Rugging....

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Apalacia01

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Hi.

The pony is now out on field livery and I need some advice r.e rugging. She has been clipped (beginning of December, hunter clip) and previously had been coming in at night and just spending it in h/w turnout, and if below 3 degrees, with a duvet underneath.

Now, I figure she is fine under 9 degrees day/night in h/w turnout, but at what temperature should I put a fleece on underneath that? I thought maybe 2 and under?

What is better...bit chilly or bit warm? I would think a bit chilly. Of course I would prefer neither, but she is 30 minutes away through London, so can't dash out to her, have to plan a bit in advance.

So...tonight its meant to be 3....fleece or not?
 
I'm swapping rugs round all over the place at the moment.

I always judge by feel rather than neccessarily temperature...
 
Ditto AmyMay, my tack room looks like a rug display unit at the moment cos the temperature is all over the place and I seem to be using a different weight one every day. I would go by your instinct, your temperatures and suggested rugs sound good but you will soon know. Does the pony have shelter?
 
It is best for them to be a bit chilly rather than too hot. If they are cold they can move round to warm up, it they are hot there is nothing they can do. My horse has a hunter clip and in the daytime he has a HW on, if hes out he has a HW and LW on. If he were out all night I would be tempted to put 2 HW rugs on if it were cold and/or very windy and wet, however his coat is very short as he was clipped about 2 weeks ago.

I generally judge by the weather as much at the temp. It could be warmish but blowing a gale and heavy rain, it which case they would probably just as cold as when the temp are low but no wind and rain.
 
Pony has natural shelter which I am going to check out today as its all around the edges of the field.
I suppose if she got a bit chilly there are other horses out there and she can have a huddle; otherwise if too warm she can't take her own rugs off, and will just destroy them.

I will keep an eye on the weather - seems like it will be fine tonight, so will leave h/w and check in am.

Yeah, as the new place doesn't have tack room space, they are all in the back of the bf's car - not happy car smelling like a muck heap!
 
If she's a good doer, looks well and happy, I would probably be tough and leave her in the h/w turnout 24/7. She's probably grown a fair bit of coat back if her last clip was December. She can huddle with her friends for warmth, or run about a bit!

As long as there's a bit of shelter, I think she'll be fine.

And I also agree that it's better to be on the chilly side of just right than too hot. They can get very dehydrated if they're sweating under their rugs.

And they do have fantastic thermostats and are very efficient at keeping warmth in, much much better than us!
 
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