Whose rugging already

[Merrymoles]

Which annoys me every time, as rugging has no effect on their winter coat. Its all to do with sunlight hours and been proven.
Girl I know rugs in a heavy weights on her cobs from September, as she still believes it stops the winter coat for showing. When in fact they are just all sweaty in the field suffering. Madness!

Yep! But that's what they believe because they saw it on Faceache once so it must be true... no cure for stupid

 

[PapaverFollis]

The rugs stop the winter coat thing seems to be one of those unstoppable memes. Like road tax. Or garlic.

 

[flying_high]

We stopped rugging ours perhaps the year before last (except for newer pony who was gradually weaned off them) and it was the best thing we ever did. I have kept all the rugs and will of course rug them again one day should they need it, but we have stables open 24/7 for shelter and they have as much forage as required. I think in our case that we are all better off for the change.

Does this mean you dont clip either? What happens when you have a warm sunny day in winter, and you are working horse hard, dont they overheat, and get soaked in sweat, and then potentially get cold? I havent found unclipped horses in full work to be practical in winter/.

 

[ycbm]

My understanding is that the research that said it was daylight alone that determined winter coat thickness was shown to be incorrect, but I can't find either set of research at the moment.

I fully expect my TB, who was bought looking like a shaggy dog in December last year, out full time unrugged, to have a thinner coat this winter, in at night and rugged full time, currently rugged at night, in line with my previous experience. I will wait with interest.


.

 

[ycbm]

Found it.

Air temperature affects coat length, 2016:


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/27228951/

Timing is daylight but thickness is also affected by temperature, more so than light according to Dr David Marlin in 2017:

. We have always considered that changes from Summer to Winter coat occur as a result of both daylength and temperature. A recent study in Poland found evidence that air temperature rather than daylight appeared to have the strongest influence on development of Winter coat.

.

 

[Michen]

Yep. My horse is in a 200gram rug overnight. Shoot me, he's clipped, fit, lean, in a field with no shelter and I don't want him using any reserves to keep himself warm.

I despise this judgemental one rule fits all that people seem to have about rugging.

 

[Carrottom]

Mine are in fly rugs as it's warm and sunny, if they were stabled at night I would put rugs on last thing as it is cold at first light. I think they were a bit chilly this morning as they were running about but soon settled down when I moved the fence to give them fresh grass