Winter rug rubbing mane

Caol Ila

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I'm writing a story for Horse and Hound about preventing the rug from rubbing the mane off. As no one at my yard seems to be bothered with this (including me this winter.... I used to plait her mane but the horse is 25 and I'm lazy), I thought I'd mine the greater resources of the forum. If this has been an issue for you and you've found a way to deal with it and would not mind being quoted with your real name in the article, please send me a PM.
 
Had full neck rug, horse too hot, mane rubbed off - fixed simply by not overrugging and taking off the neck.
 
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I found the fixed necks awful for rubbing out manes. Havent had a problem since using the detachable neck type rugs, they seem to fit better and dont seem to put pressure on the neck/mane area as they are in 2 seperate pieces rather than one piece of fabric.
 
I found the fixed necks awful for rubbing out manes. Havent had a problem since using the detachable neck type rugs, they seem to fit better and dont seem to put pressure on the neck/mane area as they are in 2 seperate pieces rather than one piece of fabric.

That's interesting, I find exactly the opposite!
 
Me too - the detach-a-neck ones were awful. Fixed neck were better. But the Bossy Bib mane guard has been the saviour this year. We hunt so plait twice weekly and have fully clipped out horses to have to keep them warm. One mane has thinned a bit on the lower 1/3 but no rubbed out patches. The other is fine.
 
Manes get rubbed to some degree in full neck rugs regardless of whether they are too hot or not - due to constant movement of neck I think.

Some rugs makes are better in this regard than others - if it is an option to have no neck it's obviously better but necks do prevent leakage at front of rug in heavy rain & wind so I use them for daily turnout on my fully clipped wuss.

Would love to hear any tips to help prevent 🙂
 
Manes get rubbed to some degree in full neck rugs regardless of whether they are too hot or not - due to constant movement of neck I think.

Some rugs makes are better in this regard than others - if it is an option to have no neck it's obviously better but necks do prevent leakage at front of rug in heavy rain & wind so I use them for daily turnout on my fully clipped wuss.

Would love to hear any tips to help prevent 🙂

I find the half necks (Horseware Wugs) a good compromise, the shape of the neck (for my guy anyway) stops the rain running down his chest, and it doesn't rub his mane. Unfortunately he rubs it on the hayfeeder so he has a bald patch in a similar spot to where the rug would rub.
 
I find the half necks (Horseware Wugs) a good compromise, the shape of the neck (for my guy anyway) stops the rain running down his chest, and it doesn't rub his mane. Unfortunately he rubs it on the hayfeeder so he has a bald patch in a similar spot to where the rug would rub.

They love to keep us on our toes don't they? 😆
 
clip on necks in over size-i use mark todd rugs on my 13hh and either L mark todd neck covers or M from Ruggles (which i find come up a bit larger)

for anything over 14hh you want XL from ruggles.

i use LW or MW necks only, as i think over heating and thick creases in the neck cover do as much damage as the actual design of them-the lighter the neck the less it settles in folds IME

keep mane and neck cover lining immaculately clean!
 
We found a silmilar issue, with fixed full neck the mane got rubbed just above the withers. The detachable neck is much better, but we actually now keep the neck section off as much as possible. We only use it if its going to be really wet or windy.
 
I found clean manes rubbed, but last year left alone and didn't wash, just kept applying mane n tail spray and that seemed to work for me
 
I've found with my natives a full neck rug is ok, especially if the neck is a little long.
Eg, 13.2 Fell pony in 6ft weatherbeeta with full neck, had mane past her elbow, kept mane in entirety over last winter. Neck was a little long, but nothing dangerous, got folded back if in overnight.

The detachable necks do remove mane, in my experience. The winter before, I had a Dale's in, used detachable neck when out, and had mane gone from withers for 4 inches or so.
 
Mine are fully clipped but only have hoods on if it is very cold or very wet. I use large size PE hoods that attach with the two Velcro tabs to their Rambo rugs which are NOT a snug fit. I don't get mane rubs but then they do not have the hoods on very often.
 
I find mane rubs with both detachable and fixed neck rugs. Invested in a bossy bibs mane guard this winter - a waste of money, hasn’t helped at all.

have you tried clip on detachable like mark todd style? its the old style of rug so you might have to search around a bit!
 
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