under or overrugging?

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UKa

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Hi just got home tonight and see that the weather forecast has changed from what I saw last night and it is going to be colder than expected over night. Have had horse brought in by friend and left thinner rugs to be put on. Do I need to worry if she is slightly underrugged what do you think? She is a slim TB who feels the cold only has a neck and chest clip her rug has a neck cover... or should I go back up and add another rug? What would you do.


On a different note i saw someone leaving 4 rugs over their door to be put on their horse... now that is a bit overrugging for barely freezing temp or am I wrong?
 
Depends on the rugs and what the horse is used to.

If you are paying for hard feed to keep weight on it makes sense to rug up so they use less energy to keep warm.

If your horse is overweight you can under-rug to lose a bit of weight.

My two are just right, but beginning to drop weight, so they are wearing sherpa fleeces and a 400g rug in the barn tonight!
 
Well she is not keeping weight on that easily, she is wearing a fleece under a quilted stable rug which I think is light to medium weight... but it is only tonight if I don't go up then tomorrow I will rug her up more for the night...just whether she is going to be ok one night?
 
I think since you said the rug has a neck cover she will be OK. It's a bit borderline but I wouldn't worry, it's not dropping to freezing tonight.
 
I think I will go with that. It is a bit of an upheaval for me to go up now with my exhausting toddler in tow... Horse has plenty of hay to eat for inner warmth and tomorrow she will be wrapped up as usual
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they are wearing sherpa fleeces and a 400g rug in the barn tonight!

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Love the sherpa fleece SO SUPER warm! My girls fits like a glove so she never has to heat the air around her. I use my sherpa when it gets into January and it's really freezing, it easily replaces a 200g - 300g rug for warmth and doesn't have any bulk.

To the OP I would worry about over rugging before under rugging, if she's got hair on her top half she'll be able to keep herself warm
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over rugging is worse than underrugging because if they are over rugged they can't get away from it but if they get cold the can shiver to warm up.
 
Horses can easily overheat from overrugging, whereas they are unlikely to suffer ill affect from being a little cold for one night.
 
Under rugging is definitely better than over rugging, because as GwenLP says, they can't get away from it if too hot, but can shiver to keep warm if needs be. But I'm sure your mare will be fine OP.

We have one horse who is pretty well covered and solidly built who feels the cold badly, another one much more slight than him who is always toasty warm and others in between. It really does vary from horse to horse, just the same as different people feel the cold more than others.
 
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