Whats's the lesser of 2 evils?

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jes_nibley

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I have a 25yr old mare who lives out with my 9yr old welsh gelding. Anyway, they will be out all winter as i haven't got my backside into gear to sort the planning permission out.
However, she has an incredibly thick coat (more like downy fur than hair!) and as a result gets VERY hot and sweaty when at work. She;s very active and will continue to be worked 4-6 times per week through the winter.

What I can't decide is whether to clip her? just a belly and neck job. She feels the cold quite a bit overnight and if the temp drops too much she can be quite stiff in the morning.

So, do i clip and hope she doesn't get too cold? or, do i leave unclipped but have a very very hot, sweaty ponio after work? As her coat is so thick it takes ages for her to dry off and i don't have any enclosed (able to shut in) shelters for them to dry off so if it's raining on our return i have to rug up staright away.

*My shelter is three (2 1/2) sided, they come and go as they please*

What would you do?
 
I would clip her but using a suitable clip which will take off the fur where she most sweats ie. if she gets a sweaty neck then just take this off - if she gets sweaty on her belly and neck do a blanket.
 
I would blanket clip or similar, and rug her - I used to have an elderly hairy that still worked and hunted through the winter, she was fully clipped and then heavily rugged and coped.
 
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I would clip her but using a suitable clip which will take off the fur where she most sweats ie. if she gets a sweaty neck then just take this off - if she gets sweaty on her belly and neck do a blanket.

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I never like blanket clips, if they sweat by the flanks they can get a real chill in their liver as it runs down the side. Clip neck and belly and then put a nice big rug on when its cold.
 
I wasn't aware it was medically or physiologically possible to get a chill in your (or anyone's) liver....
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When a horse works hard if its got a blanket clip it will sweat alot up top but not lower down, say for instance its out hunting, on the go and sweats alot, lather down its sides and then you stand still in the cold wind...recipe for disaster. Equine vet told me that one, I'd never thought of it before, always take the lot off as its easier and they all hunt anyway.

Not that she sounds like she's going to be hunting her!
 
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I wasn't aware it was medically or physiologically possible to get a chill in your (or anyone's) liver....
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Take it up with Kearns...I'm not a vet
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I semi agree with that, if you are going hunting and they are going to lather up then you would want it all off.
But there is nothing fundamentally wrong with a blanket clip for the OP. And given that you then went on to recommend a neck and belly (which ironically would leave even more fluff on) I just thought your statement was very odd indeed.
Plus I'm not sure the liver has anything to do with it! If you were referring to any organ I would have thought the kidneys most likely
 
Where a horse sweats is not dictated by where it is clipped and where it is hairy. It will still sweat on the clipped parts, it's just that it evaporates straight into the air. The last time I took my boy hunting he was had a hunter clip and at one point we stopped (as you do)...his entire body was covered with tiny droplets of water/sweat which was evaporating into the air as steam. If the horse doesn't sweat on the clipped areas then my boy would have been totally dry.

The point of clipping is not to stop the horse sweating under those circumstances, as that will never happen (we don't NOT sweat because we don't have any hair, or very little, it just dries almost immediately). The point is that the moisture evaporates so the horse doesn't stay wet so long.

Basic physics
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I semi agree with that, if you are going hunting and they are going to lather up then you would want it all off.
But there is nothing fundamentally wrong with a blanket clip for the OP.
Plus I'm not sure the liver has anything to do with it! If you were referring to any organ I would have thought the kidneys most likely

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Thats the one, I only see them when they come out of pigs and always get muddled, kidneys smell of pee, liver is a lump of a thing! Oops
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I agree, but she did say it was sweating alot. If it was a racehorse and it was out for the morning it wouldn't have a chance to get a chill as it would be on the go, come home and be washed off and rugged up but I'm not sure what OP is planning for her mare.
 
Sorry but you really cant chill a horses liver, or any other organ (or anything elses for that matter) by it getting cold.... that is totally an old wives tale!

Same way it is not possible to catch a cold from being cold/wet.... its bug dependent not temp dependent!
 
I agree in the sense that you would want it all off for hunting, but that's so you don't end up with a horse who's soaking wet and uncomfortable, who can potentially then get quite poorly. I don't agree with the explanation given that blanket clips are bad because the horse doesn't sweat where he's clipped...
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Of course he does, you just don't see a soaking wet coat.
 
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I agree in the sense that you would want it all off for hunting, but that's so you don't end up with a horse who's soaking wet and uncomfortable, who can potentially then get quite poorly. I don't agree with the explanation given that blanket clips are bad because the horse doesn't sweat where he's clipped...
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Of course he does, you just don't see a soaking wet coat.

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CC, if you read my post correctly you'd see nowhere did I write the horse doesn't sweat where he is clipped.
 
Sorry i was meaning your point about chilling the liver/kidneys or whatever...... the evaporation that CC refers to is physics as she says!!

To the OP I'd either clip and heavily rug.. or reduce the work load over the winter!
 
Not sure if I agree with you over not being able to get a chill in the lungs or kidney though. Or about catching colds, yes its a bug but by getting cold/wet it brings your immune system down slightly so you're more prone to catching a bug so it certainly is connected.
 
What you said was:

"it will sweat alot up top but not lower down"

Maybe I misread it and what you meant was "they don't sweat very much lower down"? That is still the same thing...you just aren't seeing the sweat because it doesn't stay on the coat.

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Yes thats correct about your immune system but I really dont think if you read a medical/veterinary dictionary or the like you will find a condition called "chilled liver"....... yes they can get cold and uncomfy but to actually "chill" an organ is just daft... I mean it will be surrounded by blood that is 37 degrees ISH.... it cant be colder than the rest of the body unless your hypothermic in which case ponio will have more to worry about than being a bit chilly!!
 
i would either clip and rug or reduce work down.
being very sweaty and taking alot time to dry will be uncomfortable and if you rug straight away the horse will rob carry on sweating and get the inside of the rug wet,thus making them feel very cod once they have cooled down
 
Not liver, kidneys, Ben and Jerry's established I got that bit mixed up.
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Yes but its called a chill it may not technically be a chill but its still painful and can still cause colic...
 
I must be being a bit dim but can you explain how getting a bit cold/sweaty affects the kidneys and then causes colic? I suppose I have been very lucky and not had to deal with this scenario. Are you sure colic after heavy work isn't due to another reason?
 
I read once about a young girl who had a kidney infection and went out wearing a crop top.....she later died from compications from her kidneys getting cold.

This would have been about 20 years ago but it was reported in the papers so it must be true
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Totally beside the point for this post though
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