A thought I had

Native Lover

Native Lover

Native Pony Fan
Jul 13, 2009
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I am on a American forum and talk to some of the ladies who are going through the extreme tempratures in the USA and Canada.

We might be getting the tail end of this cold spell. So it got me thinking what temps horses and ponies could cope with living out unrugged as I have no stables.

So for those of you with no stables what are your plans if we did get extreme cold weather for a prolonged spell? Would you rug?
 
Well I think if it went below about -10 I would probably cave and rug, but I imagine horses can and do live out in worse as long as they have plenty of food.

If we get the bad weather will the natives on Dartmoor/Exmoor/welsh mountains etc be getting rugged? Although I would imagine that quite a few would die so I suppose that is an unfair statement.
 
I wouldnt rug june unless absolutely necessary. Cruel to be kind and all that. She needs to loose some weight for lami purposes. Better to be cold than crippled with lami. Im not bothered about the wind and cold atm with her.

Womble is unrugged atm but I would rug him. Id love to go into minus temps. Freeze my field and save the coblets feathers
 
I would definitely rug if it went to minus 10! I know I have two good doers but they are both old - why make them miserable?!!! Each to their own but that's how I feel. Specially if there were no stables or field shelter.
 
Kev is rugged, so I'm not technically part of this conversation, but I was thinking...I have seen people over there saying their horses are still unrugged (like tbaynancy) which is brilliant, but wondered if it would be different over here since it is so much wetter? The snow they have over there is powdery snow (I think), very different to ours I suspect. I wonder what the wind is like over there too, usually that's the bitterest part of our winters.

Just musing really.

I have set a -10 limit for Kev getting his heavy weight on, but he is clipped. I may cave sooner, who knows....
 
Depends entirely on the horse, as with anything else! In Italy we had nighttime temps of up to -15 in the winter often for weeks on end, sometimes with and sometimes without snow. The horses that lived out were all unclipped. We found that the older ones and the poor doers needed rugging, but the others stayed naked without losing condition. These were grassless paddocks so they had adlib hay and 3 small feeds a day. They had open-sided shelters. If you've got horses living out in the more extreme temperatures then the most important thing is to make sure they have constant access to hay/haylage, this will help them keep themselves warm.
 
Usually the moorland ponies are brought to lower ground over winter and given hay. I know the Dartmoors are, they are all owned by someone so some choose to bring down.

We have a barn so I will just gauge things daily.

Eta-it was cold last year didn't we get the tail end last time? I know my cob lost her feathers at the front. In one night they just froze off!
 
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I would not rug still, Minnie is rugged so yes she would get a thicker rug on. Sam and Dolly are not rugged and would stay that way. My horses are better at keeping themselves warm than me or any rug.

Dolly could literally keep a small country warm with her mammoth coat!

When we had that really bad cold spell last year the snow and ice on them didnt melt whatsoever, so not a lot of warmth got out.

The key things in extreme temps for your horses are

  1. Adlib Hay/Haylage
  2. Constant access Water that is not frozen

More horses get colic in the extreme temps from not having access to water that is not frozen.

I take out warm water when the auto trough freezes over, then it takes longer to freeze and then I will go out as much as possible with boiling water to add to it to keep it ice free. It can be very hard but it keeps their gut healthy and things moving.
 
Goodness, -10! I dont know really what I will do, my instinct is to not rug, but YM who has all TBs, instinct is to wrap them up warm.

We will probably compromise and put on his only rug with any padding in, a really thin one that is still in its wrapper after two years.

-10 will be a hell of shock after all this wet'n'warm we've been having, he has been a bit sweaty just in his winter fluff, and has lost a bit of is having an early moult, so maybe his thin anorak will get worn once this year after all.
 
A few years back it was minus 18 here - Joe was still alive (tb). He adored being wrapped in his Liberace stylie rug at night! Even Storm responded well to a fleece in her stable. Tbh I was more concerned at night because in a box they can't move about to keep warm. I also wore a stable rug!!! Hehehee, I wore three coats - could hardly move. We were feeding Poppins our resident tame rabbit and I remember giving her extra carrots that night!
 
Can I ask how would you keep your neddies warm if temps (not that it's likely) got to -30 +? I have had several thoughts of the horses out in the USA. Would a horse be able to cope with that sort of temp?
 
Hmm. Good question Flo-po! I would give my old ladies extra hay and possibly a fleece under a thick rug (this would be at night when stabled). During the day I would give them hayledge and their thickest turnout rugs. I think they would cope okay but the air might be a bit thin for Chloe at those sort of temps? As she has mild COPD and can get a bit breathless.
 
candyflosspot said:
Can I ask how would you keep your neddies warm if temps (not that it's likely) got to -30 +? I have had several thoughts of the horses out in the USA. Would a horse be able to cope with that sort of temp?
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I wondered this most of the ladies I chat to have there horses in barns.. I don't have that option :( I would have to rug.
 
we had -19 both Tess & Nuts (22 &18) where out on the hill unrugged - both where white and had icicles under tum but once you found a way to the skin they were toasty warm - they blended into the scene and where difficult to spot in half light - just made sure they had plenty to eat and had to take fresh water up as the pond was frozen over with no way of breaking it - we were in minus all day at one point so even the fresh water froze quickly - caught them licking ice quite a few times- both came out of that winter unscathed - they are now 24 & 20 and doubt they will see rug in similar unless they start telling me they need one - don't think Nuts has ever worn one in her life! Thank goodness for hardy natives - the other two are soft wussy natives and don't do well at all in poor weather - I firmly believe associated to having had lammi.

I really hope we don't get it again that bad - I don't do cold well at all and it was bl**dy hard work.
 
I think that it all depends on the horse. TB Nancy keeps her horse naked in very extreme weather and he seems to be coping fine and not dropping weight.

I wouldn't rug Ben for the sake of rugging, but if he started to tell me that he felt cold then of course I would consider it. Horses heat themselves from the inside out, so as long as they had free access to hay then he should be fine. I would be more concerned with his water freezing over, but in that kind of weather it would happen in a stable as well as the field. I'm not sure how you would stop the water freezing - in cold countries they must have some kind of heated water trough to stop it?
 
I think the jetstream is turning, too low?? So am not sure we will have very extremely cold weather.

The last time we had properly cold weather - 3 or 4 years ago - it was -15 one morning and the hasp on the gate snapped it was so cold. Tobes had very dippily injured himself, hooning around on rock solid ground and it was too icey to get them from the field they were in, across the other side of the village.

Sadly for the stable loving Tobes, he had to stay out .......... will no doubt be shot down in flames, but he was out in a Fal Pro heavyweight rug which was probably about 400g and on top of that I had a medium weight rug which was at least 250g. The Fal had a neck on it!!

He still grew an enormously thick tummy coat during the two weeks he had to endure that cold weather before it defrosted enough and he could hobble over to the stable field!!
 
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