rugs question for horse living out 24/7

[icee]

sorry if this is a stupid question,

my mare (tb x, 9 years old) is currently turned out in the field at my livery yard 24/7, in a decent sized field with trees for shelter. she is turned out until she goes back to the vets for rescans (ligament issues) at the end of october. she's currently naked and the livery services on the yard told me to keep her that way, which I have done (apart from when the flies were horrendous and the sun was burning her nose, so she was getting cream on and a fly mask/rug).

however the weather is turning and i'm a bit doubtful about whether or not to start interfering with rugs? in the past i've avoided overrugging with my old horses apart from my old pony, who did need keeping warm. in the past my horses were always stabled so if they needed a dry rug popping on, i'd swap them over and dry off with towels as necessary.

so why should it be different now? this is my first winter with my new mare, and i've got terrible guilt as my old pony (30) died in the field just before christmas last year, i was paying for her to be rugged up every day as she did feel the cold- old pony was in a different area to me (i lived far away) and i got a text at 10pm to say she was shivering and really cold, so other liveries had put more rugs on her. but then she dropped dead after 11pm. when i went up to sort her body the next day she was only in a lightweight with no neck- and it had been so cold.

so now i've got renowned dread of the rain and cold and i have never really forgiven myself for the above.

 

[ihatework]

A 30yo cannot be compared to a young healthy horse.

I don’t routinely rug horses not in work who are living out. Provided they are healthy, have some form of shelter and access to fibre then the vast majority do just fine. I don’t groom them - this allows them to build up their own natural protection.

That said, every horse is an individual so if you do have one that drops weight at the drop of a hat etc then of course you need to adapt. But in my experience they are less common than people would like to believe if the environment around them is right.

 

[Shilasdair]

I don't think horses cope well with wind and rain even in mild temperatures. They are much happier with cold and snow.
My late Tb was kept out without a rug in Scotland until I bought her aged 4. Her bodyweight was good, but she had god-awful rainscald which took months (and a rug) to clear.
I've never really understood why a well fitting and regularly cleaned rug with a small filling (50g, 100g) is such a bad thing.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I wouldn’t want a horse with a ligament injury whizzing around the field trying to keep warm. Rug up or bring in if you’re going to cop Alex.

 

[icee]

thanks everyone

i don't know what you mean by cop Alex though sorry

 

[Tiddlypom]

Sorry, I meant if you cop Storm Alex.

Britain is in the midst of Storm Alex today as 70mph gales and heavy downpours are sweeping the country with non-stop rain on the way until Monday.

More than a month's worth of rain could be recorded in some places from today until Sunday as the first named storm of the autumn swept in from France, where it has already ripped off a school roof and felled trees in Brittany.

Downpours are forecast every hour for parts of South East England from now until Monday lunchtime putting hundreds of thousands of families on flood alert, while commuters face a hellish return from work today.

 

[Adoni123]

What I would watch for, especially as she's a tb type, is her body hair fluffing up to protect from the cold - if she's gone fluffy she needs a rug
I would just got by her body temperature feeling armpit and ears
I have a slightly chunkier type but is still sporty - I won't rug him until a few weeks when he's got an Irish clip
I will use a 50g turnout if it's very heavy rain or wind - if it's lighter I'd leave him naked
I never use a rainsheet as they are crap and make then colder - better without
When he's clipped he'll probably use his 50g for a good while, that's my most used rug for sure as protects from the weather but isn't too cosy - helps with his weight too

 

[icee]

What I would watch for, especially as she's a tb type, is her body hair fluffing up to protect from the cold - if she's gone fluffy she needs a rug
I would just got by her body temperature feeling armpit and ears
I have a slightly chunkier type but is still sporty - I won't rug him until a few weeks when he's got an Irish clip
I will use a 50g turnout if it's very heavy rain or wind - if it's lighter I'd leave him naked
I never use a rainsheet as they are crap and make then colder - better without
When he's clipped he'll probably use his 50g for a good while, that's my most used rug for sure as protects from the weather but isn't too cosy - helps with his weight too

thank you, this was really helpful

 

[Adoni123]

thank you, this was really helpful

No problem - 50g rugs are the best an usually use them if in doubt of what to do