Rugging overweight horse

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JULIA G

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Aug 30, 2007
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Is it cruel to slightly under-rug an overweight horse? My mare has a very large belly and is quite overweight. She comes in at night, has plenty of soaked hay and a small diet feed. She's clipped out but only has a MW stable rug on overnight, she's not a cold type of horse generally and I'm paranoid about over-rugging but as its been really freezing the last few nights, I keep thinking maybe I should put a thin fleece under her rug? But then to be honest I was thinking that I don't mind if she's a bit chilly (but obviously not shivering cold or anything) as she may lose a bit of weight but does that make me an evil mummy? :confused:
 
I had a chat with someone from World Horse Welfare at YHL about this. I've never rugged Mrs P all that heavily, she is a good doer & loves her food so I'd rather feed her more but keep the weight off her by letting her expend some energy on central heating. The response I got was that this is the right thing to do, horses are designed to utilise up to 80% of the energy they derive from food staying warm and if you over-rug them they will get fat very easily. I'n conscious that P is probably the least rugged horse at the yard so this made me feel much better about my approach to managing her warmth and her waistline! She never seems to get cold or shiver, and TBH she's a bit of a fat lass at the moment despite her evil mum's rugging philosophy. So if you're evil too, join the club - our nasty ways have been endorsed by the UK's leading horse welfare organisation ;)
 
Mine mare only has a bib clip so I keep her out unrugged as I subscribe to the Iron Maiden approach.

If yours has more than a bib clip then I would do what you are proposing which is to rug lighter than you would normally. :)

Whilst it may seem cruel to some the owners of good deors owe it to our horses to make the most of winter and get them down to a healthy weight.
 
I used to always rug up alex. He gets rain scald and does need rugging to a degree. But now with our snow he would have a 300g rug & under rug. He was always toastie. Now hes being rode less and with more grass at the new yard he has gotten a little fat to say the least, and is still in his 220g rug. Hes not toastie but not cold either! And he HAS lost some weight. He isnt starving, is fed a balanced diet. Only way now id rug heavier would be if he actually was cold when brought in...the sensible way! (He is also fully clipped!)
 
Oh thank you guys, you're making me feel so much better, I was worrying myself sick all night that she might be too cold, she feels warm under her rug, as you say not toastie warm, but warm enough I think (hope). It doesn't help I've only just got her so am still at the getting to know her/what she likes/doesn't like stage etc. Most of the info I have is from her previous owner but she certainly is a very good doer, she's become too fat from a combination of very good grass and not enough exercise and I really want to shift the weight during the winter or there's no hope come the Spring :D
 
Same as Joyscarer and Ironmaiden - lightly rugged and lots of soaked hay (equals fibre for central heating, but soaked means lower nutritional value). Mine's got a light trace clip, and in last night's sub zero temp had a fleece with a med weight rug on top, neither were full-neck. Think she was the only horse on the yard without any neck attachment, plus most had three layers, not my measly two!
 
I can't get this neck attachment obsession, P is also about the only horse on her yard with 'normally' cut rugs. She has a (too) healthy crest & topline so it doesn't mean she loses weight off her neck. But my formative years around horses were the 80s, when every clipped horse wore a jute rug with a stripey blanket underneath it regardless of the temperature, and they did just fine :o
 
Im with iron maiden, i dont get why they all have neck covers. Like ive said alex gets rainscald :( so yeah he has a combo 99% of the time. But really if he didnt, fully clipped as he is he would have no neck.

I had a TB on loan who had nothing during the summer at all, and a light/middle through winter with no neck, and he was fat as butter!
 
mogadoga said:
Like ive said alex gets rainscald :( so yeah he has a combo 99% of the time.
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Just a note to say that sweating (for example under a rug) can cause rainscald. The rug provides the perfect environment for the bacteria that cause rain scald, i.e. warm and damp (if horse is sweating under the rug).:)
 
Agree that horses can gt rainscald under rugs. Kia has had it when I over rugged him year before last.

Kia has a clip (between a blanket and a high trace) and he has a 350g high neck on and is living out, currently in the snow and ice and is fine.

Under rugging is one of the best ways to get weight off a horse in the winter. as long as there is plenty of forage they will be fine.

Nikki xxx
 
Iron Maiden said:
I can't get this neck attachment obsession,
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Me neither! My old share was a Welsh D x ID, and she ended up in a heavyweight turnout with a neck (despite enough mane to stuff a mattress) ... twenty years ago, it might have been a bit of heavy canvas to keep the rain off; fifty years ago, I'm pretty sure a horse like that would have wintered out with nothing!

How long until they start wearing horsy ski trousers, I wonder?
 
I have a "put on weight just looking at haynet horse", I have recently gone light on rugs but large on hay, a couple of reasons, if she gets a bit cold but has a full tummy she will generate heat to a sensible level to get warm, two, she can warm herself up but can't cool herself down. A friend once bought her good doer native a huge puffy rug with neck on impulse and also I think felt a bit pressured, after one night of wearing it her horse was pretty poorly he had been roasting in the morning, dehydrated (had huge bucket of water available) and very lethargic and sorry for himself. As long as one is sensible and the horse has a full stomach I think it is much healthier for them to be slightly underrugged personally.

Obviously a breed that looses condition quickly etc is a different story, we all have individual needs as do our horses
 
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