Shivering pony

Supertrooper

Supertrooper

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As much as I try to harden my heart to it knowing it's a normal response to warm themselves up, I hate seeing horses or ponies wet and shivering.

Its the only time my pony gets his turnout on (with a fleece under to dry him off). I'll take it off later as soon as it stops sleeting.
 
It is truly grim here today and my welsh cob X who has been unrugged all Winter was a shivery mess. She has lost an awful lot of her winter coat and it's down to 3 degrees and sleeting so I have relented too and popped a rug on her.

Come back Spring!
 
southerncomfort said:
It is truly grim here today and my welsh cob X who has been unrugged all Winter was a shivery mess. She has lost an awful lot of her winter coat and it's down to 3 degrees and sleeting so I have relented too and popped a rug on her.

Come back Spring!
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my oldies the same, he hs been naked for about 2 weeks but with loosing his coat and the weather being so crap hes rugged again....please please come back spring!
 
I feel mean as I have just reclipped my youngsters as they were sweaty and I'm now at work so if they are cold there is nothing I can do about it...
 
horses shiver to warm themselves up , so do people. But I'd put a coat or pullover on if I were that cold and so I rug my horse if its too cold too. Cant stand seeing shivering horses and people saying its natural. its cruel to leave them like that. Just saying.
 
Downton Dame said:
horses shiver to warm themselves up , so do people. But I'd put a coat or pullover on if I were that cold and so I rug my horse if its too cold too. Cant stand seeing shivering horses and people saying its natural. its cruel to leave them like that. Just saying.
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It's actually better for a horse to be a little cold than a little hot. A horse who is cold can shiver (or eat) to warm up, a horse who is rugged and too hot has no way of cooling down. Also if it is really cold and windy a rug can make the horse lose core heat as the body is 'warm' so the errector muscles in the hair in uncovered bits don't work so exposed areas (like the belly, legs, neck and face) will lose heat.

Also a person who is cold will wrap up all over - just try walking around in a body warmer with a tshrt and shorts and see if you still feel toasty warm. Horses who cannot go fluffy in the bare bits feel something similar.

So actually - it isn't cruel.
 
Agree with downton dame, a shivering horse that isn't given the means to warm up by eating/shelter/rugging is quite likely to chill badly resulting in possible illness at worst and downright discomfort at best. Putting a rug on a cold horse is highly unlikely to cause overheating.

I don't believe that the exposed areas that aren't rugged will feel colder, in fifty years that hasn't been my experience, warming the back and the large muscles tends to warm the whole horse ime.
 
touchstone said:
I don't believe that the exposed areas that aren't rugged will feel colder, in fifty years that hasn't been my experience, warming the back and the large muscles tends to warm the whole horse ime.
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Modern research has shown that the majority of heat is generated through digestion, not muscles. It the good old days we also used 'newzealand rugs' - thank heavens times move on and welfare does too.
 
So the implication is that years of experience result in welfare issues because we once used new Zealand rugs fgs? There was far less obesity and fitter horses for starters, and no shivering horses.

Seriously pees me off when people get all sanctimonious about rugging a cold horse. Sensible rugging is good management. Yes, heat is generated through digestion, but if you've got a shivering horse that has lost most of its winter coat and is still cold with ad lib forage then rugging is not a welfare issue.
 
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touchstone said:
Seriously pees me off when people get all sanctimonious about rugging a cold horse. Sensible rugging is good management. Yes, heat is generated through digestion, but if you've got a shivering horse that has lost most of its winter coat and is still cold with ad lib forage then rugging is not a welfare issue.
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Noone said it was. But I take objection to being told I am cruel for not rugging - not rugging is not a welfare issue either. Jeez how must they cope when it really cold? It's not like it gets to minus 20 here. I didn't even rug when I had a KW1 postcode
 
I find that my hairy beasts are far more likely to shiver in summer and spring once they have cast their coats so I too pop a rug on if they are shivering mostly because in those circumstances they are also on restricterd grazing so I feed straw chaff to encourage their internal heating system to work better
 
Unrugged and in the snow - poor sod was that hot he was lying down to cool down - I clipped him later that day. Big beast is bib clipped and happy as larry :)

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2 hours earlier the weather was like this

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And an hour later like this

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I havent rugged much at all this winter. However she did have 3 months in full time due to flooding.

Came in yesterday at 3pm shivering and frantic she also bit me. In 6 years that mare has never bitten me!.

Half an hour of haying, and a full neck fleece and she was warm and drying off.

But hey, leaving them naked is natural and causes no distress!
 
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