Rugs v temperature

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Evie91

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After reading the other rugging thread I thought I'd ask;

What temperature/weather conditions do you consider warrant LW, MW,HW rug?

Thought it might be interesting to compare answers!

My tb was out in LW today (no fill), full neck and pony was naked. Day before they had both been naked. Today I think the low was around 8 but high of 14, IMO too hot for MW.

Rough guide for me~

LW - around 10 degrees or less.

MW - 0-8

HW - minus 0.

I have always been advised (by vets) it's better to under rug than over rug. Just wondering what others consider appropriate?
 
To be honest I dont have a set rule

for example today in the rain my 'wuss' pony was in a fly rug and was fine, thats been replaced with a 100g for the night but the fly rug will be back on tomorrow even though showers are forecast

I'm more likely to put a HW on if there have been sustained days of wind and rain rather than if it snows or is frosty too

Pony gets grumpy if he is cold or wet so its very easy for me to read him and rug accordingly
 
I have a very hot horse who suffers in the heat. Despite being fully clipped, he will only have a rain sheet on when it is raining. He may have a fleece on underneath if it is continually below freezing. I bought him a medium weight when I first got him and he only wore it when it dropped down to minus 12 a couple of years ago.
 
I usually leave them naked if its more than 8 degrees over night! I don't mind if it goes a bit colder for a hour or 2 but if its consistently under 8 they will have light weights. but they've had light weights on today as its wet and a bit nippy, so didn't want them getting colder from being wet!

when its around 2-4 degrees they will have mediums

and -2 they will have heavy combos!

They are Connemara x tbs and very warm horses! my mare is 29 with cushings and she is usually clipped, blank or full (full last winter) and she is rugged the same as my 4yr old who is unclipped! because she gets far too warm!

last winter neither of them got into a heavy weight, was far too mild!
 
Depends what I have been doing with him. Last winter when he was in work, ideal weight, kept clean and trace clipped he would have been in a LW / MW rug last night in the cold (approx. 6 degrees), strong winds and rain. Since he is roughed off for this winter, hasn't done a thing since June and has a woolly coat and is carrying a bit too much podge he was naked instead.

His companion pony is around 12 and as far as I know has never worn a rug, I have only just introduced him to the concept of bucket feed. I have now bought a LW one for him for snow etc, but haven't yet got him used to wearing it so he was definately naked.

Both quite happy this morning, we do have very high fibre grass here which seems to keep them feeling full better than when I was in the UK (downside - more poo). I also find the weather here is too changeable to rug much, freezing and raining one minute and then an hour later sunny and warm. I'm looking to have a free access shelter rather than rugging for rain, though I will be putting a rain sheet on the horse once he's back in work as he's mostly white and I don't have time to scrape the mud off if I want to get a good hack in.
 
I start rugging the old boy at night when temps get to below 10 as this seems to when he starts looking stiff in mornings. He starts off in a light weight just at night and off in day unless its really foul in which case it stays on. When he starts looking cold in morning he gets his medium light night time and light during the day. If he starts looking cold in morning with med light then then I pop his medium on and so on. When it turns really wet ( usually december ish) he comes in at night as he can't cope with cold and wet for too long. The ponio gets a lightweight usually round end October mid November time and a med light coming into January again depending on if he looks chilly or not. He doesn't need more than that as he gets a good coat and being a nf is pretty hardy as long as he has shelter. Youngster gets a rain sheet usually round end November when the rain comes in if I am honest just to give me some chance of keeping him semi clean as he doesn't really need keeping warm. Honestly he gets such a thick coat I think he could stand around the north pole and not even feel the slightest bit chilly!
 
CobsGalore said:
I have a very hot horse who suffers in the heat. Despite being fully clipped, he will only have a rain sheet on when it is raining. He may have a fleece on underneath if it is continually below freezing. I bought him a medium weight when I first got him and he only wore it when it dropped down to minus 12 a couple of years ago.
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my only problem with light weights is they don't tend to be so waterproof, in the really heavy persistent rain? do you ever struggle with him getting wet though?x
 
Kezzabell2 said:
my only problem with light weights is they don't tend to be so waterproof, in the really heavy persistent rain? do you ever struggle with him getting wet though?x
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I have a couple of shires rain sheets which are just brilliant. I think I have only known them to soak through once or twice when the rain was persistently heavy for 24 hours, in which case I just put a new dry one on.
 
Depends on how my ponies feel tbh.... Both are generally fully clipped so from now on they are always rugged. Generally I go into 180gs from about now on, upping to a medium weight when it drops colder. I usually rug up more at night than in the day; its colder and they can't move around to warm themselves up plus both are arthritic (one is mild, one is more severe) so I like to keep their joints warm. Normally the heavyweights come out when it gets properly cold, and so far I have never needed to put more than 450gs on in the day and only very rarely at night if it gets well below -1.... but really it just depends how they feel. If they feel lukewarm under the rug and they aren't stiff then its the right weight.
 
CobsGalore said:
I have a couple of shires rain sheets which are just brilliant. I think I have only known them to soak through once or twice when the rain was persistently heavy for 24 hours, in which case I just put a new dry one on.
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ah cool, might give them a try then, need to get my mare a new light weight this year! do they come up big? I find most shires stuff is larger than expected :)
 
I use a rain sheet in autumn and spring to keep the ponies dry to ride if we have persistent rain once clipped they have medium weight as they are out 24/7 all year round and have minimal shelter until we open the fields up for the winter as the short grassed fields have no hedging the long grass has. The two unclipped young ones are out naked and will stay that way unless we get weeks and weeks of rain when I will pop a rain sheet on to let them dry out for a while if it snows and is dry cold or is dry frost all but the newly clipped ones will be naked. So it rather depends on the horse and weather not the temperature to be honest
 
I come onto HHO, ask what everyone else hundreds of miles away has on their horses all in different levels of work and then I do exactly the same as them. :)

Just kidding, obviously...
 
Sweet itch rug from March to Oct. October, usually clipped fully and will in average temps for this time of year be either naked (if sunny and around 12-15 degrees) in day, and no fill at night with a very thin fleece under (living out. If in at night she will just have the fleece). If it goes below around 10 she will have a 100g combo turnout on at night, and I will leave the neck down during day if it is sunny but below 10. When it gets down to around the freezing mark she will go into a MW combo turnout, and MW stable rug, or fleece with LW stable rug over the top. Only in the very bad winter in 2010 where it was -15 did she go in anything more than a MW - she was fully clipped and had a mw with fleece under, or a newmarket wool blanket on with a sheet on top to keep it poo free!

(ETA, my mare is a 13 year old CB x type).
 
Apart from the obvious answer that it does depend on the horse mine have gone out tonight in 100g rugs as they are fully clipped and it is meant to rain most of the night.

One of my horses is 'hot' and has never been in anything heavier than 200g with a neck cover. She is out tonight in a rain sheet.

There have been times when I've turned them out naked for a few hours in the snow when it has been sunny.

I prefer to slightly under rug and provide plenty of forage to over rugging.
 
WelshD said:
I have found the 100g rugs to be the most useful of all my rugs - definitely really handy to have
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They really are WelshD. I just bought a new Rhinegold combo and I have to say I am very impressed with it so far. It certainly withstood the torrential monsoon weather we had last night, with no leakage and it stayed perfectly in place.
 
Moomin1 said:
They really are WelshD. I just bought a new Rhinegold combo and I have to say I am very impressed with it so far. It certainly withstood the torrential monsoon weather we had last night, with no leakage and it stayed perfectly in place.
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+1 from me - less to go wrong or get wet - I tend to think that they can move around in the field and keep themselves warm, in the stable they might need an extra layer.
 
Moomin1 said:
They really are WelshD. I just bought a new Rhinegold combo and I have to say I am very impressed with it so far. It certainly withstood the torrential monsoon weather we had last night, with no leakage and it stayed perfectly in place.
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Sounds like you are having the weather we just had! Super-strong winds and torrential downpours. It was horrid for us humans but none of the horses here seemed to pay any attention to it.
 
Spring Feather said:
Sounds like you are having the weather we just had! Super-strong winds and torrential downpours. It was horrid for us humans but none of the horses here seemed to pay any attention to it.
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Yes it was pretty bad in the night last night. Though by midday today the sun was out and it was nice pleasant t shirt weather again. Can't win!
 
Moomin1 said:
Yes it was pretty bad in the night last night. Though by midday today the sun was out and it was nice pleasant t shirt weather again. Can't win!
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Exactly the same here. It's beautiful out there today. I suspect you may have more to come though as that's what it was doing with us last week. Warm one day and then really really cold and wet the next and then sunshine the next. Crazy weather patterns.
 
I have a LW and a MW shires both combo, they are great. The LW will go on at around 5-6 degrees (first thing in the morning), and the MW when about 2-3 degrees as things stand (she's unclipped due to me breaking my arm). If I clip her, you can increase that by about 3 degrees for each rug. I'd be more inclined to rug at the higher temps if it's raining. Which given I'm in Wales, it will be.

I don't have a HW, ours are in at night and I leave her rugs on overnight so she keeps warm very well. I just give her a bit more forage overnight to keep things*ticking, she prefers that anyway!
 
It really does depend on the horse my two retired boys who live out 24/7, one is in a lightweight and the other in a MW with neck.
The other lot who are now in at night - two are turned out in LW(one clipped one unclipped) the one that's clipped has a 200g stable rug on at night and the other one is turned out in a MW with neck and when stabled has a 100g insulator underneath his MW stable rug! Hes a proper wimp!
 
I don't have a temperature guide as lots will depend on how much grass there is and how fat he is, fat and fibre help keep them warm if he has plenty of either then no rug if a bit short on both then he will have rug on. I have a native pony living out.

The one year when it got to -15C he had his HW rambo wug as there was snow and he was chaser clipped and living out. In a normal winter without snow he either has his LW rambo on which is very waterproof even in heavy rain that goes on for days or his MW rambo.
 
I only rug if it's persistently cold and wet.
My sweet itch cob is still in his fly rug
One of my oldies wears his turnout at night because he has no covering at all right now.
My welshie is naked with a blanket clip
The others are hairy and naked.
All live out 24/7
I just play it by ear...
 
If he's clipped (chaser), he'll be rugged in a LW (rain sheet) when it gets much below 10 degrees - at the moment (despite being hunter clipped four weeks ago) he's far too hot and hairy so he's nekkid. The exception is heavy rain when I'll pop a rain sheet on - had one on this morning for the first time and it's off again while he's in tonight.

If it drops a bit more (maybe 5 degrees) I'll pop a lycra bib on if he needs it, which seems to add lots of heat.

If it's particularly wet and / or rather cold he'll go into a MW (180g), and if it's very wet and/or very cold he'll go into a MW (180g) with a neck, with the lycra vest if he needs it.

Last winter I layered two rugs on the one day he seemed to need a bit more heat. I can't really justify the cost of a heavier weight rug for using probably one day a year on average, so I'll stick with my LW and MW rugs with a stable rug to layer in emergencies.

He's a TB x Connemara - seems to be a "hot" breed, judging by this thread!
 
It isn't about the temperature alone, it is about windchill and rain, sun, available shelter and the horse itself. So I rug depending upon how my horse looks and feels. I check her armpits and the base of her ears, check whether her coat is fluffed up, whether she is tucked up and whether she is holding weight and adjust my rugs accordingly often adding a neck rather than increasing the weight.
 
For me it depends on which horse, as all mine are different. What is "light" for one, is too warm for another - no such thing as one size fits all.
 
Like SF I only own MW rugs. If I have to double up I do.

I blanket horses when they look as if they need it, old, cold, skinny and just pure wimpy, a couple of the old biddies have blankets on at night now and it is only 3- 4C, a little but chilly, but hardly cold.

I take absolutely no notice of the day, date or temperature, if a horse needs a rug it gets one.

Mostly the horses only shelter when the wind is up or there is freezing rain, nothing with an ounce of common sense stays out in freezing rain :(
 
mine don't have much common sense then as they will stand out in freezing rain the only time I have seen them use a shelter or even the hedges is when it is hot or about to be a thunder storm in the summer probably the only time they shouldn't use it
 
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