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

ester said:
see I find the concept of horses being in the same rug 24/7 at this very changeable time of year (ie the difference between day and night can be quite significant a bit odd :p, but that comes from always being in the position of having them out the back door ;).
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I think if I had her at the back door I would change her rugs alot more, but at least in a rainsheet she won't overheat (its not that warm up here), if she gets cold she can warm up and she will at least stay dry!

If she gets too hot someone at the yard will whip it off :)
 
That's awful. My horse hasn't seen a rug yet, it's still so warm during the day. I will not rug until he's been clipped and I won't clip whilst the daytime is still warm enough for him to be sponged off and dry happily after work!

Winter is so long and tedious that I think my horse deserves as many days with the sun on his back as he can get!
 
Damnation said:
I think if I had her at the back door I would change her rugs alot more, but at least in a rainsheet she won't overheat (its not that warm up here), if she gets cold she can warm up and she will at least stay dry!

If she gets too hot someone at the yard will whip it off :)
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we always say we aren't convinced it saves time, you spend more time faffing :D (It was fluke I live on my DIY yard!)
 
Seriously? Am I missing something here. There are highs of 13 degrees today here (south England) and my horse was out last night in 300grams worth of rug. He is fully clipped (48 hours ago!) with extremely fine clippers so he has absolutely no hair, is turned out on an exposed hill with no shelter so yes- he is well rugged. Incidentally they are swapping to day turnout and night stabling today and he is now in a 200g rug for the day outside. Again, on exposed hill, with no hair.
 
Michen said:
Seriously? Am I missing something here. There are highs of 13 degrees today here (south England) and my horse was out last night in 300grams worth of rug. He is fully clipped (48 hours ago!) with extremely fine clippers so he has absolutely no hair, is turned out on an exposed hill with no shelter so yes- he is well rugged. Incidentally they are swapping to day turnout and night stabling today and he is now in a 200g rug for the day outside. Again, on exposed hill, with no hair.
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The difference is you've clipped, have rugged accordingly and changed to a lighter rug for the day. OP was talking about unclipped horses wearing the same rugs all day that they were wearing at night, not having a pop at ALL rugged horses.
 
Actually there was no mention of what they were wearing at night, and other than the shetland (and given that many would maintain that a lightweight compresses the coat and will often make a horse colder we don't know if that was the case here ;) ) how much they were wearing during the day either, just that they all had rugs on.
 
rugging this time of year is a nightmare even when you are doing your best to predict the weather and taking into account warm/cold horses... when the sun comes out here it's warm, when it clouds over it's freezing, so you'd need to change rugs every 10 mins to be the perfect owner. The horses are in exposed fields with no shade or shelter. Can't do right for doing wrong.

Mine are in LWs with partial clips but I think I cocked that up last night... cob was a bit chilly this morning at 4 degrees. Are mine the only horses in the world that don't run around to keep warm, as people frequently suggest? mine stand about looking hunched up.

ETA, the moving around to keep warm thing, seriously, is there any evidence for this in domesticated horses, i.e. those that don't have to travel around for food or water? It seems like a complete waste of energy for a body that is feeling the cold.
 
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milliepops said:
Are mine the only horses in the world that don't run around to keep warm, as people frequently suggest? mine stand about looking hunched up.

ETA, the moving around to keep warm thing, seriously, is there any evidence for this in domesticated horses, i.e. those that don't have to travel around for food or water? It seems like a complete waste of energy for a body that is feeling the cold.
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I'm usually first at the yard and most of the 40 odd horses are just standing around looking grumpy when its cold.
 
Michen said:
Seriously? Am I missing something here. There are highs of 13 degrees today here (south England) and my horse was out last night in 300grams worth of rug. He is fully clipped (48 hours ago!) with extremely fine clippers so he has absolutely no hair, is turned out on an exposed hill with no shelter so yes- he is well rugged. Incidentally they are swapping to day turnout and night stabling today and he is now in a 200g rug for the day outside. Again, on exposed hill, with no hair.
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Just to clarify again - I have no problem with horses being rugged at all. You sound like you have rugged accordingly to your horses needs
 
milliepops said:
rugging this time of year is a nightmare even when you are doing your best to predict the weather and taking into account warm/cold horses... when the sun comes out here it's warm, when it clouds over it's freezing, so you'd need to change rugs every 10 mins to be the perfect owner. The horses are in exposed fields with no shade or shelter. Can't do right for doing wrong.

Mine are in LWs with partial clips but I think I cocked that up last night... cob was a bit chilly this morning at 4 degrees. Are mine the only horses in the world that don't run around to keep warm, as people frequently suggest? mine stand about looking hunched up.

ETA, the moving around to keep warm thing, seriously, is there any evidence for this in domesticated horses, i.e. those that don't have to travel around for food or water? It seems like a complete waste of energy for a body that is feeling the cold.
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I have always found cold horses, not that it happens too frequently, stand hunched up and shivering normally against a hedge if there is one, they certainly don't run about to get warm burning off even more calories, mine are a mixed bunch and should be a good example of what the average domesticated horse will do.

Sec A in midsummer in a real downpour was huddled up shivering, she was very slim and on restricted grazing, everything else was fine.
Last winter my pba found early morning hunched into the hedge after a very wet night with rain having blown inside his rug, he was extremely cold and looked as if he had stood in the same place for some time.

I do have decent hedges and they use them but if they get cold I have yet to see them run about to warm up it goes against instinct to waste their energy.
 
be positive said:
I have always found cold horses, not that it happens too frequently, stand hunched up and shivering normally against a hedge if there is one, they certainly don't run about to get warm burning off even more calories, mine are a mixed bunch and should be a good example of what the average domesticated horse will do.

Sec A in midsummer in a real downpour was huddled up shivering, she was very slim and on restricted grazing, everything else was fine.
Last winter my pba found early morning hunched into the hedge after a very wet night with rain having blown inside his rug, he was extremely cold and looked as if he had stood in the same place for some time.

I do have decent hedges and they use them but if they get cold I have yet to see them run about to warm up it goes against instinct to waste their energy.
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thanks bp ;) it's so often written on here that they'll move around to warm up but I can't think of a reason why a cold body would instinctively want to waste precious energy doing that. Agree the ones on restricted grazing come off worse when caught out in a cold wet spell... shows how effective having a fibre filled tum is I guess.
 
milliepops said:
thanks bp ;) it's so often written on here that they'll move around to warm up but I can't think of a reason why a cold body would instinctively want to waste precious energy doing that. Agree the ones on restricted grazing come off worse when caught out in a cold wet spell... shows how effective having a fibre filled tum is I guess.
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I also see it written and have puzzled over it as it is not my experience, they are definitely worse when restricted, my sec a is never rugged in winter when she has more food but does get chilly sometimes in summer rain when restricted and in her very fine coat.
 
I think it's a valid point and I don't think horses move around to keep warm in the sense that we would. However there is an argument for those out vs stabled. An unrugged stabled horse gets chilly fairly quickly.

That said, this country does seem to suffer an overrugging problem. Even my fine TB who hasn't yet grown much coat is still comfortable naked. He is out 24/7 (and needs a fleece if stabled even in July, so there is a difference).
 
Once the fields start getting muddy, mine wears a rain sheet- lightweight- as I am always rushing back and forth and it's much easier to keep her clean. She won't start wearing anything heavier until she gets clipped. She's happy, shiny and dappled as she is!
 
milliepops said:
Are mine the only horses in the world that don't run around to keep warm, as people frequently suggest? mine stand about looking hunched up.

ETA, the moving around to keep warm thing, seriously, is there any evidence for this in domesticated horses, i.e. those that don't have to travel around for food or water? It seems like a complete waste of energy for a body that is feeling the cold.
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Mine don't move around to keep warm. I under-rug / don't rug in winter if they need to lose weight and (IMO) it works for me mostly because they choose to spend more time in shelter and less eating, obviously wouldn't work if the food was in the shelter! It doesn't get that cold here, but is often wet and windy.

I hate the "shivering it off" thing too, even out trace clipped and un-rugged I have never seen my cob shiver and would immediately act if I did. The only time I'm seen him shiver was when he was sick.
 
be positive said:
I also see it written and have puzzled over it as it is not my experience, they are definitely worse when restricted, my sec a is never rugged in winter when she has more food but does get chilly sometimes in summer rain when restricted and in her very fine coat.
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Mine might be the exception then! When it gets cold he gallops around a lot more. I can't say it's specifically to warm himself up but that's the effect it has. When its around freezing early in the morning, if he has a light rug on (no more than 100g) he is pretty chilled and laid back, if I leave him naked I usually go up to find him flying around the field, digging up the field and having rearing/bucking on the spot sessions. He doesn't grow a lot of coat. I don't mind him zooming about but he does have RER and an old sacroiliac injury so I tend to rug more than the two companion/retired ponies as I think his muscles stay in better condition and reduces his chances of injury (to add, the biggest rug I own is 200g which is for the dead of winter so I don't mean that I over rug! He certainly isn't wearing one in the sun at the moment).
 
KatPT said:
Mine might be the exception then! When it gets cold he gallops around a lot more. I can't say it's specifically to warm himself up but that's the effect it has. When its around freezing early in the morning, if he has a light rug on (no more than 100g) he is pretty chilled and laid back, if I leave him naked I usually go up to find him flying around the field, digging up the field and having rearing/bucking on the spot sessions. He doesn't grow a lot of coat. I don't mind him zooming about but he does have RER and an old sacroiliac injury so I tend to rug more than the two companion/retired ponies as I think his muscles stay in better condition and reduces his chances of injury (to add, the biggest rug I own is 200g which is for the dead of winter so I don't mean that I over rug! He certainly isn't wearing one in the sun at the moment).
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Your pony has his own set of rules, he probably is fairly unique, from what you have posted about him I suspect he is charging about to warm up, also to get your attention to show his displeasure at being chilly and thoroughly neglected as we know he is!!
 
All horses are different, like people. Some feel the cold more, some get overheated quicker than others. I think its up to the individual whether to rug their horse or not. Age is obviously a factor, as is the amount a horse will actually be moving around whilst turned out. Also whether the field is exposed to the elements or whether there is natural shelter. How much grass there is also comes into play. There are many factors that determine whether to rug a horse or not. If my horse is cold I know because he grows cat hairs or his coat goes all velvety looking. I don't feel I over rug my horse. However our barn doors are 3/4 closed on cold nights, where I am moving to will be different so I will need to adjust his rugs accordingly.
 
I can't bring myself to rug during the day while there's still back scratching fun to be had!
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There's a couple at my yard in a lot of rugs already but mostly everyone is fairly sensible.

There is one that has stopped turning out because it is too cold ?!!?! The horse has been in all week apart from 2 hours on saturday :( and is in layers and layers constantly. Don't know what she's going to do when it's actually cold!
Fields are still bone dry too! And mines out 7am - 7pm still!
 
be positive said:
Your pony has his own set of rules, he probably is fairly unique, from what you have posted about him I suspect he is charging about to warm up, also to get your attention to show his displeasure at being chilly and thoroughly neglected as we know he is!!
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Haha, you are probably right there! I will have to do an update on him soon, he is having a very busy time being brilliant so probably deserves a positive update thread after all my worried ones!
 
KatPT said:
Haha, you are probably right there! I will have to do an update on him soon, he is having a very busy time being brilliant so probably deserves a positive update thread after all my worried ones!
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Good news that all is going well an update is well overdue.
 
This is the time of year where I am so grateful for having natives. They don't need rugging yet, won't for a long time, and I just don't have to worry if they get a little bit cold as they do warm up quickly again as long as there's food.

Last year I had the opposite problem - it stayed so warm for so long that I couldn't even put a rainsheet on and I just couldn't cope with all the mud! Even with a trace clip they were too warm and we didn't want to take any more hair off. I'm praying for a colder and drier winter than the last.

I do sympathise with those with wussier horses after years with far daintier equines who practically fainted at the sight of rain!
 
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lula said:
There's always worse evils done in the world. This thread was totally clear what it was about, if you have an 'god, this is starting early this year/rolls eyes' feeling towards it, why on earth did you click on the thread to read it? Doh.
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ok so whats your point? It's an open forum isn't it? wind the neck in with the dohs dolly.
 
It might be warm in the sunshine, but it's pretty chilly out of the sun and if you are working owner you have to commit one way or the other before you go off to work. I have trace clipped my 3 connies but not done the TB or the IHS yet as he doesn't get much coat. They are all in LWs/old MWs. On Saturday after riding one of the connies (who is well covered wth a v low clip) and the TB they were turned out without rugs on so they could enjoy the sun on their backs & have a roll, but then the sun went in and it started to drizzle and they stood under the trees looking miserable. The IHS is big & lanky and is taking an age to put condition on, he is being fed cautiously as otherwise he gets a bit rowdy, so I am loathe for him to lose condition by being too cold, especially as he is in hard work at the moment. I am heartily glad that I don't keep my horses on a yard where I have to justify what I do to anyone else....... I would have preferred not to be clipping and rugging just yet, but they were getting hot as they are cubbing quite a lot and needed more than a bib clip, so they are rugged unless it looks like it is going to be gloriously warm and dry from 7.30am - 6pm.
 
Surely its a case of what suits each horse? My standardbred was shivering in his no fill turn out on Sunday morning, so has gone to a light weight turn out rug now. But I wouldn't dream of rugging up our welsh pony yet!
 
Mine is out in a no fill full neck turnout. He's still a tad chilly to touch so I don't think he's too warm. He's clipped out too because he was getting too warm. I rug based on his needs, not based on what other people prefer to see.
 
Serenity is in a rain sheet, as she's a fine skinned TB and it was raining.
Ned will be naked for a good while yet, he's fat and unclipped and remarkably hardy. He'll get a rug if we get sustained rain as that really seems to get to him.
 
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