What rugs?

[LittleD]

Hi, do you think horses are better cooler than warmer please?

My horse is a Shire x Hanovarian, good doer, well covered 17.2HH and around 700kg, unclipped but not a very thick coat, when the weather was very cold (-12) I put on her light to medium stable rug and turned her out in a med standard neck turnout, then it went sooo warm so I changed to her fleece at night in the stable and a Premier equine 50g turnout - today it's gone cold again (-2 at night and around 1 in the day) and I'm now thinking she'll be too cold out in the field, thing is she does warm up quickly and I don't want her sweating then going out in the cold, so basically what I'm asking is do you all think she'll be ok out in the field in such a lightweight rug, there's plenty of shelter and another 11 mares to run around with - I'm feelilng guilty that the rug might not be enough for her and I should go back to her warmer turnout, but as it's now where near as cold as before I really don't know what to do!

Sorry such a ramble, but you get my drift, thanks!

 

[Sadiemay]

She'll be fine in the lighter weight rug

Sadiemay

 

[zoeshiloh]

I was always told (by a very old-school ex-cavalry officer) that a horse should have a thick, warm rug on in the stable, and no or a lightweight rug on in the field. His reasoning was that in the stable the horse stands and gets cold easily (think how cold you would get standing/sitting in the same place for 12 hours) whereas in the field the horse will run around to warm themselves up if they get cold.

Of course, this doesn't apply to every horse, but I always rug more in the stable than when they are turned out in the field.