2 Rug Or Not 2 Rug

[horsemadmandy]

Hi
I am having a dilemma in the fact that my new horse of 6 months has been living out 24 seven for 3 years with previous owner but rugged heavily as he loses weight big time as a warmblood. I am in a natural horsemanship environment where it would be lovely for him to thrive naturally but I do not think he will! If I do not let him try and develop a lovely wooly coat then he never will. I obviously do not want him to suffer and be unhappy. He has many issues from the past so he is so unhappy stabled infact almost suicidal I have been informed by previous owner that he just does not stable. Any suggestions on the rugging issue as my god it has been freezing the last few nights and he has dropped weight already and looks so tired Mandy.x

[augermoon]

If he's dropped weight already, I'd get a rug on asap. Not all horses can cope with staying naked all winter and it sounds like he's one of them. I have a warmblood cross who is currently living out 24/7 and also drops weight if not carefully managed. He does not grow a woolly coat, but rather a silly fluffy one that would never keep him warm. I started rugging him last night with a middleweight turnout at night and a lightweight one during the day.

[Zingy]

If he's cold or miserable you have no choice - you have to rug him. Leaving unrugged only works with some horses, and keeping them naturally must come second to welfare. 'Natural' doesn't exist for all horses anyway - man-made breeds don't exist in the wild and aren't necessarily bred to cope with everything that native horses are.

[Yann]

I agree, if he's losing weight already :eek: then I'd start rugging him too. I might be wrong but I don't think the amount of winter coat has a lot to do with how much the horse has previously been rugged. To make a success of things otherwise your horse will need at the very least access to shelter when he needs it and large amounts of good quality forage, and even then there's no guarantee of success.

Don't forget that it's 'natural' for a horse to come out of winter looking half starved;)

[horsemadmandy]

Thanks for the replies they have confirmed what I have been feeling RUGS IT IS :)

[Pickles]

You can always just rug him overnight and leave him naked on the drier days, as it is still quite warm and sunny some of the time.

We had our first frost last week (Cheshire) so it's no wonder the horses are starting to feel it.

[horsemadmandy]

Hi
Have not rugged yet but got him on a cool feeding system that has saved the day for the next month at least. Check out simple systems.

[Pink's lady]

He will probably always need to wear a rug, but maybe not a thick one. Most people underestimate the importance of feeding loads of hay to a horse that feels the cold. There's all types of facts and figures related to body heat and digestion that I could quote but basically, for horse on a high fibre diet thats continously eating hay, the digestion of the cellulose by the hind-gut bacteria produces over 80% of a horses body heat - they have to make almost no effort to stay warm.

A horse with a high fibre diet with adequate shelter will only need a light rug (if any at all) to stay warm, provided they are dry. Wet horses get cold :(

I would suggest that you give him ad-lib good qualitly hay and feed him a high fibre bucket feed (a big bucket of alfalfa and sugar beet would be ideal). Make sure he's got decent shelter in the feild. If he still loosing weight, get him a lightweight full neck rug. I wouldn't imagine he'd need more than that but if he does, put an extra layer under it. Thats more effective than a heavier rug.

[tbtess]

If he loses weight that quick i would rug him even if its only a lightweight waterproof on a night, u'll know if its 2 light cos he'll either continue shedding weight or he won't build up. I have a very thin skinned thoroughbred and a freind of mine felt just how thin today! she is currently rugged in a mediumweight turnout but will be going in a lightweight one as soon as it arrives, hopefully tomorrow, but she only has it on on a night cos its so cold or if its chucking it down through the day. I'd rather be safe than sorry, go with gut instinct, if you think rugging is better then do it, i'd rather mine be warm on a night than poorly and it is almost october now. Whatever you decide, it will be the best choice for your horse.

[horsemadmandy]

Well a few weeks on now and I did rug him over the last wet cold weekend and when I took the rug off he looked thinner :( I then witnessed him being really thirsty and he drank 2 buckets of water in 15 minutes :( I have taken the rug off and he has put the weight back on and looks happy. I think with the shelter he has and the amount of free hay and the simple system feed we have 5 days a week seems to suit him:) :) :)

[RodeoDreamer33]

I think what you are doing now seems to work good. Putting a blanket on only matts down the coat they already have. Not that this is bad, but if your horse is out you dont want their coats down. The only reason why horses that stay out all the time have their hair looking thicker and stick up more is because their hair naturally sticks up when it is cold to lock the heat down closer to their bodies. Extra food and not frozen water is a must. That is the most importan thing and that is what your horse needs the most to stay warm and healthy:)

[aeron]

Mandy,
You have two important issues here: to blanket or not to blanket, and the issue of him now being kept in a stall.

If it is at all possible, it is better if he is turned out. The fact that he has lived out the past 3 years makes that even more important. When horses are turned out, they have the ability to move around to get warm. They can not get as warm when kept in a stall. If you absolutely have to keep him in a stall, then a blanket may be needed.

Here at our farm, we only blanket if a horse has a full body clip. Most are allowed to keep their full coats, and they do fine outside. Don't feel guilty! Remember two things: 1) horses raise their hair up to keep heat in, and 2) we as humans tend to think if we are cold, they will be too. Horses are FAR more able to adapt to exteme temps than we are. They can use up extra calories to keep warm, so you do need to keep up the food...

Our ponies here get so furry that they can be walking around outside with 2 inches of snow on their backs -- which doesn't melt! That's how well-insulated they are. My horses all live out 24/7. They have a shelter to get out of rain and wind, but usually when I check on them, they are out in the field, grazing. They have access to unlimited hay, and they get some chaff & Equine Senior.

When you blanket a horse, you eliminate their ability to raise their own fur to insulate themselves. In other words, it is actually possible to have a horse colder in certain blanketed situations than when not. (Did that make any sense?) Right now we have 4 inches of snow and ice on the ground, and night temps are in the teens. None of mine are blanketed, and none have lost weight. Of course many of the other horses at the farm get blanketed all day every day, so I guess none of us can agree 100%! I just try to remember that horses did fine for hundreds of years before we came along and started putting blankets on them!
:)

[Pinkstergirl]

Hiya

My TB is still rugless and doing really well. She is on the Simple System feeding regime and is also stabled at night (simply because all the other horses come in). I started putting a fleece on her at night (because of her being unable to move around freely), however she was colder so she is now rugless in her stable as well. She has not dropped any weight at all and is positively glowing. I will put a rainsheet on her if I know it is going to be really windy or rainy or both! I think you will be surprised at how resilient and efficient horses are at staying warm. It's also concerning to see the amount of horses that are already in heavyweight rugs. If we are to get the severe winter that has been forecast, what on earth will people put on their horses then?!

I have pasted in an article that I found very useful and clarified a lot of things in my mind:

How Horses Cope With The Cold

Cold temperature in itself is not a problem for a horse, if he's had a
chance to prepare gradually by growing a winter coat. Wind and wet weather
are the factors that can chill a horse. Read on to find out how horses
readily adapt to winter weather.

Horses readily adapt to winter weather. Cold temperature in itself is not a
problem for a horse if he's had a chance to prepare gradually by growing a
winter coat as temperatures drop. Wind and wet weather are the factors that can chill a horse. In windy regions, horses need some type of shelter to
protect against the wind chill that can whip away body heat.

Horses handle cold weather better than humans do; equines evolved in the
cold climates of northern Europe and Asia. Their natural 'comfort zone'
(energy-neutral temperature zone, in which they don't need to expend extra
energy to maintain normal body temperature if the weather is not wet or
windy) is from about 15 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The horse's body is
better at creating and conserving heat in cold weather than dissipating it
in hot weather.

Body Changes

As autumn changes to winter, the horse's body undergoes a series of
physiological changes, some of which actually begin long before the first
frosts. As soon as the days start to shorten in midsummer, the horse begins
to grow a new hair coat, more dense than his summer hair. As you brush and
groom him in late summer you'll notice he's shedding some of his short
summer hair. His metabolism begins to change also, enabling him to store
more fat for insulation and for energy reserves. A layer of fat under the
skin makes it more difficult for heat to escape from the body and protects
against cold weather. The layer of fat needs little energy to maintain and
has few blood vessels. The surface vessels that radiate heat in summer draw
back deeper in winter.

As soon as nights start getting cold his body begins to change, even if the
days are still quite warm. If you are working a horse hard, you will notice
that he does not dissipate heat as well as he did earlier in the summer; he
may sweat more and his sweat may start to have some smell to it.

Long winter hair traps a layer of warm body heat between the skin and the
cold air. When it's cold, tiny muscles in the skin make the hair stand up
fluffy, increasing the insulating effect and blood vessels near the skin
constrict, conserving body heat by keeping the blood closer to the warm
interior of the body, not allowing heat to escape from blood vessels near
the skin surface.

Horses have a normal body temperature of about 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38
degrees Celsius). They maintain this temperature in cold weather with the
help of several mechanisms which include shivering, changes in hormone
levels, increased body metabolism, increased digestion of fibre (adding more
fibre or more protein to the diet can help a horse keep warm, since
digestion of these nutrients produce heat), growing longer and thicker hair
which can stand up on the skin to make a layer of insulating air pockets,
increased feed consumption and increased activity. Cold horses on a frosty
morning often run and buck to warm up.

Valuable Fur Coat

A well fed horse can manage at temperatures down to 30 or even 40 below zero
Fahrenheit if there's no wind and he's not wet. Wind ruffles the hair and
destroys its insulating quality. The downward direction in which the hair
grows (along with the oil glands that waterproof the hair) help keep a horse
dry in rain and snow. The density of the hair coat and the directions in
which the hair grows make such a good overcoat that snow can form ice on the
outer surface of this coat without the skin becoming chilled.

It takes a lot of moisture on the hair coat before the dampness soaks
through to the skin, since most of the water runs off. Once a horse gets
wet, however, he may chill. A wet horse loses body heat up to twenty times
faster than a dry horse, because the moisture flattens out the hair and
eliminates the air spaces between the hairs, greatly reducing the insulating
effect. Even a warm winter storm (rain instead of snow, or snow that
immediately melts) can be hard on a horse, if he gets soaked and then gets
chilled by dropping temperatures before he has a chance to dry off.

His best defense against cold are a long coat and a layer of fat just
beneath the skin; both of these help reduce loss of body heat. Most wild
animals go in to winter fatter than they are at other times of the year;
this is nature's way to protect them against cold and give them some
reserves for energy and body heat. Long winter hair is the first line of
defense, but its insulating quality is lost if the horse is wet or covered
with mud.

It's important that a horse has shelter during wet weather. A horse will
rarely take shelter from cold, but he will try to get away from rain or
driving snow. Horses prefer the warmth of winter sun to a shady shed. If
an outdoor horse's coat gets muddy, groom him to keep it from being matted
down.

Programmed for Cold

Humans tend to get frostbitten toes and noses in severely cold weather, but
horses rarely suffer frostbite. The horse's blunt muzzle is so richly
supplied with blood that it can withstand extreme cold without freezing.
His long nasal passages with their bone spirals and air pouch (which he uses
for snorting and whistling when he blows air through it) help warm the cold
air before it reaches his lungs.

A horse's hooves and legs are constructed in such a way that they can
withstand extreme cold without discomfort or damage, even when standing in
deep snow. His slender legs are just bone and tendons below the knees and
hocks, requiring much less circulation than muscles and are thus less
susceptible to frostbite. This allows them to handle extended exposure to
cold and snow with no ill effects. The cells in the bones and tendons need
less blood for maintenance and they also lose less heat. The horse is able
to shunt most of the blood away from his feet and still have a very
functional foot. When the feet start to get cold, the shunts open up so
that the blood flows from the smallest arteries directly into the veins
without having to pass through the small capillaries.

If the horse gets cold, the blood vessels in his skin constrict to minimise
heat loss and the hair shafts stand on end for better insulating. If he
continues to be cold, he starts to shiver, with his muscles rapidly
contracting and relaxing - which quickly raises his metabolism rate and
amount of fuel burned in the muscles. With his large blocks of muscle, the
horse can shiver much more readily and more comfortably than a human. Since most of this muscle action is being converted to heat, this is a very
effective way to warm himself. It takes a great deal of energy however, to
shiver for long periods of time and this can use up vital energy stores.

The horse has several other unique features that enable him to cope with
winter. If the wind blows, he instinctively turns his back to it. This
protects his thin-skinned face and neck, which have more surface blood
vessels. His rump and back have thicker skin and hair and less surface
blood vessels, so can withstand the wind better. He uses his tail to
protect his more delicate under parts. His mane and forelock give
waterproof protection for head and neck. Horses in groups stand close
together to block the wind and thus benefit from each others' body warmth.
With a chance to prepare himself for cold weather the horse can be quite
comfortable and happy outdoors in the winter.

[Zingy]

Are our methods of keeping horses though stopping them effectively living without rugs so easily?

I have 2 welsh sec As. Both are in theory from their breeding well capable of living out during the winter with little food, halfway up a mountain. The actually live out with ad lib hay/ grass and a field shelter. From everything here, there is no reason why they should be rugged. Yet one of them would spend 6 months of the year miserable and losing weight if I didn't. He gets far more than a light turnout as well - in the worst weather he's in a heavyweight rug with a neck cover.

But, the way I keep them in the summer is completely unnatural. They should, by rights, be building up stores of body fat to help keep him warm in the summer. I can't let them do this because of the risk of causing laminitis. So they both are on very, very restricted grazing. My aim is to keep their weight relatively stable throughout the year, and to err on the side of underweight, not overweight. So they go into winter in far worse condition than they would naturally. That must impact on their heat-retaining abilities, no matter how much they get fed in the winter?

[Yann]

It's also concerning to see the amount of horses that are already in heavyweight rugs.

Perhaps some of them are clipped?:)

[horsemadmandy]

Hi Everyone and a very happy new year to you all. Thankyou for all your input on the rugging issue as It confirms what I am doing with Bruce right now is the right thing to be doing. He is looking better now than I have ever seen him since we met for the first time last April.:) :) I will keep an extra eye on the weather report for wet weather:)