When you don't rug are you made to feel mean.......

[Supertrooper]

My new forest type is living out 24/7 unruggged. He doesn't need a rug and has never been rugged as far as I know, apart from me using a fly rug in the summer as he HATES horse flies :-(

He's like a yeti, he has both natural and man made shelter which he hasn't used yet in the bad weather and is as happy as a pig in muck.

However some people are saying how mean I am not putting a rug on him, I'm not bothered by it as I know him and what's best but is anyone else made to feel guilty ;-)

 

[Auslander]

It wouldn't even occur to me to rug an unclipped native pony! I do think people have gone a bit rug-mentalist in the last few years - there was a time when only clipped horses wore rugs, but those days are long gone!

 

[StormyMoments]

I had a NF last year and she was unrugged, she was a woolly mammoth and got hot just standing around in the sun. She was a rug wrecker anyway but she just couldn't wear a rug, I was made to feel bad at first as all of the others are rugged but they soon saw that she couldn't be rugged even if I had wanted to. She didn't need it anyway, I would have had to clip her to put a rug on and that really doesn't make sense!

 

[Shavings]

I was made to feel bad last night!
so i live on the isle of man (tiny island between England and Ireland)
we have one "mountain" and last night we got snow on said mountain so that is normally a signs its getting rather cold!
after fishing work at 6 drove to the yard (as normal) when got to the yard has a look at the temperature gauge which read 5c.
went in to see my Tb (Mr Levi) who is the end stable on are row so right next to door, he had a 150g stable rug on and to me felt perfectly fine
under that! but some of the other liveries where adding rugs to there horses and when i turned to leave (after being there over an hour) one person turned
and said "your not leaving you TB! like that are you?" i said yes i am he is fine and has a large hay net to munch on through the night.
i saw no problem with leaving him like this and did so , as he is not clipped.

 

[Shady]

people do make you feel guilty, it's like you are commiting child abuse, i try to leave mine as long as possible but it's not easy with an Arab and a PRE, they just get too cold, its down to -15 here sometimes, my friend over rugs and i hate seeing her horse sweating in the sun,

 

[Beausmate]

Nope. I am mean I do have a 200gm rug on the old tb, but he is seriously rubbish at holding weight and I don't think his internal climate control is up to much. He sweats like mad on a hot day and freezes when the temperature drops below 10 degrees. The other tb (same age, but wearing better than his pal) is ridiculously fluffy and naked. He is cool as the proverbial cucumber in summer and maintains a perfectly toasty level of warmth in the winter, all by himself.

Both him and the yeti (sorry, cob) were bib clipped in October and have pretty much grown their clips out now. It will have to be pretty cold for me to rug the tb and I don't think it will ever get cold enough in this country for the yeti to need one.
Plus the latter two are fatties and it's the only way to shift those last few pounds.

Yep, I'm definitely mean.....

 

[Slightlyconfused]

I've only got a rain sheet on.my un clipped warm blood. She is retired and I'm.trying to get weight off her (I can.now feel.ribs! ) but she is toasty warm.

 

[twiggy2]

my hunter clipped mare has got a very old medium weight on, I added the neck on to it today but that's it- I will be reclipping in a while and if the temperature has not risen she will go into a slightly warmer medium weight, we hacked for over 2hrs this morning (ice on some parts of the roads) walk only but walking out not slobbing along and she was sweaty under her girth, between her back legs and in front of her stifles-she is a really hot pony. the welsh c in the stable next to her is unclipped, overweight and wearing 2 heavy weight stable rugs with necks-she has a big straw bed and is on adlib hay-she did not go out today due to the cold, the owner rugs her up so much to stop her growing a thick winter coat and she has not ridden her for over 7 weeks and prior to that is was once a week at most so not sure why she is not wanting the pony to grow her winter woolies

 

[millmo]

My three live out 24/7 and are all unrugged and will remain that way. Several years ago I kept my gypsy cob mare at a livery yard and constantly had the other liveries bitching at me because she was the only horse without a rug on. she had a thick coat and was overweight so had plenty of natural warmth and indeed managed to lost 90kg in weight which she needed to lose.

 

[EquiEquestrian556]

It wouldn't even occur to me to rug an unclipped native pony! I do think people have gone a bit rug-mentalist in the last few years - there was a time when only clipped horses wore rugs, but those days are long gone!

We have to rug our old 36 year old Welsh Sec. B, as she doesn't keep weight on very well in the winter so it helps her save her 'condition'.

 

[MerrySherryRider]

I have an unclipped Hanoverian X TB who isn't rugged, except for a rain sheet if its very wet and windy. No one makes me feel mean, although, last winter being on a new yard, a few people were surprised to see how shiny her coat was in the spring and how well she kept her condition with only a token feed and ad lib hay.
I think it made one or two people reassess the way they viewed rugging.

 

[EquiEquestrian556]

You're not mean! I have to rug my New Forest, as she's got everything apart from her legs clipped off and is quite a sensitive mare compared to others when it comes to the cold. If he's happy, then don't feel bad

 

[SadKen]

Won't be long until not rugging is the cool new thing to do and you'll be frowned on if you rug! Can't win.

 

[Arizahn]

No; everyone at the yard I'm on understands that all horses are individuals

 

[vallin]

Nope, my old Wb mare hasn't been rugged for the past 4 years and grows a coat like a yak! Best insulation there is and my fully clipper young WB is only in a 70g rug, would much rather they were too cold and can move about to get warm, than too hot with a rug on when there's nothing they can do.

 

[saddlesore]

Won't be long until not rugging is the cool new thing to do and you'll be frowned on if you rug! Can't win.

Kind of agree with this tbh! I'm in the 'who cares as long as the horse is fine' camp.

 

[Auslander]

We have to rug our old 36 year old Welsh Sec. B, as she doesn't keep weight on very well in the winter so it helps her save her 'condition'.

The OP's is a youngster. Of course I don't advocate not rugging an old horse who needs extra care. Mine are unclipped, but rugged, for that very reason

 

[rowan666]

3 of mine are out 24/7 naked, 2 cobs and sec A (who untill a year ago when I bought him was kept in 23/7! and had very thin coat till now) non of them are cold and my sec a has infact managed to gain weight (honestly not jst fluff) since winter came so I do not feel guilty atall despite the odd iffy comment, infact I spend more time worrying over the ones that are rugged, are they too hot, rugs rubbing etc

 

[AmieeT]

I'm only rugging as my Welsh has a blanket clip.

Last year he had a trace (still sweated lots, hence blanket this year) and he was unrugged for most of the year!

Unclipped, he's like a woolly mammoth -I certainly wouldn't rug him in that case!

I really dislike it when people start accusing others of being 'mean or 'cruel' for not rugging.

What about the ones that over rug and make their horses sweaty? Is that not just as bad?

Ax

 

[SHCC]

One of my drafts is rugged, only as I've had her clipped as we've had lots of carriage work to do.

But my new girl is out naked, she's lovely and fluffy, came from the edge of Bodmin Moor 4 weeks ago and has never had a rug on (or been in a stable in her life). I am getting the odd comment and query as to when I'm going to rug her or bring her in. I just ignore my fellow liveries, much easier than getting into discussions.

 

[ridefast]

I wouldn't know, I'm pretty thick skinned when it comes to other peoples opinions. My horses, my rules. I've worked mostly on tb studs since leaving school and it's rare to rug on tb studs, anything preparing for sales will be rugged, if there's an old mare dropping weight she'll be rugged but otherwise they live out nearly 24/7 (only brought into big barns if weather is really bad) with good shelter and plenty to eat

 

[Kezzabell2]

I've just moved to a yard and mine is the only one that's not rugged no one says anything but I saw a heavy cob out in a full next and another rug today. It was 7 degrees. So sunny that I went to my other yard and let my 29 yr old have a few naked hours

I think people that over rug should be made to feel bad not people that know what's right for their own horses

 

[Ceriann]

I'm nearly two years at home again with my mares (after two in livery). I collected a mass of rugs in livery (and still didn't have anywhere hear as many as most of the others) and have barely used them (I've not used the stable rugs at all or the HW rugs). I was at a small friendly livery and YO v sensible about rugging but I think it's just people's nature to compete and copy (including mine) hence lots of rugs. At home I rug as my horses need. My coloured cob (6 and porky) and IDx are both currently out 24/7 naked. They're checked at least daily, look happy and well, have decent grass and get hay when there's frost.

 

[rara007]

We have 6 at home, two unrugged, 4 rugged, to suit each need. The shetland (23, retired) and the PBA (4, only in work 3/4 times a week, building up strength) that are unrugged and hairy are quite probably the warmest!

 

[cobgoblin]

I feel mean in the middle of the night when it's tipping down with rain....... Then I go back to sleep!

 

[agmp]

I've had a few comments about the fact that I haven't got a rug on one of my boys. He's a 14.2 warmblood x welsh sec a (no really, dam 15.2 warmblood voltaire lines who by all accounts was too small for their stallions so infinite wisdom prevailed and crossed her with a sec a stallion - not even sure of the physical logistics of that!!). Other than having a slightly longer warmblood back, he looks (and behaves!) like a native. If he starts to look miserable, drops condition, or gets ridiculously cold, I'll keep him unrugged as much as possible, only issue is grooming. He's an iron grey but white mane and tail - it's a perpetual shade of mud. On the other hand, my 17hh is often in some kind of rug - turnouts and stable rugs, coolers, fly sheets, exercise sheets.. Because he is a misery guts when cold or wet!

I often remember when "necks" where totally unheard of, and even when a bit more common only on fully clipped out. Jute rugs where the usual turn out of choice. And my horses maybe only had a few rugs each, all multi-purpose. Just in the middle of moving my boys home. Two horses. 19 rugs. Completely and utterly ridiculous and totally unnecessary. Doesn't mean I can stop myself in a sale though ;o)

If horse is happy and healthy, do what suits!

 

[tangoharvey]

I have a basic waterproof turnout rug on my shire TB X and I'm not intending to rug her up anymore. She has 24hr access to hay, two feeds a day so her warmth is generated by good forage. The rug is just to keep her dry in the rain.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

I was made to feel bad last night!
so i live on the isle of man (tiny island between England and Ireland)
we have one "mountain" and last night we got snow on said mountain so that is normally a signs its getting rather cold!
after fishing work at 6 drove to the yard (as normal) when got to the yard has a look at the temperature gauge which read 5c.
went in to see my Tb (Mr Levi) who is the end stable on are row so right next to door, he had a 150g stable rug on and to me felt perfectly fine
under that! but some of the other liveries where adding rugs to there horses and when i turned to leave (after being there over an hour) one person turned
and said "your not leaving you TB! like that are you?" i said yes i am he is fine and has a large hay net to munch on through the night.
i saw no problem with leaving him like this and did so , as he is not clipped.

We used to have a few TB NH youngsters who came in at night over winter to get extra food and a bit of handling, they were not rugged, they grew big coats, but with plenty of bedding and hay they were fine. It would have been quite a lot of extra work to rug up every day, and as they often shared a pen, probably end up with some sort of accident.
If they are cosy and have plenty of hay they will be fine. One winter I recall breaking ice in the water buckets, but the horses [clipped] were fine with their standard heavyweight rugs. It is amazing how much heat they generate.

 

[Jo1987]

I always feel bad when I DO rug my little native pony, although he is 25 now and I think he is crossed with something wimpy (he is a very odd shape!)
He grows a spectacular winter coat, but who am I to tell him he doesn't need a rug when he comes sprinting over, squealing about the horrible time he's had out in the rain!

 

[Peregrine Falcon]

I haven't had chance to clip my NF this year. He's happy living out without one, he is a serial rug shredder so I'm happy too!!! I do have to admit that I will be clipping at some point so he will be rugged then but I don't see the need to rug a native good doer at the moment.