Why do so many horses wear rugs when out in the summer?

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I'm thinking I must be missing something but why do most horses seem to be wearing rugs when turned out, even when it's really warm and sunny??
 
To stop the sun bleaching the coat :)

Mine wears a fly rug most of the time; its the only one he dosent sweat with when its sunny :)
 
because some ppl wrap them up in cotton wool? I myself keep ponies.....they are rugless throughout summer,even when shown,but have access to shelter 24/7 and if really bad i bring them in.

I personally HATE fly rugs. I fully understand for sweet itch sufferers,but not anything else IMO.

There is nothing nicer to see than horses stood nose to tail under trees,batting flies off each other. Natural.
 
I often ask this too. Possible reasons - keep horse clean, protect from flies, can't catch horse to remove rug, owners don't like horse getting wet, sweetitch - no doubt others will add to this list....
Personally, I like them naked whenever possible unless there is a really good reason for them to be rugged.
 
My reason for putting lightweight turnouts on my two when it's wet is because one is a grey and trust me, he can get the mud ingrained 6 inches into his skin and it takes a car wash to get him clean and my mare is very thin skinned and feels the cold. However when it's warm and dry they are naked or have fly rugs.
 
I have never used them before, but Pickle has had fly bites all over him so have given in to them! however do try and give him sometime without it!
 
Some very fine skinned horses may need a lightweight rug when it is raining, especially overnight as they may feel the cold or be susceptible to rain scald. But I agree with you, most horses are fine living out in the summer without a rug.
 
I don't mind fly rugs, obviously there's no problem there.

But my OH's house looks out onto a livery yard's field. several of the horses were out in rugs in bright sunshine the other day, they must have been sweating buckets. I only had a tshirt on and was.

An owner of a horse i used to ride, rugged him every day in a full neck turnout so if it rained there was no need to wait for him to dry. I went up one day in the blazing sun, nearly died after the 20min walk. He was stood with his nose nearly on the ground, panting and dripping with sweat. I think he could have been very very ill if i hadn't got there when i did :(

Horses are waterproof.
 
taz has a rain sheet on if it is raining, mainly because he is grey and he only rolls if it is wet! or if he is sweaty meaning that he can get himself caked in mud and its easier to bath it off him than spend two hours brushing it off to make sure it wont hurt him when i ride.

Molly has a rug on when it rains and when its very windy as her previous owners bathed her everytime she came in from the field and she now shivers every time it rains as she has not enough grease in her coat to keep her warm, but the vet thinks its psychological
 
Because my horse is bay and looks awful when is sunburnt orange. Plus the coat goes into a horrible state imo.

We also do county showing from time to time, and there is nothing worse than a sun bleached horse in the show class!
 
I get asked this so often about my horse, I even had some walkers stop and tell me I was cruel the other day - I was fuming!

My old boy is the coldest creature I have ever encountered! I have now decided to just ignore the weather and spend the day with an arm down his rug checking his temperature. He is in at night all year round as he is a very poor doer and looks and feels his best when he has a nice warm stable, big feed, and masses of haylage all to himself all night. He is currently wearing a heavyweight Rambo Plus turnout at night - put on at about 9pm - and depending on the weather during the day he varies between medium weight, light weight, no filling at all, heavy weight, and naked. He was wearing a rug all day today, and although I kept going out thinking he'd be baking, he was fine, so I left it on. We do get a nasty cold wind up here, so I guess the rugs just keep the chill off.

When people tell me I'm cruel and that he needs time without a rug on to be a horse, I get rather upset! I totally agree, and would much prefer him to be out naked right now, but he stands in the corner of his field by the gate shivering and shrieking, and drops so much weight he looks like an RSPCA case, so my feeling is that as long as he does get naked time out when it's hot enough, and is turned out in a large field with other horses all day, he's being as much of a horse as he wants to be.
 
blimey...because i spent hundreds of pounds shovelling the best feed and supplements down my competition horses throat,and id rather he didnt shiver it all off again, he is used to being clipped and rugged and lives in at night, hence is not the toughest creature so requires a lightweight on cooler summer days and a fly rug on hot days (as i dont want to waste a week waiting for fly bites under the saddle/girth to heal thanks!).

i also spend my schooling time making him supple and his muscles soft and thus dont want him standing braced against a cold summer shower.

horse is happy, never sweaty.

get.over.it!!!!!!
 
A heavyweight with an under rug underneath it.

He's 24, and it works for him. It's taken me 5 years of heartache to try and get him to keep any amount of condition on for more than 2 minutes, and have finally found a system of feeding, rugging etc. that works for him.

I don't wrap my horses in cotton wool - I have a TB mare who lives out all year round, with only a medium weight turnout on in winter, which is whipped off as early as possible so that she doesn't get so fat she bursts out of it! My youngster has a light sheet on if it really heaves it down with rain for a long time as he gets rain scald quite easily.

I've found something that works and my horse is happy so that's all that matters to me. He does get naked days so that he can get the sun on his back and have a good roll, and I turn him out naked in the morning if it's dry so he can have a good old roll, he then gets any mud brushed off so it doesn't rub, and his rug goes back on.

As long as he's happy, I'm happy, and I must be doing something right because my lovely vet said he's a "credit" to me the other day, which made me all glowy and happy - he's my once in a lifetime horse and I'm so pleased to have finally cracked it with him.
 
dont worry, not all of us think all horses should live in a LW....mine have 3 or 4 rugs on in winter, sometimes more if you count blankets and sheets.

sounds like you've got it spot on for you boy :)
 
Every time I even think about rugging my horses, I remind myself that they are unlikely to dissolve in the rain.... and rarely end up doing it!

The Haflinger girlie only had a rug on twice this winter, despite -20 temp and 3 months of lying snow (N Scotland). And she still came out of winter looking too fat....(she has no feed apart from handful of healthy hooves either). The older IDxTB was rugged in winter but as soon as the snow melted, the rugs came off. He too is looking very healthy and shiny. The rain helps his coat to shine, I find.

Unless a horse is very old or very poor, to me theres no justification in rugging a horse more than occasionally for our own convenience (ie to keep their coat the 'right' colour or keep them clean to make less work for us). Its more cruel for a horse turned out to be too hot than a bit chilly, they get most heat from eating so if rugless and chilly can always eat more to get warmer, but they dont have a mechanism to cool down in the same way.
 
Your horse, you do what you think as their owners what is best for them.

It's up to you if and why you rug or don't rug your animals you don't need to justify yourselves if you do or don't rug.

Some horses/ponies need a rug at different times of the year and others don't.

I treat my horses individually regardless of their breed, age, colour etc and depending on the weather depends on what they wear, if anything.

I also stable or turnout depending on the weather and the horse, as a horse owner you know your equine and what they do and don't like/need.

Not all cobs can stay out 24/7 365 others can, some TB's can live out all year...annoys me when people tar a whole breed by the same brush.

Rug or don't rug it's up to you.
 
you can't make a judgement on how all horses should be kept - it has to depend on the individual horse. If I look at my yard, where nearly everything is turned out at night in the summer - there are huge variances on what each horse is/isnt wearing. Its what the horse is comfortable in that counts. Mine is in at night and goes from a sheet to l/w rug atm at night and flysheet/rain sheet in the day. I have had horses who lived out who never needed to go more than a medium in the worst weather and supposedly hardy irish types who end up looking like a michelin man advert to get their nose wet!
 
Thank you :) He was a giant sausage with grey bits poking out at each end during the month of endless snow here - I think the last count was five rugs - I couldn't get any more on top cause I don't happen to have any 8' rugs!

I've often had to bite my tongue when I hear people moaning about how hard it is to have a fat horse. I understand how awful this is, and how much of a health risk it is, as I have a fatty - made worse by the fact that she can't be exercised at all - but not a day goes by that I don't wish Roy was fat. I go without a lot so that he can be fed his ridiculous amount of expensive feed (he does best when fed an amount that would kill pretty much any other horse, but again, that's what works for him) and have enough good quality rugs, bedding, haylage etc. and it's just heartbreaking to see that all disappear into a skinny horse.

I would love a pair of every day jods with no holes in them, I would love a holiday, I would love a new saddle for my youngster, I would love all sort of things, but I go without them because I get much more satisfaction from taking Roy boy's rugs off and seeing a well covered, healthy, happy old man under there!
 
Because it's cold still! Like tonight it's only 7 degrees with a cold wind. My fine skinned tb would look like a tucked up bog brush if I didn't rug him when cold. He's wearing a fleece under a l/w tonight.
He doesn't usually have one on during the day now though, unless it's raining or below 16 degrees in which case he has his l/w on. He even had his m/w with neck on the other night when it was cold and Rainey.
He's very fine skinned and he doesn't have any spare body fat so I like to keep him comfortably warm. I don't rug him if it's warm or sunny though, he likes being out naked when it's nice even at night :)
 
Well, I can assure you that my horse IS NOT happy to be bitten to within an inch of his life - and he is VERY fly sensitive. Whether or not it's sweet itch is debateable (he hasn't had a blood test), but I know that he will literally rub himself raw if he isn't protected. I too would like him to be naked - but I want him to be itch free first and foremost.
 
It just goes to show that all horses (and owners!) are different in their needs. I've just spent 4 months getting weight and building muscle on to my ex-racer. He's now out at night and in for 6 or so hours through the day. If it is cold at night he wears a rug, has worn a medium weight a couple of times in last few weeks when temp went down to 2 or 3. He will also wear a lightweight if chucking it down endlessly. As Prince33sp4rkle says, not a lot of point in putting in lots of food and letting them shiver it all off. Mine is also worked 5-6 days a wk.
There are however, plenty of fat chunky type horses who do absolutely nothing at the yard I'm at, and they are out bare 24/7. I do find it interesting that these horses were rugged up in similarly low (0 - 7) temperatures earlier in the year.. Their owners have obviously got fed up with rugs (and coming to yard more than once a day) and they can now be naked regardless of weather conditions and temperature
I
 
I don't know why so many do but mine does because he's a lightweight TB and has been used to living in until I got him. If he didn't wear a lightweight rug or fly sheet he would lose weight and he's just starting to look good.

If it's really warm he goes out without.

It depends on the individual circumstances of the horse imo and their environment, how much space and grass and shelter they have and what age, breed etc.
 
I do things wrong way around. I rug in summer ( sometimes ) and they are left without in winter :) Inky is clipped all summer for showing so he has a rug when its raining or cold mainly after a show when he has also been bathed. Only a lightweight one to prevent rainscald as he has no hair protection. also after a show he has products on his coat and dont want him to burn in the sun. He only has it on about a week after the show then he's naked! In Winter i dont show so they are left to become Yaks and are totally naked. If its boiling hot in summer and there is no chance he'll burn he is left naked too. :)
 
I don't mind fly rugs, obviously many horses need them but I do dislike seeing big rugs on horses who could, if they were allowed to, withstand some summer rain. Passed two the other day, one looked like a Welsh sec C and the other a bigger piebald cob type with turnout rugs on (not rainsheets), during the day in 18C sunshine. I don't understand that. It must be so good to get that off their back have a good roll, groom each other properly and have a nice scratch. JMO though.
 
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