Would you allow your horse to get cold in order to loose weight?

I`d much rather whip the rugs off in order for them to have adlib forage than rug them to the nines and have to restrict intake.

As others have said, horses don`t 'feel the cold' in the same way we do!

My full clipped, part stabled NF has spent the winter (down to -15!!) in a 50g rug with adlib hay (eating up to 3/4 of a small bale a day) and has been naked (in boett for midges as we are on water meadows) for a while now. He`s looking lean, fit, and positively gleaming with health.

I upped his rugs briefly (to a whopping 200g!!!) when it was really really cold but he just got horribly itchy, magically cured by reducing rug weight back down.

Having had years of T.B types that need rugging AND feeding in order to hold weight, having a native is a steep learning curve.
 
equine-science said:
Well my answer to that one has to be if I wouldn't do it to my kids thenI wouldn't do it to my horse and if I found my kids to be over weight I'd do something about it like look at diet and exercise. Self explanatory really!
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Oh for god sake, here we go again!! A horse is not a child, it's a HORSE. Two completely different evolutionary pathways. When are people going to stop treating their horses like their kids?
 
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lhotse said:
Oh for god sake, here we go again!! A horse is not a child, it's a HORSE. Two completely different evolutionary pathways. When are people going to stop treating their horses like their kids?
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Are you saying you don't go and tuck your horsey in and tell it a bedtime story every night?:D

My gelding can be a bit of a lard arse and practically lives on fresh air. He was rugged as he is clipped through the worst of the winter, but rugs have been off for about the last 6/8 weeks.

My mare has never liked being too hot and has only ever been in lightweight rugs. Since being in foal, she made it more than obvious that she didn't want a rug at all. Even in the snow, she was out naked and has never looked better.
 
equine-science said:
Well my answer to that one has to be if I wouldn't do it to my kids thenI wouldn't do it to my horse and if I found my kids to be over weight I'd do something about it like look at diet and exercise. Self explanatory really!
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But horses aren't kids and shouldn't be treated the same. And as several people have already explained you cannot always use diet and exercise to get weight off. In my case I have my daughters retired pony, who I certainly can't ride, she lives out, on no hard feed and now the grass is coming through, restricted grazing. It was either take her rug off or not feed her at all, I think I know what she prefers.
 
equine-science said:
I'd do something about it like look at diet and exercise. Self explanatory really!
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But if the horse is currently out of work - may be due to injury, holiday time, age - and lives on fresh air having no hard feed, would you really cut back forage and risk getting ulcers and other problems associated with limited fibre intake?
 
taz currently has no rug on in the stable or out in the field, and has been like this for over a week as he is carrying a bit of extra weight, and he'll be going on to grass soon and i cant afford for him to blow up, i'd rather he could eat more in the stable without a rug, than cut down what he is being fed, which is not much and cause more problems and go out to the field in a few weeks and find him in so much pain as he will be too fat and risk laminitus.

personally i dont see how it is cruel, after all you have to be cruel to be kind, its better for a horse to be a wee bitty cold rather than them be disgustingly fat and risk laminitus and many more problems
 
Absolutely.

Though there is a line between cool and cold which needs to be monitored. No one wants a hypothermic horse.
 
horses used to always have a lean period every winter when they had little food so lost weight, modern regimes do not.
So simulating it through less rugs and a bit less food doesnt not hurt the horse at all if he needs to lose weight especially if it prevents lammi
 
Well my vet did advise that I left T's rugs off to help him loose weight but he does wear a sheet in the box as he can't move around as much as he would do outside. T is full clipped but now naked during the day and has a light sheet on at night and is loosing weight well but is not covered in 'cat' hairs so obviously not feeling the cold too much.
 
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