Stable rugs are MUCH heavier than turnouts...

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Chestnutter

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<font color="purple">My TB lives out all year and he's much prefers it to living in. He has two heavyweight turnout rugs on in the middle winter and a heavyweight throughout the other times (lightweight in the summer and medium in the middle months).
Anyhoo,
since i've been buying turnout rugs, I have noticed that stable rugs are always a much much heavier weight. Our competition horses have two 375g-ers and another 200g when its really cold at night. they have over 900g on at night.
So is it that my horse is not warm enough in 6/700g or that they don't need as much?
Seeing his coat in the winter, you wouldn't think he lives out, because he's so rugged up, so he must be warm enough? but anyway,
rug companies often claim that a horse can be snug and warm all winter in a 300g-er and don't often go higher than 350g, yet heavy weight stable rugs are often 375g - 450g, and are often not used as just one individual rug, two heavy rugs together.

This may be a stupid question, but why is this?! Surely it's much colder outside!!! </font>
 
I don't know why people layer as much as they do tbh.

D often has a hunter clip in winter yet never wears more than a mw stable rug over night. I never think horses with 3-4 rugs on look that comfortable.
 
Winter nights are usually colder than the day, and a stabled horse can't move around as much to keep itself warm.
 
Most I've ever put on is a 100g turnout with both the 350g and 100g liners but that was when temperatures drop way below zero. Typically during coldest spells mu wimpy TB mare is in 1 400g (100g turnout + 350g liner) when super cold but more normally use the 200g liner. she's stabled at night and has same rug on as she does during the day. would never put as much as 900g on her!
 
I have some 350g/400g turnouts!!

Some horses I find are warmer types than others. My mare compared to others will feel cold to touch her ears, quicker than others.
 
Hm. My mare is too warm to wear much in the way of rugs.

I look longingly at rugs. I dream of rugs. I adore rugs. I have a large collection of (mainly) unworn rugs.

Sorry, rambling, should be in bed
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I was always taught that it is better to under rug as horses find it easier to warm up than they do cool down.

I look at rugs and thank my luck for having 2 horses who manage with a couple each and don't seem to mind the cold (and they are both fully clipped all winter). If its cold they just get more hay to eat.....
 
I have a 500g Turnout Rug and a 550g Stable rug and sometimes not even they are heavy enough for my TB.

In answer to your post I would say that horses that are stabled are unable to move around as much therefore are unable to keep themselves warm.

Also MOST (and I say that loosely) horses that are stabled over winter tend to be types that feel the cold more or have full clips so need the extra weight in rugs.
 
I think 900g is ridiculous! Especially in the UK where it's not that cold at night!

My horses (stabled at night) never have more than one heavy stable rug (one of them is 450g, but normally 320g to 360g), and they're perfectly fine.

And in Germany it can get really cold at night (one winter we managed to reach -30 every night for quite a long while!)
 
900g??? My Lord. I have 1 x 100g lightweight stable rug layered under a lightweight (no filling at all) turnout for stain protection. My stables are 'almost' outdoors as all have Yorkshire boarding and two are only 3/4 enclosed. We are NW England. If it gets REALLY cold, I stick a fleece on under that. But only because mine are good doers and can't have unlimited hay to chew on to provide internal warmth.
 
Buzz is clipped out fom the tops of his ears to the tips of his toes in the winter nd has the same 900g if not more on in the depths of winter along with a hood nd leg wraps nd he is kept in, other people say its too much but the is no way in hell i would put anyless on him as he feels the cold very easily, nd i cant not clip him out as when he moults he's a f**k wit to groom nd attepmts to kick my head in!!!
 
I'd love a collection of rugs, but P has 1 stablerug (which I think is far too heavy so he never wears, but I keep as it was my girls before him) and 2 lightweight turnouts - will get one with a bit of filling this year as he is now on a hillside! Need to look round for some 2nd hand rugs as I won't mind him trashing them so much - he trashed a day-old Fal once, and I cried. Alot.
 
IMO that's a ridiculous weight/ amount of rugs to put on a horse. TB or otherwise.

The TB polo ponies at my yard live out 24/7 365 days a year and only have m/w rugs on in the winter with out necks!

More damage is done by over rugging than not enough.
 
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IMO that's a ridiculous weight/ amount of rugs to put on a horse. TB or otherwise.

The TB polo ponies at my yard live out 24/7 365 days a year and only have m/w rugs on in the winter with out necks!

More damage is done by over rugging than not enough.

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I agree.

With modern rugs being so good these days you don't need to pile on layer after layer of rugs. Have a look at the Bucas ones, which cover a massive temperature range and can be worn for turnout and for stabling.

Swaddled up like that cannot be comfortable for the horse. And if they get too hot they will sweat and then get colder still as there is nowherefore the moisture to escape with all those layers.
 
Well you know,


Wiltshire is famed for its harsh, often arctic climate conditions
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ETA - when I lived in a fairly sheltered (yet still VERY north) valley, my horse (a lightweight TB in regular competition work) had a MW on at night. Only now that we are even more north, ontop of a huge hill next to the wind farm that he *sometimes* sees a HW. That is ONLY when the temperature has dropped below -5 or -10, depending on wind chill.

I guess it does depend on individual horse, but a friend who over-rugged had lethargic, sweaty and ultimately, ill horses. (They got some kind of horse virus because of the high temperature, like a horse high fever).
 
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I guess it does depend on individual horse, but a friend who over-rugged had lethargic, sweaty and ultimately, ill horses. (They got some kind of horse virus because of the high temperature, like a horse high fever).

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I can Safely say Buzz has spent the last 4 winters with me nd kept rugged up as i discribed in an earlier post nd has never ever had any negative effedts from this, so i definately agree that each horse is different.
 
Mind, i remember last winter that lass on here who put a fleece, heavy under-rug, heavy stable rug and waterproof rug on over (I was sure there were more...). The weather for her at the time was 10-15C.

Madness or maybe the horse needed it.
 
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