Would you rug loads to lose winter coat?

No.
Give them a good daily groom, put them out naked so they can roll and shed it themselves. Dont just be lazy and cause your horses to overheat to save you a little bit of effort.
 
Not a chance! Think that's actually a bit cruel!
See post below about people making horses cold to lose weight - I think most people are very much against over rugging!
My understanding is that it's daylight hours rather than temperature than govern coat loss/gain anyway so would be a bit pointless - would think it would just make the coat look less as it would flatten it?!
 
Nope and I'm not sure why it would work anyway. And I can imagine lots of rugs when shedding could make them really itchy and uncomfortable.

I normally flex my muscles, brace myself and get the rubber curry comb out :-)
 
Sarah1 said:
My understanding is that it's daylight hours rather than temperature than govern coat loss/gain anywayQUOTE]

I think so too.
Cat is multing away now the days are longer,as a house cat there has been no real change to the tempreture.


A good groom every day will get the winter coat out fairly fast,is good for them,good for you and a nice chance to bond too :)
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Nooooo - give it a good old scrub instead and strip all that fur out. Very theraputic for all involved, at the first riding school I ever went to stripping the littlest, oldest pony was a springtime ritual. He used to fall asleep while all his minions stripped off sackload after sackload of hair, bless him:)

Let them get out there and feel the sun on their backs and have a good old roll in the mud and generally behave like horses for goodness sake:)
 
I would never over rug them, but like with my chap this winter.. he came to us having lived out rugless all winter, and his coat was sooo long, it looked like he had cushings.. So he came to us, and we slowly built up his rugs... After he had been with us for a month, he had a MW indoor rug during the day then an under rug with neck aswell underneath during the night. He now has a really healthy coat (im sure the feeding has helped too) and his summer coat is nearly here!! :) So yes i think you can use rugging to your advantage, aslong as its not detrimental to the horses health :)
 
Its cruel in opinion, I hate to see it, unfortunately there are plenty of idiots that do it. I had a lady tell me today " you will never get your horses coat out unless you over rug" "sweat it out of her lovey" yes right o " lovey".
 
bigboyrocky said:
I would never over rug them, but like with my chap this winter.. he came to us having lived out rugless all winter, and his coat was sooo long, it looked like he had cushings.. So he came to us, and we slowly built up his rugs... After he had been with us for a month, he had a MW indoor rug during the day then an under rug with neck aswell underneath during the night. He now has a really healthy coat (im sure the feeding has helped too) and his summer coat is nearly here!! :) So yes i think you can use rugging to your advantage, aslong as its not detrimental to the horses health :)
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His summer coat would have come through anyway - and would be well on its' way by now.

And all you needed to lay his coat was a good Thermatex or something similar. Why not just clip it if you were that concerned about it's coat???

I'm a bit gobsmacked to be honest:(
 
I did say to her, I might try that myself to shift a few pounds then shall I, she put her nose in the air and wandered off. LOL
 
amymay said:
His summer coat would have come through anyway - and would be well on its' way by now.

And all you needed to lay his coat was a good Thermatex or something similar. Why not just clip it if you were that concerned about it's coat???

I'm a bit gobsmacked to be honest:(
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Becasue it was too late to clip when we got him..
And i can assure you, his summer coat wouldnt have even started to come through. Anyway, thermatexs are so warm.. his MW indoor rug would keep him at probably the same temprature as his thermatex does. I dont see what the big problem is???
 
I once had a YO who didn't change her horse's rugs between night and day, even when there was a big difference in temp so her horses were often in rugs too hot for the conditions. She said that if the horses were hot they would cool themselves off by drinking water. Even when they were bought in to ride and covered in sweat marks the penny never dropped. Thankfully it was a DIY yard so we did our own horse and made sure she was comfortable.
 
That's really interesting - I always thought coat growth was governed by daylight hours and a study was done to try to trick the horses into thinking days were longer than they were by keeping them in a floodlit barn etc.
So the reason I asked is because I wondered, with you saying his coat would not have come through, if he was kept indoors during the day.
My lad lives out now & has more or less a full summer coat with just one small patch still maulting like crazy!
 
Thats interesting! hes usually out in the morning from about 10 till 3 ish (although does vary a bit) but his stable is opposite the indoor lunge arena, and in the evenings there is dog agility in there so i guess the light may come through there???
 
No, if someone can't be ar*ed to groom/clip or just leave the horse/pony to malt naturally (and be a scruff bag for a bit) then they really need consider buying themself a rocking horse, instead of deliberately making a poor animal be too warm and sweat up.
 
bigboyrocky said:
I would never over rug them, but like with my chap this winter.. he came to us having lived out rugless all winter, and his coat was sooo long, it looked like he had cushings.. So he came to us, and we slowly built up his rugs... After he had been with us for a month, he had a MW indoor rug during the day then an under rug with neck aswell underneath during the night. He now has a really healthy coat (im sure the feeding has helped too) and his summer coat is nearly here!! :) So yes i think you can use rugging to your advantage, aslong as its not detrimental to the horses health :)
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You have been in the same situation as me lived out with no rugs etc and i done the same and he seemed much happier to have the rugs on
 
Could be or maybe his stable is shaded by the lunge arena?
I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to stuff like that, it fascinates me!
 
Sarah1 said:
Could be or maybe his stable is shaded by the lunge arena?
I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to stuff like that, it fascinates me!
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haha, who knows?! hes a happy healthy horse and is going patchy in places where his summer coat is coming through, so as long as it stays that way, i dont really mind why its happening :p

Saying that, we were given a demo of a leg disection - yes a real leg! and that was soooo fascinating.. im not usually one to ask why, (hence why i hated history at school :p) but now i am sooo careful about warm up, training, injuries etc... would reccomend it to everyone - you learn so much! :p
 
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