Very interesting article on rugging

[NuttyMare]

source: www.horsecare.org.uk


This subject is about the increasingly huge market for rugs, blankets and what looks like duvets for horses. The magazines and horse retailers have more types and makes of these than anything else, just look in some catalogues that do internet sales also, rugs and blankets take up almost a quarter of the book. Such a vast array they surely can find what you need? There are light rugs, heavy rugs, 420 denier nylon outers, 10oz of polyester filling, stable rugs, paddock rugs, jute rugs, turnout rugs, high neck extensions, summer turnouts, winter turnouts, mac's, coolers, fleece coolers, light and heavy summer sheets, towling rugs, anti-sweat rugs, cotton sheets, exercise sheets, lycra hoods, lycra neck covers etc etc etc. Is your mind spinning when you just look at them, do you know what's good for your horse, what will be right for him? NO RUG AT ALL is what he'd tell you!

There are so many people out there trying to sell you something and relying on your human nature of wanting to do the best for your horse that you end up buying things you probably don't need. I mean the catalogues sell them so surely we must need them, right?

The thing is that horses evolved to take care of themselves more efficiently and better than humans could ever do in the outdoors. Their blood systems change towards Winter and their coats change dramatically to be able to cope with the drop in temperature.

Let your horse be outside all day, every day, it's what's best for him. His coat will start to thicken up, the oils of his coat will begin to work to keep rain from his skin and shouldn't be overly groomed. His mane and tail should be long to keep his neck and back quarters warm, feathers should be left to keep water off the heels and in general he should be left alone to be a horse. What we can do is give him good quality forage (hay or haylage) to keep him in good condition, give him some sort of shelter in case he wants to use it (trees are usually better than a man made shelter), plenty of ice free water, succulents for treats and not to be overly used as to encourage us to clip him and therefore having to rug him up.

All rugs really do is weaken our horses immune system and make them suseptable to colds and chills. If your horse gets aclimatised to the cold gradually in the usual way then their systems adjust with the changing weather, they enjoy the wind in their hair and rain just runs off their coats. If you put a rug on them, when you take it off to go riding or to groom, they feel the cold twice as much, as they are now used to being warm. After a while the thick coats that would have grown to keep them cosy will start to fall out in an articificial moult and then you HAVE to rug them because you've ruined the coats natural climate control and they'll freeze. Horses left to their own devices have no problems dealing with the cold and wet. I do understand that some warmbloods are better rugged up but even most thoroughbreds can deal with Winter if left alone.

I've so often seen horses rugged up when it's mild, supposedly to stop them getting muddy so they can be ridden, just human convenience. I've also seen horses that in my opinion should never be rugged up ie. shetlands, highlands, welsh, connemera, irish, cobs and heavies. We clip them so we can ride them out heavily and then have to rug them. Can't we just let them have some Winter time off and maybe ride them at a slower pace so they don't sweat?

The worst thing we do to our horses is humanize them, we need to let them be what they are. We spend too much time tidying them up to suit our image of the perfect horse. We buy one type of horse and try to make it into another sort. What we should be doing is buying the horse we love and keeping him that way.


Certainly opened my eyes!

[Chikumz]

Amen!

[RachelEvent]

Typical 'natural is best' view. I can agree with some of the points, but it fails to understand that different people have different horses for different purposes. It is not 'natural' for a thoroughbred horse to be left with no rugs in the winter, because a thoroughbred horse does not naturally live in this environment.

[nicolaj]

Great article!

Get fed up of people thinking I'm cruel leaving his rugs off, but he seems really happy to be unrugged, nice thick coat, and don't i know it now he's moulting. Didn't lose condition or weight much. If he had of been rugged all winter, then would have been size of a small house by now!

I really don't mind him being a bit muddy, just brush off where the tack goes and off we go.

Think it is worse to totally clip off all their coat, rug up and then whip them off when the owner want's to ride. Must be FREEZING! Like having all your clothes whipped off and left standing in your undies on the stable yard in the cold wind and weather.

It's about time people began to treat horses as horses, they have managed quite happily without humans. I just think how would I like to be locked up in my bedroom without any or limited entertainment and some food/water, looking out and seeing my friends having a good time without me. People wouldn't lock their children up this way, so why their horses.

We are luckly that we can have 24/7 turnout, I am aware that there are yards that will not allow this due to grazing restrictions, but then are there too many horses on the yard anyway. Some places treat horses as pound coins and try to make as much out of each horse as possible.

sorry rant over!

[Yann]

Yep, pinch of salt for me too. It's not natural to ride horses either but we do.
It's not natural for them to be clipped out either, but if you do you need to replace what you've taken away. The people who write these articles seem to view their horses as overgrown pets and have a romantic notion of what life is like for horses in the wild. Horses generally come out of winter looking like toast racks in the wild, I'm sure nobody would want to inflict that on a domestic horse.

Horses can live out 24/7 without rugs, even TB's (why not WB's?), but the environment has to be right. You need shelter, you need forage in abundance and you need grazing that isn't going to turn into a muddy bog. Not everybody has access to that for their horses. And what's wrong with putting a light rug on a horse to keep it clean or dry so you can ride it?

If you have a hairy beast that holds weight, doesn't do much work and lives on fresh air then there's not a lot of point in rugging it, granted. But most leisure horses that do any level of work through the winter benefit from being clipped and rugged to one degree or another.

[chev]

It is not 'natural' for a thoroughbred horse to be left with no rugs in the winter, because a thoroughbred horse does not naturally live in this environment.

Actually the broodmares at the National Stud do just that - the broodies all live out and grow just as much fur as their native counterparts. Or at least they did a few years back when we visited. The broodmares at Ashbank stud (breeding TB and sporthorse mares to produce coloured sporthorses) have all wintered out rugless too.

It's an interesting article, and raises some good points, but doesn't take every eventuality into account. One of my Welsh mares never grows a thick winter coat - every year we left her rugless, living out, and every year she failed to grow fur and dropped weight. She's now rugged - it just makes life a bit more pleasant for her. Same goes for elderly ponies who may well feel the cold, or those with arthritis, who often get stiff in colder weather.

What the author fails to realise is that in wild herds, the horses who would benefit from rugging in the winter generally don't survive it. I watched a programme about reintroducing the Mongolian Wild Horse to China - now they are ponies well adapted to life without rugs, searching out food. They still lost a couple of foals and a mare simply because they couldn't survive the nastiest weather. A rug and some food, while not part of their natural life, would have made a huge difference. I'd rather throw a rug on ponies that needs it, and have them live in comfort a little longer.

What I do feel uneasy about is the over rugging of horses to get them to shed early in order to show - or to stop them growing coats in the first place.

And I'm all for leaving horses that can live without rug-free - most of mine are... there's only my wussy mare and an older broodie who wear them regularly - but I think to condemn rugs altogether is a bit short sighted.

[Yann]

That's it, whilst the article does have a point about the marketing of rugs (and all the other stuff) and over rugging of horses, what is more important is that you do what is right for the individual rather than not rugging at all because it's 'not natural':)

[RachelEvent]

Actually the broodmares at the National Stud do just that - the broodies all live out and grow just as much fur as their native counterparts. Or at least they did a few years back when we visited

I think that the above is great, certainly my instructors event horse winters out from september until november in the field without a rug (he then gets clipped and goes back into hard work..) but if I was being ridiculously finikity, it's still not "natural" as the thoroughbred horse wouldn't have evolved naturally to live in this country ;)

I often get some stick at my yard for not being all that generous on the rug side, in summer Ferdie lives out 24/7 unrugged. But in the winter I clip him, because I like to ride and he likes to be ridden. I don't just give him some time off, because that's not what I own horses for. I don't think I'm being mean.

what will be right for him? NO RUG AT ALL is what he'd tell you!

I don't think anyone can translate horse-language into English. A stupid statement to make - it's quite plain that a certain minority of horses just aren't going to be happy without rugs. In the wild, old horses die quickly, partly because they are losing more energy through heat loss than they can obtain from food which they no longer digest so well. Would the author of this article like to see her old horse starve away, instead of keeping him comfortably warm in his last few years? I don't think so.

It's about time people began to treat horses as horses

I agree with this statement, but I think my interpretation is pretty different to the original author's ;) Yann's comment about 'overgrown pets' is spot on. Both the view presented by the article, and the ridiculous over-rugging which does take place, worry me equally in the total lack of common-sense.

[Bay Mare]

As someone who has more rugs than the local tack shop I can understand the bit about the marketing but, as we all know, horses in the wild may be 'natural' but they don't tend to live as long and aren't worked, fed and clipped the way that domestic horses are. I would rather look at each horse as an individual and treat it accordingly.

I agree with chev about the overrugging for showing purposes, we were only talking about some of the more extreme practices yesterday and some of them are pretty horrific.

Taking the authors viewpoints further shouldn't we as humans go 'nekkid' too? We are born without clothes so you can assume that we're not really meant to wear them ..... :D

[intouch]

I would like to agree with the whole "natural" thing and do without rugs.
I have to bring my horses in from their mudpatch at nights, and they don't have stable rugs, but one (old TB with coat like a Yeti) gets a raincoat because otherwise he grinds his back into the mud and you have to take a hammer and chisel to find him under it, and the mare got rain scald last summer, so she gets an anorak if the forecast gives rain. The other youngster doesnt get a rug, doesnt get so dirty or have skin problems.
Anyone suggest any other solutions? :(

[Bebe]

After a while the thick coats that would have grown to keep them cosy will start to fall out in an articificial moult and then you HAVE to rug them because you've ruined the coats natural climate control and they'll freeze.

This isn't true. To induce an artificial moult you have to increase the daylight hours, usually done using artificial lights which are left on to replicate summer daylight hours. Rugging in and of itself will not induce moulting (and horses don't moult, they cast). It can give the appearance of a sleeker coat as it flattens the hairs but that's all.

Whilst I agree that horses are usually more than capable of keeping themselves warm in winter it's not always possible to leave them unrugged. As Yann has already stated access to unlimited forage is a huge factor in how horses cope with cold weather and when you don't have that compromises may have to be made. Older horses and youngsters may not fare so well either and there are a couple of horses on my yard who dont' seem to grow any sort of winter coat at all, I doubt they'd do well unrugged all winter.

As for this comment Can't we just let them have some Winter time off and maybe ride them at a slower pace so they don't sweat? - actually no, my mare cant' have winter time off as she has to be well muscled in order to keep previous back problems at bay. She'd also go loopy if she wasn't ridden, contrary to some peoples beliefs my mare actually enjoys being ridden and will grab her bridle and put the bit in her mouth if I don't ride for a while. As for riding at a slower pace, she grows so much coat that even a 30 min walk hack on our hilly terrain brings her out in a sweat (she doesn't do slower pace as a general rule anyway). Every year I swear blind I'm not clipping her and every year she ends up with a small clip. She's actually rugged less than most horses I know and has been naked in the stable at night for a couple of months with no ill effects (and contrary to popular belief rugging doesn't stop the hair follicles from working properly, she can fluff her coat up as soon as her rug comes off if she needs to, I have seen it with my own eyes).

[entreat]

After a while the thick coats that would have grown to keep them cosy will start to fall out in an articificial moult and then you HAVE to rug them because you've ruined the coats natural climate control and they'll freeze.
Actually Bebe, I think they are referring to the atrophy of the tiny muscles in the base of every hair that enables hair movement for heat regulation. (Naked Hoof article (http://www.thenakedhoof.com.au/html/article-why_no_rugs.htm)

My TBs all live without rugs unless they need them to keep condition over winter (otherwise they spend consumed energy keepign warm, instead of keeping fat ;)), which has only been one horse so far - the rest cope just fine. My STB will be rugged this year, because he's moved somewhere where it frequently gets below freezing over night, and I'm a sucker for the rug ads!!

Unless your horse drops alot of condition over winter, there isn't really a reason to rug 'em. Except, of course, that they look so damn cute all rugged up!!

[Gemma16]

I think the whole point here is that all horses have different needs!!! And people have different opinions about how to keep horses.

I would never dream of leaving my horse to winter out nevermind without a rug!!!! And he is a welsh cob. Not only would he loose so much weight and is clipped out but he would not like it. He is still at the gate in the sun when it comes to tea time. Yes this routine was inniated by myself but Taff seems happy to oblige.

I think the 'natural' way can be a little closed minded at times ( as can other methods) but everyone needs to take into account the individual requirements of horse and rider.

[Bebe]

I think they are referring to the atrophy of the tiny muscles in the base of every hair that enables hair movement for heat regulation

I've read the article before and actually disagree with it. I took Bebe's rug off one sunny but cold morning about a month ago to let her get some sun on her back. I left her tied on the yard whilst she had her hooves done. By the time her hooves were finished, about an hour, her coat was fluffed up fully. She'd had a rug on for several months by this point so any atrophy to the muscles at the base of her hair follicles would surely have occurred by this point, yet her coat is still able to fluff up and flatten as needed for her to maintain her body heat. According to the articles, this shouldn't have been possible.

[sam_pring]

i disagree with this, if i left my pony out all winter without a rug he would lose so much weight and condition he would be unrideable. he is a highland x shetland and is 25 yrs old so needs a rug to keep him warm. even though he is rugged up his coat is still extrememly thick and so i feel if he didnt have a rug on his coat wouldnt be able to grow long enough to keep him warm, he would also sweat like crazy even on a slow hack out.

[eventerbabe]

its an interesting article but i'm not sure that i'd agree with it. my cob takes exception to being put out unrugged in cold/wet weather. i think its cruel to put him out naked and make him miserable, even though he has access to ad lib hay. his comments about giving cobs and heavies time off over winter, or riding at a slower pace are, IMO, stupid. it would drive my horse insane not being ridden for months on end, he thrives on work.

[MeMe]

I think like has been stated, different horses, and different people have things that suit them best, either one is no more right than the other.

All this stuff about keeping the horses natural and stuff, well if we want to do that, we need to not ride them, not trim their feet etc, and leave them on the moors or something!

They are either natural or not? And besides horses have not been "natural" for a very long time, they where necessary in the old days, without them we wouldent be where we are, they where a machine basically, Im not saying I condone this, but they where a work thing.

As the years have gone on they have become our "pleasure thing" You cant keep a horse that you use for riding etc truely natural IMO no matter what you say or call it. We can only keep them as "natural" as "possible" if we choose to treat them this way, which highly depends on the horse and the owner.

If I put B out unrugged all winter, even with a constant supply of hay, he would be a mess! I know this also for a fact as his last owner treated him like this as she thought it was "natural" for him to be out unrugged WITH shelter, and hay and water, and 1 hardfeed a day, for some horses thats more than enough, for him he was like a bag of bones, dissinterested in everything and generally miserable.

And personally for me, I dont want to keep them like that, if I dident clip Zak, after 10 mins of work he would be sweating severely as he grows a coat, and then thats not fair on him either, so clip, rug and he is happy and Im happy.

We shouldent condem anyway just because we dont agree with it, which alot of these kind of articles do, which in my opinion is highly wrong and the authors need to re think their attitude.

I could go on and on and on, as this is one subject where I get really annoyed, but I'll get off of my soapbox now!lol

[Mehitabel]

i do agree with the majority here, saying that while natural is all very well as an end point, it's not always feasible.
i keep horses primarily to ride, not just to look at - i don't want to give them 6 months of the year off. the riding school ponies have to work for a living, they can't just stop work over winter. they still need feeding and looking after, and we have to pay the bills somehow!

and just because they are a native type and won't die in the winter - it doesn't mean they enjoy being cold and wet. if i can make life more pleasant for them by rugging, why on earth not?

if people are going to to be evangelistic about natural, then don't feed them, don't worm them, don't do their teeth, don't trim their feet, don't ride them. none of that is natural. i do want to try to keep my horses in a way that is best for them - they have natural needs to chew, to have company, to be ouitside as much as possible. but i'm not loony about it.

[nicolaj]

I've read a couple of more articles on the site where the original article was taken from. They sometimes come across a bit evangelical, and at times, some of the ways of keeping horses mentioned are virtually impossible, unless you have access to lots of land, time, money etc.

Probably best to agree to disagree on subject of rugging. What works for one, doesn't always work for another.

One lady on our yard keeps her 27 yr old out almost all the time, bringing her in during extreme cold. She is arthritic and standing in causes her stiffness and discomfort. Whilst another old boy tends to come in during winter as he dropped an awful lot of weight last year, thought they would lose him. So each to their own.

[jUmPingIsLifE]

love the artical- though i do disagree with one part. about horses just getting time off in the winter, i'd be killed if i gave tahoe the winter off (i almost did last spring) he got blanketed this year because i was going to ride him so i didn' thave the problems i had in the spring last year (rearing, bucking, bronc impressions both on the ground and undersaddle! he was a fruit when the snow left and he could finally really move around).

but i completly agree with not rugging horses unless you are intending to ride a lot during the winter. autumn doesn't get blanketed and our horses are kept out 24/7 (their stall doors are open so they can go in if they want) but i find expecailly autumn is much happier standing out in even the worst of weather. and his body takes care of himself well, grows a nice thick winter coat. and we dont exactly get nice weather, im talking -60degress Farinhight with fierce windchill and he still stands out in it happy as ever. i have never had a horse that peferd to be stabled actually, they are out there though my friends mare would die without her stall and blankets i think :D

im more of the cowgirl it type, let em fend for themselves pretty much- they get their feet/shots/teeth done and all and i ride them but i leave everything else as much as possible, come summer time they dont even get fed because they go out on grass and it keeps them quit fat.

[Loopslou]

hallelujah - I'm so going to for the natural look - although my vet told me today that if I continued just to chip the mud off around the saddle areas and then hack out the road then the snobby horsey neighbours will be signing petitions to get me to stop hacking out my muddy horses :D

I don't see the point in grooming for 2 hours to hack for 1/2 and hour for them to roll as soon as they get back in the field. A quick lick and a promise is fine most days!

[NoviceNic]

I admit I do not try to over rug my Cob and Shetland. I have a turnout rug for Shetland but it has only been on twice this Winter. I tend to put in on when it is freezing all day long. Last year she had solid ice on her back and felt that this was unfair to her. Captain however reminds me he is too warm and wrecks his turnout rugs. :( So I have recently purchased a light weight turnout rug. This is more for convenience so I am not spending hours brushing a piebald(mostly white) cob before I ride for 20 mins between the bad Winter weather. Also I think it is unfair to put a saddle/plus me on a cold wet back when it has been raining. Am I a naughty Mummy???

[entreat]

According to the articles, this shouldn't have been possible.
I agree, but I have taken them in the extreme context. I have seen horses here rugged to the eyeballs in thick canvas rugs on day when I wouldn't wear a jumper. rugging in inappropriate conditions (like a winter rug in warm weather - or in the typical australian climate where rugs really aren't needed) can atrophy the muscles, but it's not a permanent condition.

OH's TB was off track, and had been stabled & rugged all day every day. Then he came to us. Poor boy didn't know what a winter coat was, but given that he can run on the sniff of an oily rag, he didn't loose any condition that winter (didn't even catch sniffles). The next winter, his body had recovered, and was able to grow a nice woolly coat. And although I know he loves hearing his rug flap in teh wind as he tears around the paddock with his mates, he's just too fat to have a rug on this year!

[Bebe]

rugging in inappropriate conditions (like a winter rug in warm weather - or in the typical australian climate where rugs really aren't needed) can atrophy the muscles

I agree on this point, lots of horses are rugged inappropriately. I tend to go the other way, rug a bit on the light side as Bebe is naturally warm without any help from me. She hasn't worn a rug at night for ages despite having a small clip (the rest of her is mega hairy) and at the moment is only rugged in a l/w turnout during the day and even then only if it's raining when I turn her out. If it's dry, she's naked.

[entreat]

I gave a friend a serve for have a summer rug AND a light-weight winter rug on her horse on a day that I was already feeling warm! She said, "oh, but it's not hot today", to which I replied, "But it's hardly long sleeves & a jumper weather?! How do you think horse feels in that, PLUS his own fur??". No wonder he has a hard time gaining weight if he's sweating off anything he eats!! (to be honest, I think she rugs so she doesn't have to groom him as much & get horse-hair everywhere)

[MeMe]

But isent inappropriately a matter of opinion? And also depended on the horse?

Yes I know there are extremes that people take just to make them look nice for shows etc etc, but for instance, my boys where rugged right up during the coldest spells, B drops weight at the slightest hint of being cold, and during the coldest periods he had his Weatherbeeta 300 on with the 300 Combo over the top, and if it was not freezing, but 1 was not enough, he had a small fleece, as the weather changed, I alternated on the combo and normal 300 dependent on what he needed, he is still in the normal 300 at nights, as its still abit chilly.

Zak had his Masta Regal on, then as weather got worse he had 300 Combo and Masta Duvet underneath, he was clipped top to toe litrally.

I varied that or what was underneath it or not depending on the weather, it varied to having a Combo and a Regal, Combo and Duvet, Combo on its own and in really cold spell Duvet and His Masta Flexineck which is thicker than the 300 combo.

I dont consider this overugging, my horses stand in brick stables overnight, and they cant walk around and keep warm if they need to, so I feel we must compensate for that if need be.

Some would consider this overugging, but I never had them to hot, I am terrible over rugging, I dont like them to be cold, but I dont like them to be hot either.

Zak is currently just in his Regal now and I cant wait to get out of rugs, except for the extra poo stains he will have!lol

Pee Wee just has a cotton summer sheet as she was in indoor stables, unrugged with her owner as she has not been used nor clipped, but now she is in outdoor stables, she has the summer sheet, as its colder at my yard than her old yard.

Thats also another factor that needs to be considered, I've walked off of my friends yard 4 miles away in blazing hot sunshine and no wind, and driven to mine and its freezing, threatening snow/rain etc and wind is high.

[Bebe]

But isent inappropriately a matter of opinion? And also depended on the horse?

To a degree yes but I sincerely doubt any horse needs to wear a m/w turnout rug when it's 25 degrees and sunny, as was the case last year when I hacked to a local show. I passed about half a dozen horses who were rugged up to the nines yet I was in a t-shirt and still baking!

My friend has a TB gelding who does need to be rugged quite heavily. I've seen him come in looking like he's lost 30kg over the space of a day if the weather changes and he's not quite warm enough. This isn't the norm though, most horses don't have this extreme a reaction to being cold.

I can also remember when I was looking after 2 horses a couple of years ago who were clipped and rugged. I'd change their rugs every morning as per the owners instructions and it wasn't unusual to take their rugs off and have steam coming off them as they were so hot. Obviously not all owners are this extreme but I do wonder how many people rug up because they feel cold without taking into account the fact that horses aren't humans and dont' feel the cold in the same way.

[MeMe]

Oh yes Bebe I agree completely there, as I said there are exceptions.

But in general sometimes its a case of preference, horse, area etc.

But no there is no need for a rug like that in weather like that.

I love mine to go out naked in the summer, well they have their fly rugs as it gets along, but they let the sun through. :D

[shandy84]

Meme you've touched on what I was going to say Shandy may have a few weeks a year unrugged but as soon as the sun shines she gets bothered by flies and needs her fly rug on otherwise she is in severe discomfort she also easily gets rainscald and loses weight if not rugged so she will have rugs most of the year, in the wild she would probably be dead because her sweet itch patches would have got infected instead she lives a happy life, I'd rather rug and have her happy thanks very much :)

[MeMe]

Def better off with the fly rug. Which one do you use?

Zak has the Aerborn one, and a seperate neck cover, with a Mark Todd fly mask.

B had a Shires one, but trashed it, so have to get him a new one this year, his mask is a cheapy one off of Ebay, but is excellent. :D

[Drummers mum]

I've read every post and peoples views are really interesting. The original article was very one sided and doesn't present a ballanced arguement. I'd be interested to see someone produce an article which gives the pros and cons of rugging and the effect it has on different horses eg. Why does the WB need a rug but not the TB?

if people are going to to be evangelistic about natural, then don't feed them, don't worm them, don't do their teeth, don't trim their feet, don't ride them. none of that is natural. i do want to try to keep my horses in a way that is best for them - they have natural needs to chew, to have company, to be ouitside as much as possible. but i'm not loony about it.
I personaly try to keep Drummer in as natural way as possible, but I would never do anything to jeapodize his well being! As a moors pony he started life almost wild and I want to keep as close to this as possible but, I have brought him into an unatural environment where things like worming are a must.

As for rugging, he is a giant fluff ball and I like him like that, we don't work hard over the winter so I have no reason to clip and if he does get a bit sweaty, I towel him off, put his cooler on and let him dry off before I turn him out! My only worries are him getting cold on nights when he has to come in as he cannot move around to keep warm. He certainly hasn't lost condition this year! :rolleyes:

I have had several comments about putting a rug on him to keep him clean and most of those come from people who clip their native ponies, never work them and then bundle them in rugs! :confused: