who has UNRUGGED ponies in this weather??

  • Thread starter Thread starter lilym
  • Start date Start date
L

lilym

Guest
One of mine is not rugged, she is a very, very good doer, is unclipped and has a coat like a shaggy polar bear, so when it's cold and dry no rug! (she has a LW on in wet windy weather) Heard a couple of riders this morning behind the hedge:

"Ahhhhhh poor little pony - it hasn't got a rug"
" OH, that's not fair it must be cold"
To which I replied from behind said hedge " she's not a poor little thing - she's a fat cob!!! and no she isn't cold, I'm happy to hold your horses while you check her over and find your speedial to the RSPCA!!
smirk.gif
 
I have a naked fatty cob too! He is a proper hairy beasty. Although I've nearly broken and chucked a rug on him a couple of nights this week only to give him a cuddle and find he is toasty under all that fluff.
 
aha! my friend's fatty unclipped highland is out during the day unrugged, and if it's a dry night he goes out in a lightweight rug. if it's raining heavily then he goes in because she feels guilty otherwise! did they reply to what you said, or keep on riding?
laugh.gif
xx
 
One forest pony- he hasnt worn a rug for about 10yrs! I broke and put a rug on my yearling though he didnt really need one.
 
yup, iggle is unrugged, although i have ordered him a turnout because sometimes when i bring him in, i have to pull large icicles from his back/mane/tail and it can't be nice for him being in with that defrosting on him. so getting him a turnout to keep him dry and stop the icicles!

raff is rugged, but less than the average warmblood! he's hairy cos he's had a few months off. he doesn't like rugs so the other day when it was sunny and relatively warm i took his off for a while. he loved it. but anyone going past my house would have thought i was evil having him out in the snow rugless.
laugh.gif
 
This infuriates me! If only some people would realise that horses are horses. I once had somebody have a dig at me for not using a full neck rug on my horse. They asked how I would like it to be standing out in a cold field with no scarf on. I said I would like it as much as my horses would like to sit on my sofa in my lounge watching eastenders. Horses don't feel like we do!
tongue.gif
 
Nearly all of ours lived out naked all year round, rugs seem to be a bit more of a modern thing in my opinion. Only our TB mare got a rug if really awful. Our horses were all perfectly happy and healthy living out 24/7 without rugs.
My mare who i have now lived out unrugged for years, its only age which has left her feeling the cold a bit more, thus she gets rugged as needed.
I personally think that there are so many natives out there rugged/over rugged unnecessarily.
 
My yard is next to a yard which has icelandic horses, they are out unrugged and clipped (although icelandics appear to require a very specific and unusual clip,which is only as wide as a clipper blade and is like a breastplate and a line up the crest) and they presumably are finding our feeble attempt at cold weather quite pathetic! They have a thick layer of frost on them every morning so their insulation must be amazing
smile.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
aha! my friend's fatty unclipped highland is out during the day unrugged, and if it's a dry night he goes out in a lightweight rug. if it's raining heavily then he goes in because she feels guilty otherwise! did they reply to what you said, or keep on riding?
laugh.gif
xx

[/ QUOTE ]

they just buggered off a bit quick!!
grin.gif
 
I have two unrugged ponies at the moment - a shetland, who I would never rug under any circumstances and my daughter's wee pony, who has a lovely thick coat, like a teddy bear. We have had thick snow and sub zero temperatures for about 2 weeks and they are absolutely fine.
A
 
When we went skiing in France last year (Morzine) there was a farm half way up one of the pistes. The chap had around a dozen horses, all unrugged & unclipped obviously. They hung around the farmhouse & ate hay out of racks & looked absolutely fine, & it was colder than here.

He also had a single pig that had become a bit of a tourist attraction as it came out regularly on to the piste for tit bits. It looked a bit pinker than normal, but he/she was fine too without any form of coat!

I expect pig & horses were shut up in a barn for the night, but seeing them every day made me realise how mollycoddled my pones are.
 
Most of our TB's are unrugged. The barren and maidens and the Jan/Feb foalers are in at night. Only a handful of the oldies are rugged.
 
Yep, the NF and Arab are out naked (arab gets a rug in the wet weather). I do sometimes feel guilty but they are fine and holding their weight well, not looking or feeling at all cold. I think we feel worse than they do The sec A has a rug but only as there is no shelter in her field.
 
Nope - my sec d is clipped (though only medium chaser) in at night and rugged. Having said that, he is a total wuss and although he grows a long coat, its very silky and fine (think baby hair) with almost no lanolin and he's shouting at the gate by 2pm for someone to come and bring him in!

But used to share a 17.2 who lived out 24/7 and his field companion was a shettie who was nekkid - despite being as old as the hills she was always toasty (this may also be due to her nicking the big boys dinner after she'd finished her own shetland sized ration)! On wet or windy days she simply turned round and reversed under Blue's tummy so his rug covered her as well as him - smart pony :-)
 
Yup my little grey yak pony doesn't have a rug and refuses to wear one now (he used to be an utter pansy at a slightest breeze) he has an extremely thick coat and is very well covered.
 
My Dales are out unrugged. Had to rug younger one last week when it rained for 2 days as she was cold but when the sun came out, the rug came off. They are stabled at night unrugged too
 
I have rugs on the ones that need it. Providing a pony has a good coat it shouldnt need a rug unless it is a poor doer in which case a rug might help to maintain weight.I dont like to see a horse shivering so will rug if a horse is cold. My oldies are rugged although the one with cushings is in a medium weight and will drop down to a light weight soon. He needs a rug because he gets rain scald in his dipped back. He doesnt really need a medium weight but is has been too cold to drop him down I think.

I do think many people rug uneccessarily. I know I do to an extent.
 
thats how mother nature made them and they grow a coat accordingly! as long as well fed (ie hay/haylage) and got access to water. whats the problem. no problem!
 
Two of mine are unrugged - they are laminitic, wooly and tend to be overweight

The TBx is rugged becuase he sheds the weight off.

Remember all - the spring flush is only a few weeks away - you have only so much time to use the cold weather to get some weight off!!!
 
[ QUOTE ]
thats how mother nature made them and they grow a coat accordingly! as long as well fed (ie hay/haylage) and got access to water. whats the problem. no problem!

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, I have to disagree in part with that.

My horses are all born and bred here, not imports having problems acclimatising. Three of them in particular simply do NOT grow sufficient coats to cope with the weather, and I am talking day in, day out sub -10 in the day, for MONTHS, not mere weeks. My palomino mare in particular hasn't grown a coat at all, and I didn't start rugging her until late November.

If I left them and thought "ah they'll cope" they would survive sure, but they'd be like walking hat racks and how can anyone justify that when there is absolutely NO excuse for it? Sometimes, nature requires a helping hand, it's no big deal, if they feel the cold rug them, if they are not, don't. Simple. Pure common sense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top