To rug or not to rug?

[My_breadbagel]

It’s rainy and about 17/16c around here.. my (healthy, prime of his life, good weight etc) Cob is miserable ib the rain. Should I rug him? I’m about to pop a sheet on him now to keep off the damp- he’s sensitive to the cold, and I’m a little concerned for him as he seems peed off

 

[JBM]

It’s rainy and about 17/16c around here.. my (healthy, prime of his life, good weight etc) Cob is miserable ib the rain. Should I rug him? I’m about to pop a sheet on him now to keep off the damp- he’s sensitive to the cold, and I’m a little concerned for him as he seems peed off

I have a tb who’s a whimpy baby and on the fence too
I have a 0g rug but still feel like he would sweat
In a perfect world I’d have a run in shelter for them

 

[Barton Bounty]

Depending where you are, if the sun is hot, no, but if there is no sun, yes ?

 

[Zoeypxo]

Mine has 0gram on as she dislikes having a wet back

 

[Carrottom]

I've just put 50g rugs on my old tbs. It started raining sideways just as I got to the field and they seemed pleased to see me traipse over with their rugs.

 

[meleeka]

It’s forecast a storm here tonight. Mine will be naked including my mare who genuinely thinks the rain will kill her ?. They have shelter and it’s far too mild even for a lightweight here (and if it’s heavy rain, I don’t have a 0g that won’t leak eventually).

 

[millitiger]

Imo 17 degrees is far too hot to rug, unless they have health conditions.
My lot don’t necessarily LIKE being rained on however they are horses and waterproof so no one is wearing a rug tonight despite a lot of rain forecasted.

normally I’m very non-plus about the rug debate but for the temperatures we have in this part of the country, I think it’s crazy.

 

[L&M]

Too warm here, ours would sweat buckets with a rain sheet on!

As with all these issues, down to the individual horse though.....

 

[Tiddlypom]

Something like the Rambo summer series rug or a waterproof fly rug would be ideal. I add a waterproof liner to my PSSM mare's Rambo fly buster rug, it covers just her back so that it keeps her back dry but the rest of her doesn't cook.

 

[Winters100]

Personally I would not rug at that temperature, but of course it is something that there are many different opinions about. I do think we need to be careful not to decide that our horses are happy or miserable based upon normal behavior, for example horses standing in the rain with their backs to the wind may not be unhappy, they are just doing what is natural to them in those conditions. My general rule is that if I am in doubt then I use no rug, or a lighter one than I am considering. They can manage being a bit cold, but being too hot is far more problematic for them.

 

[SEL]

2 ponies naked. 1 PSSM mare rugged and one oldie sulked when we took his fly rug off (he's a fly magnet) so I've chucked his rainsheet on. He doesn't care about rain but he got bitten badly a few days ago

 

[Auslander]

Hasn't even occurred to me to rug anything yet, and I have every sort of doer ranging from 2yrs old to 30. I might pop a rainsheet on the ancient scrawny one if we get heavy persistent rain, but she'll probably be horrified - tough old bird

 

[blitznbobs]

Last time i looked horses are not water soluble so unless you are planning to ride, your horse is drastically under weight or gets rain scald i would not bother

 

[Cragrat]

Coastal side of North East - one older TB who now drops weight massively if he gets damp and a bit chilly has been rugged on and off most nights , and some days, since the heat wave ended - wind is often the deciding factor, despite good shelther being available. 10 y/o Tb is rugged less often, younger bog pony whose passport says she is actually Tb probably won't get rugged this side of Christmas.

It very much depends on the horse and its environment

 

[spotty_pony]

We had a storm last night but it was much to warm to rug. My spotty boy usually dislikes the rain but even he didn’t seem to fussed this morning. We have lots of trees for shelter in our field so they don’t have to get wet if they don’t want to anyway. Due more rain tonight and I’ve left them out again… they will spend enough time in rugs soon enough and will have more time in as the weather changes.