What would you do.... (a bit long!)

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saskia295

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Right... My horse is on full livery because of my job and during the winter, they go out every other day. Last week, we had a bit of a companion swap around and my horse went out with his stable next door neighbour (X) who's owner I am friends with and hack with etc.

Well, after the Monday they went out together, I went up to ride in the evning to find my horse's rug ripped across the hood. "No biggy" I thought as they're horses and this happens, so took it to get repaired and asked that they used my horse's spare rug to turn out in. So up I go on the Wednesday to ride and I find that his spare has been ripped to absolute shreds and would cost me more to repair than the rug was worth.

So now I was out of turnout rugs! I asked X's owner if she had a spare I could borrow (you can use this one as I hate it were her words!) which she did and this was really nice of her. Woah betide, you'll never guess what I found when I went up on the Friday evening?! You got it - the rug I'd been lent had been ripped to shreds.

So, I asked the YM if we could swap back to how they were paired up before as X didn't really play with any others (and I had in tact rugs!!) but she said this wouldn't be possible as when X was out with another one (Y), Y was getting kicked in the knees and she would rather ripped rugs than damaged knees which I completely agree with.

So the choices I have are:

1. Leave things as is and keep buying a new rug every other day
2. Buy a completely rip stop hardcore rug (recommendations required please!!!!)
3. Put him on individual turnout (half day as opposed to full day and turns him into a devil in the stable)
4. YM suggested turning him out without a rug (he's fully clipped TB type!!!!!!!!!)

At the moment, he's on individual turnout until I work out how to solve this problem. That's where you guys come in! Any ideas?! HUGELY appreciated!

Cookies AND donuts for anyone who got this far!!!
 
Can you spray the rug in something like No Bite. Or muzzle the other horse......
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I think the YM should come up with a satisfactory resolution of this problem as then changing around the turnouts they have caused this problem..... you can't go on having to replace rugs. They are the yard manager....so they should manage!
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Surely the problem lies between the YM and the owner of horse X.

If I read this right, when horse X is turned out with your horse, your rugs get destroyed. When horse X is turned out with horse Y, horse Y gets his knees kicked. Am I missing a common factor here?

Sorry, it does not answer your question, but I would suggest to YM that the problem is not yours to resolve.
 
Can your horse be turned out with Horse Y and leave Horse X (who appears to be the thug) on his own? He obviously doesn't get on with other horses well, so maybe individual turn-out would be the answer for him, while allowing your horse to have some companionship.
 
My sister had the same problem so she bought a cheap canvas rug and neck ocver and put it on over the top of her goods rug. It pretty much stopped the rug ripping in its tracks and any repairs were much cheaper and not so extreme!
 
i agree with trundle, our yard used to have a seperate part of the turnout field for the 'thugs' to go out in, that way if they were out alone they were only seperated from the other horses by an electric fence so they still had friends but we had no accidents!
 
Silly suggestion of YM to turn out without a rug since how do you know that the damage to the rug wouldn't then become damage to your horse?!
I use Effol Chew Stop which prevents my youngster chewing my older horse's tail. It has a disgusting bitter taste. Don't know if it would work on rugs, especially if the horse really is a thug. Agree with other's that it's basically the YM's problem to sort out, not yours.
 
I have this problem EVERY year....the only solution was individual turnout.
On average I was going through 3/4 turnout rugs per winter!!!!!
I feel your pain!!!!
 
Soddin barbed wire gets my rugs trashed, can anyone explain to me what barbed wire is for, it doesn't stop the horses pushing the fences over and it doesn't stop the public feeding the horses or their dogs or them clambering over if they feel like it, bloody cricket club spend more time in the summer in our field looking for their stupid peice of rock they call a ball than in their own field, barbed wire doesn't seem to have a purpose
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Thanks for your suggestions everyone. I think they do wind each other up (mainly through boredom ATM) but it has only been my horse's rugs that have come off badly.

I will have another word with the YO to see if there's any other way we can resolve this. I can't afford to keep buying new rugs and TBH don't see why I should.

They will be going back to daily turnout and their normal groups (about 4) at the end of March so fingers crossed when they all go back together that there will be no rug issues then. Other than that, roll on summer.

Will let you know the result of YM chat. Thanks again.
 
I had a similar problem and in fact posted on here for some advice. Hovis was in with a horse who was ripping his rug to bits. There was no other option with turn out and the other owner wasn't really interested.
So other than sorting it with YM and owner of X then the only suggestion I can make is to buy some no bite or similar stuff. I sprayed it on Hovis' rug and it did stop the ripping almost immediately. It is vile stuff though!
 
I agree with Trundle, it is X that is the problem as he is ripping your horse's rug, so it seems unfair that your horse is being punished for X's playfulness/thuggishness. If any horse should be on individual turnout with the restrictions that imposes it should be X surely?
 
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