Silly silly Girl!

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Feival

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A girl at the yard i keep W&B at has an Arab that she shows, she's going to Kent County on Friday. Today in 28' heat her poor mare was out in a rug!! You could see the sweat over the neck line of the rug, i couldn't leave her in that state so i took the rug off and text her owner to say about the state she was in. Half an hour later the owner appears feeds the mare and puts the rug BACK ON! she text me to say yes she knows its hot but the mare needs rug on as going showing Friday! Bloody idiot, how this mare is still standing i dont know!
 
Think the YO should know about this. As a YO myself I certainly would want to know, and she'd be told straight that this is a welfare issue and the rug would be coming off, and STAY off, or she could take a hike forthwith.

Having said that, there are rugs, and there are rugs. It might be worth clarifying what sort of rug this was?? E.g. my poor old cobbie-boy has to wear his sweet-itch rug, and I do so hate bundling the poor old boy up in it, but the alternative is for him to be bitten and rub himself raw with the dang midges.

It might also be worth trying to steer this numpty owner, if she is committed to "keeping her horse clean" towards perhaps a nice little lightweight fly rug. I've seen some very nice little cotton-type light rugs on the Premier Equine site, think they're supposed to be OK for using to protect and keep clean. Might it be worth directing her in that sort of direction? No doubt there are other lightweight rugs like this, that do the same job, which won't make the horse hot. Some of the sweet itch rugs even, like a Boett or De Meulenkamp, are supposed to keep the horse clean (as well as protect against biting insects) if that's what she's worried about.

Like dogs in hot cars, unfortunately some owners are plain stupid, nay downright cruel :(
 
An arab owner showing her horse the next day with just a rug??!! Where's the snuggy hood, boot wraps, tail bandage and muzzle??

Bloomin' amateurs.
 
It's no fill turn out she's in. Our yard owner has nothing to with the yard, its DIY and everyone does there own thing. But surely this is abuse?
 
It won't even 'keep her clean' for showing as she'll now have to get the sweat marks out so she's just given herself another job before the show.

I know nothing about prepping Arabs but my native pony is showing on Saturday - he's without a rug and we'll just get up early to get him squeaky-clean that morning, like everyone else in the class will probably be doing
 
Isn't it more to go with stopping the sun bleaching the coat. Not right anyway. A simple fly rug would have been just as good
 
dixie said:
Isn't it more to go with stopping the sun bleaching the coat. Not right anyway. A simple fly rug would have been just as good
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If you feed right the coat won't bleach in UK sunshine, just about all my ponies have been very very dark coated and they haven't bleached - but then they do have minerals balanced to their forage.
 
tallyho! said:
An arab owner showing her horse the next day with just a rug??!! Where's the snuggy hood, boot wraps, tail bandage and muzzle??

Bloomin' amateurs.
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quite, most showing owners I think, I was :eek3: at the number of rugs around at three counties show- the hottest weekend of the year! At least this is an arab not a native pony :p
 
catkin said:
If you feed right the coat won't bleach in UK sunshine, just about all my ponies have been very very dark coated and they haven't bleached - but then they do have minerals balanced to their forage.
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well actually it totally depends,
some bleach regardless of sunlight
some bleach regardless of feeding
some don't bleach even if fed rubbish and out in the sun all day.

There is huge variation and it is likely genetic we just haven't identified it yet.
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
Think the YO should know about this. As a YO myself I certainly would want to know, and she'd be told straight that this is a welfare issue and the rug would be coming off, and STAY off, or she could take a hike forthwith.

Having said that, there are rugs, and there are rugs. It might be worth clarifying what sort of rug this was?? E.g. my poor old cobbie-boy has to wear his sweet-itch rug, and I do so hate bundling the poor old boy up in it, but the alternative is for him to be bitten and rub himself raw with the dang midges.

It might also be worth trying to steer this numpty owner, if she is committed to "keeping her horse clean" towards perhaps a nice little lightweight fly rug. I've seen some very nice little cotton-type light rugs on the Premier Equine site, think they're supposed to be OK for using to protect and keep clean. Might it be worth directing her in that sort of direction? No doubt there are other lightweight rugs like this, that do the same job, which won't make the horse hot. Some of the sweet itch rugs even, like a Boett or De Meulenkamp, are supposed to keep the horse clean (as well as protect against biting insects) if that's what she's worried about.

Like dogs in hot cars, unfortunately some owners are plain stupid, nay downright cruel :(
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I feel your pain re fly rugs. The time my girl needs her fly rug on is when it's really hot as that seems to be when the horse flys come out where we are and she's most bothered by them. When it's cold/windy and rainy she's fine without a fly rug. Feel mean with them sweating under the fly rug but gotta be done - the really hot weekend a few weeks ago she came and stood while I filled the water tubs to get hosed down in the field
 
I was meant to be showing my pony at county on Saturday. She'd have been bathed the night before and turned out rugless once dry, I'd then just give her a darn good brush and polish up in the morning. No need for turnouts in this weather if dry!

If raining she'd just have been stabled rugless instead.
 
Of course it matters, our welsh has easily three times the coat of our anglo in summer and copes with the heat a lot less. Funnily enough natives weren't bred to work in hot weather conditions, arabs were!
 
Yet she was born here therefore that does not apply, had you seen the state of her you would be seriously not impressed either.
 
Where they are born doesn't matter! they still have breed adaptations, that is how genetics works!

I didn't say I would have been happy with her state, just recounting my recent experince of rugging show horses and native ponies.
 
I show my Arabs but they don't wear turnout rugs all summer they have fly rugs on when out only because the flies drive them mad, that is just cruel in my opinion I have a livery yard next door to me and there fields are next to mine and for the past week a mare has had a full neck turnout on day and night, I got fed up with looking at the poor thing so I took it off on Monday turns out the owner had not been down all week.
 
Maybe a my little pony would suit her more, won't get dirty and she can play with it and dress it in anything with no harm done. If she does it again I would report her to RSPCA, tbf I did report a more extreme case and they did call and talk to owner.
 
Feival said:
Believe what you wish, no horse can cope in 28' heat in a rug.
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Mine has to cope in his sweet itch rug. Comes in covered in sweat and has to be hosed off. I feel cruel making him wear it in the hot weather but it's the lesser of two evils. This is slightly different though as it's not necessary and also counterproductive: the horse will need another bath anyway to get rid of the sweat, surely?
 
You guys would have a field day here :( overrugging is pretty much the norm. There are owners who will visit their horse in May, chuck the heavy turnout rug on and not take it off until November, regardless of what the weather is doing. It's currently 12 degrees C here during the day, sunny and quite pleasant. There is a horse I know of with 3-4 rugs on, including a heavy turnout rug over the top of woollen and polar fleece rugs. This horse is out 24/7 in a herd. The show ponies can have up to 7 rugs on during showing season (to keep their coat short, guess they never heard of daylight hours changing :/ ).
 
Sounds about right for some of the showing crowd. I remember doing a yard for someone a few years ago and ponies were in fairly thick stable rugs to keep the coats off in the middle of june. A pony they were doing hoys qualifiers with had a lycra suit with hood on, boots and 2 rugs. The sweat was dripping out of everywhere :( . I didn't stay long
 
I went to view a horse once, skewbald with quite a bit of white on her. It was 28 degrees and they had rugged her to keep her clean for my viewing! I was so shocked, the bloke said that it was his grooms day off so she had cleaned her the day before and he didn't want to do it again. Poor horse had been standing there in a rug waiting for me to get there, poor little thing.

I refused to ride her obviously, and clearly expressed my concerns about her being rugged and told him I thought he was cruel. I did actually end up going back the next day, insisting she was left unrugged and if necessary dirty for me to ride, and I bought her. He agreed to deliver her to mine the following week after the vetting, and he drove her 45 miles, with the top door of the trailer open, (horse was an extremely nervous 5 year old), & the journey included going over the Severn bridge.

Some people are just so unempathetic with animals, its sad. I still have the mare now and she has never been keen on being rugged up, I wonder why...
 
The people I know who show just drench the poor horse ;) after a "the-day-before-wash" in this "make-the-coat-shiny-stuff" add a fly sheet and off goes the horse back to the field overnight. They never seem to have a problem showing the next day. Mostly just a quick brush and they are off. Might be worth telling the showing person in your yard.
 
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