Starting over rugging horses already..... 17° in the sun :-(

indie1282

indie1282

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Just been down my yard to check my boys and every horse on the yard is turned out in a rug - some with full necks. Its a lovely sheltered yard in a valley which is a real sun trap and all the horses rugged are not clipped, not in work and all showing a bit of fluff.

There is a Shetland in a lightweight turn out rug. In the 17° sun.

I feel like Tom Hanks in the green mile walking past all their fields as they look becheechingly at me - its horrible!

I know each to their own and some horses feel the cold more etc.. but they are all looking hot and miserable. What baffles me the most is the owners stood in the yard in t shirts saying 'gosh its so warm today'

Wtf??!

Where did the trend for rugging a horse constantly come from? Is it the manufacturers - there seems to be a rug for every possible occasion on the market? Do horse owners genuinely think that an animal designed to live outside is cold in the mild weather?

I cant think of a reason to make a horse unhappy and uncomfortable just for the sake of it?
 
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Same is starting to happen at my yard.. All horses are fat and most not clipped, yet still in rugs. Over night too. My horse is not as fat as some of the others, but she is certainly not going to be rugged for a while yet. I think people forget that horses have an excellent central heating system and their digestive system creates a ton of heat for their bodies! Mine was over rugged last year by different yard and developed serious problems with itching. Its mad!
 
Thank you for writing this Indie, you have saved me from writing exactly the same myself. Its happening on my yard too. Every horse in the collection of paddocks here are in rugs with necks in the day time, unclipped and this seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Out of curiosity, i put my hand inside my horse's field buddy's full neck rug last night to feel the weight of it and it had at least a 250-300g filling.

What on earth are these owners going to do when the weather actually does get cold?

Unbelievable.
 
My yard too. My boy is a native, blanket clipped and naked 24/7 still. He hasnt dropped any weight yet and hasnt been cold once although he did get wet the other night, still alive fortunately :) A couple at the yard are oldies and quite fine limbed but most are natives or native x, nothing is clipped and nothing really working hard. Ive learned to keep quiet, I thing everyone else feels Im in the wrong so I guess in their eyes, its my horse thats suffering. Without exception, all apart from mine are rugged today in mws, some with necks!
 
I blame YOs who don't have the experience to be able to tell novice owners that they are endangering their horse's health. If YOs set a good example, liveries would follow.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I blame YOs who don't have the experience to be able to tell novice owners that they are endangering their horse's health. If YOs set a good example, liveries would follow.
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I had to be fairly insistent earlier this week to prevent one of my liveries rugging their rather tubby pony, luckily they did listen and he is still naked, I try and set an example by leaving mine naked for as long as possible, the only one rugged at night has PSSM but she is unrugged during the day unless it is raining.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I blame YOs who don't have the experience to be able to tell novice owners that they are endangering their horse's health. If YOs set a good example, liveries would follow.
Click to expand...

Problem is Pearlsasinger the YO owns half of them! :-(

It really does drive me nuts when I see over rugged horses.
 
Mine's still out naked 24/7 and will be until the end of the month (and maybe longer!) if the weather holds. Luckily my yard is full livery only so there's none of the crap horse management that you get with novices on DIY.
Horse is still on walk work and I'm not planning to clip until November when we start trotting. She might be rugged then depending on the weather and the clip.
 
One of my friends is shocked I don't own a rug for my well covered cresty native pony. I'm hoping he uses some of that to keep warm in winter!!
 
indie1282 said:
Just been down my yard to check my boys and every horse on the yard is turned out in a rug - some with full necks. Its a lovely sheltered yard in a valley which is a real sun trap and all the horses rugged are not clipped, not in work and all showing a bit of fluff.

There is a Shetland in a lightweight turn out rug. In the 17° sun.

I feel like Tom Hanks in the green mile walking past all their fields as they look becheechingly at me - its horrible!

I know each to their own and some horses feel the cold more etc.. but they are all looking hot and miserable. What baffles me the most is the owners stood in the yard in t shirts saying 'gosh its so warm today'

Wtf??!

Where did the trend for rugging a horse constantly come from? Is it the manufacturers - there seems to be a rug for every possible occasion on the market? Do horse owners genuinely think that an animal designed to live outside is cold in the mild weather?

I cant think of a reason to make a horse unhappy and uncomfortable just for the sake of it?
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ours have lightweights on during the day and tonight its going to be 4c so goodness knows what rug to put on tonight; the weather is so up and down at the moment :) nothing to do with keeping clean as somedays he goes out without a rug. up to the y.o as she is here and knows how warm or cold it feels at half six in the morning when i am 15 miles away driving to work. happy with her decision.
 
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Not mine she's fully clipped and still in just a fly rug when turned out, I'm in a t shirt today so goodness knows what the horses feel like
 
Oh don't get me going on over-rugged horses!

It is my fave rant..........

You see poor, hot, uncomfortable horses all the time, the only people that benefit from this is the rug manufacturers who've succeeded beyond their wildest dreams of getting every owner worried that their horse is cold & wet, and then play on this anxiety.

Rant over.
 
Mine and friends ponies seem to be the only naked ones on a yard of 40 odd horses today!! Its crazy! Went to check mine this afternoon, and whilst I was a bit chilly he was lovely and warm. Hoping to hold out until the end of the month to possibly do a trace clip and perhaps bob on a 150g with no neck. I am such a meanie!
 
I've no issue with rugging a cold horse as long as the horse is regularly checked to make sure the temperature hasn't gone up and horse is uncomfortable. At any time of the year it's not appropriate to put a rug on and leave it 24/7
 
The boys would be out naked if it weren't for the flies :( Wish they'd hurry up and disappear - I love being able to leave them out with no rugs on at this time of year.

The mini Shettie on our yard was sporting a very adorable rug this week. Super cute but completely unnecessary: it's not cold, she's only out during the day and she's got a massive thick coat.
 
Yup, just like mine but I did put a very light weight stable rug on this evening as I have a lesson early tomorrow morning and it helps to stop poo marks on his white bits! Interestingly, he had a fly bite that came up in a welt the size of my palm yesterday.. bloomin flies!
ossy said:
Not mine she's fully clipped and still in just a fly rug when turned out, I'm in a t shirt today so goodness knows what the horses feel like
Click to expand...
 
Snuffles said:
People don't want their horses to get muddy and have the bother of cleaning them up
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Fly rugs, normal or waterproof ones, do a good job of keeping them clean without adding warmth, I wish people used them more if they want to keep the horse clean.
 
Mine are in no-fill rugs at night, as of two days ago, as they were starting to feel chilly at late night check, and they're all a bit special needs. All the rugs come off at 8am, and go back on at night - it's far too warm to rug during the day. I'm monitoring two of them -one feels the cold way earlier than all the others, and the other is sporting a fresh full clip, but all the others stay naked during the day, no matter what the weather decides to do.
 
Our small herd has two fine skinny TB's who have lost condition and weight recently and they are both now lightly rugged. The two natives are so hairy you can't see anything but fur and are unrugged. The ISH mare and my WB pony have rainsheets at night as they are in an exposed field with little natural shelter. Mine in particular doesn't have much of a winter coat yet and I don't want him to lose any more weight.
 
The one horse who is rugged at the yard I'm at who is rugged in a lightweight is a very elderly TB mare. All of the other horses, inc mine are out naked and will be all winter.
 
Our youngsters are naked and will (hopefully!) be unrugged all winter. I'm more likely to bring them in at night if the weather is horrible than rug them. The mares however, are still being roughed off after being hard fit all summer. They're naked in the day time, but have lightweights on at night now it's turned a bit colder. One is a TB who finished the polo season pretty light so the last thing I want is her losing any more weight, we're on a condition-mission!
 
Mine are all still naked and out 24/7 - a 22 year old tbx, a 26 year old fellx and a 7 year old cob with a bib clip. The cob is coming in almost sweaty when the sun has been out so no rugs for him any time soon!
 
Glad its not just me then! Rugging over night is ok if the horse needs it, the temp does drop - I put rugs on my two if they feel cold or if its going to be wet but they will be off first thing in the morning.

The problem with turning out/checking very early in the morning is that it can be pretty chilly but give it an hour or two then it warms up and then you have overheated horses.
 
Very awkward time of year for rugging. I do try not to judge as every horse is different but it does get extreme! My pony is just in a l/w at night and naked in the day. Gelding is such a wimp and has l/w on most days, occasionally a m/w; but we are very exposed here.
 
What are these people going to do when it actually does get cold?

My hunter clipped horses are out at night in very lightweight turnouts and the ones that haven't been clipped yet are unrugged. They've got plenty of grass to eat which will help keep them warm.
 
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