather if you allow her to grow a decent coat. (we have pure TBs and warmbloods living out 24/7 all year here..you'd be surprised how well they cope!)

 

[Maesfen]

My honest opinion - mares in foal and with foal are a strict no-no but I do know some people that do rug mares and it plain terrifies me!
Mares in foal really do not need rugs on at all especially like Hannah which are stabled at night. If you leave her alone, just give her plenty of forage and a warm bed, then she will soon grow a coat to adapt; if you start to rug her at all she will lose the ability to adapt her own body temperature, you will make her system lazy and then she WILL feel the cold. Most TBs at stud are never rugged before foaling and an awful lot of them live out through most of the winter too so she with her ID bit will certainly cope. They are like pregnant women, they have an inbuilt temperature control (my son was born mid February and I never wore a coat once that winter even though it was a really cold one!) I have heard of foals getting caught up with surcingles and leg straps and getting strangled - what a waste of a young life, not to mention all the hard work and cost to even get it born in the first place. If you feel the need to rug the foal, perhaps it is poorly in some way, fine, but please don't rug your mare; it truely isn't worth it; she and foal are much stronger than you think. A vet said to me many years ago, NZ rugs are only for owners to make them feel better, the horses, if kept properly certainly don't need them - and in many ways he is right!