When should i put on the winter turn out rug??

KateC92

I have a 9 year old part bred mare who has been living out since the spring without a rug which, was fine (she will not be clipped but her winter coat is not very thick). But it got suddenly very cold recently with some heavy rain and i had to put the rug on her. Its a heavy winter rug, so she should be cosy. But I have been nagged by my mother that it's too early to put on the rug and she will be really cold in jan/feb and i will regret having put it on so early. I do plan on stabling her for the worst of the winter though. Any suggestions on whether I should leave it on her or wait for longer??

ecaf

How long have you had it on her? I don't have ours on that soon, I would usually wait until its a lot colder, although I know there was a bit of frost the other night. But if it has been on her a while, then she might miss it more if you took it off her now. Do you have a lighter rug you could put on her for a few weeks until the really cold weather comes in?

If it was me, and she didn't have it on too long, I'd take it off for the moment. It shouldn't rain tonight anyway, and it doesn't look like frost either, so she won't be too cold.

Jen Pigs Fly

My arab mare has been rugged since the start of september, she has her full winter coat and it does pratically nothing o keep her warm.

I put her heavy winter rug on her last night.

I personally think it depends on the breed, I would not be too worried with a native breed that naturally grow a nice thick coat, while with an arab or other hot blooded breeds should be rugged. But that's my personal opinion, my arab stays inside all winter and often has to get another heavy under-rug by november.

I think what you're doing could be ok, what you can do is, take the rug off during the day and then at night put it back on, therefore the horse is only using the rug when it gets really cold.

convert

If you had a lighter rug that you could put on her at night, it might be an idea, and then put the heavier rug on her when it starts to get a little colder. That said, we've had a light frost here for the last 2 nights, and looks like tonight will be the same, so depending on the availability of shelter, etc. for your mare (and whether or not you have a lighter turn out rug), she may need the rug on during the night, but you could take it off during the day.

Hello77

Hi,
Can I hijack the thread a little bit and ask would you bother rugging connemara ponies for the winter? Do they need rugs at all? Just bought 2 which are going to be out all winter (they will have a field shelter). They are unbroken (one is in foal) and I plan to start breaking the other lady in the next few months, but apart from that they won't be doing any work.
If I do need to rug them, do I leave rugs on 24/7? Will they not get sore/chaffed? Would I need several rugs to exchange them? Do the rugs ever get soaked through?
Sorry bit clueless...my last horse was a TB, kept at livery and only went out for a couple of hours a day...
Thanks for any advice and sorry to the OP for sidetracking...

roxychix

i have a similar problem tbx mare shes always been rugged in the winter with a full coat but now shes in foal and she out for the winter at grass running in 10arces of land. so im bit worried if i put the rug on her and somethin happens to her ie if gets caught or somethin. she was out for a winter when i got her first she had 3 different rugs that winter. really a waste of money

Esroh

At the moment we are having the mildest October in a long time.Night time temps are just hitting 1to 2 degrees at lowest. Very few horses need to be rugged at the moment.The grass is still growing although it is more roughage than nutritional as we this late in the year. If your horse is starting to loose condition then rug it up. I have a retired National Hunt horse and he will only get a rug on from December
Re the Connemara Ponies they do not need to be rugged. Their coats are well able to take anything that Irish weather throws at them as thats what has made them what they are. You wont see rugs on in the heart of Connemara.

Wicked

i have a tb at home who is out on rest and she will be brought in now at the end of november. i don't have her rugged but to be honest i feel a bit bad for her the past few days because the weather is very wet and cold in my area, if it keeps up i'll rug her until she comes in. i have a Irish DraughtX in at night time and i put a stable rug on her becuase she will be clipped in the next week or so,
i also have an old connemara (30 yr old) who i bring in at night time and i put a light wool rug on her, just for comfort,

i've three other connemara's who are out, two will stay out for the winter (no rugs) the third will be in for hunting and clipped so rugged

and finally i've a sporthorse mare and foal, i'm a bit puzzled about these, the mare will be in for the winter to save ground and turned out (on my sand arena, thread here somewhere) for exercise, i'm not ploughing the field up this yr!! i think i'll leave the foal out with the connemara's, not planning on rugging him, but maybe i should, dunno yet.

Esroh

In Thoroughbred Stud Farms you will see foals/weanlings, yearlings and mares which are stabled and un rugged at night out without rugs during all weathers.
@ Wicked.I can understand why you would rug an old pony but as you know your TB mare's coat will thicken now as she needs it and she is probably not feeling the change in the weather as much as You her caring owner.
Re your foal if you think your going to put a rug on later it maybe a good thing to start introducing it now. By just letting him feel it on his back and getting used to the action of putting it on will make life very easy later.

Wicked

hi, thanks for that feedback,

the foal is very quiet, i have him eating, because he'll be weaned soon, and i can do anything with him, leading, life up his feet, etc. so in that sense he is well handled and use to contact.

personally when i'm putting a rug on for the first time i do it in stable, leave it on for a couple of hours and take it off, i had a very bad experience with my connemara pony where i put the rug on him first time when he was out, he was fine and i watched him for about an hour, then it got windy and he went absolutely insane, tore down wire, and cut himself up in bits. i haven't been able to put one on him since.

ecaf

We have 2 TB mares and foals, but usually we leave the foals without rugs on. I can see their coats starting to thicken up now. The mare's should be ok for another week, but we are watching the weather from now on to make sure they aren't too cold. The owner of one of the foals the other year put a rug on the foal but it was too small and kept flapping in the wind, it wasn't on long enough that she'd miss it, so we removed it and since he has decided not to rug up his foals.

@Hello77 - In relation to the turn out rugs and changing them / rubbing them. We leave the turn out rugs on all winter, they are in at night and are sometimes removed then, depending on how cold it is. They are turned out with the rug on, and they are waterproof. With a good fitting rug they shouldn't rub. We only have one rug for them, but there is a back up in-case they tear or anything.

Definitely rug up in the stable. We had a new mare last year, and put a rug on another mare (with a foal) while in the field. The new mare got the smell of the new rug, and for some reason didn't recognise her friend... the other mare, (who was standing there the whole time), and then separated her from her foal in an effort to protect the other mares foal from the stranger with the rug. There was a good bit of panic for a few minutes and chasing around the field, before they finally settled and she realised the rug was strange but it was still her friend underneath, she let her have her foal back then! (Weird I know, but she is now a very good mom herself!)

Cloudy22

hi everyone, following on the subject of Connemara ponies and rugs, I'd like a bit of advice... I have an 8 year old Connemara in livery who is out during the day and stabled at night and in work at the moment. He is going out on grass for 6 weeks from mid-November and I'm not sure whether to put a light rug on him or not... He hasn't been clipped yet as he is going out, but his coat isn't very thick as he's only out during the day + he never grows a thick winter coat anyway. The only reason I'm wondering whether I should put a rug on him is because he's not living out at the moment so he won't have gradually got used to it by the time I put him out. At the same time I'd rather leave him with nothing on as I won't be able to check on him every day (someone else will, but they don't know much about horses) so I'd be afraid that something might happen if a strap broke or something... Any views/suggestions? Thanks!

Tanzanite

We have all our Thoroughbreds rugged the last 2 weeks and most of them are in foal.Very rarely have a problem with them getting caught up etc..

Martin252

Hey all,

I,ve a two and a half year old filly out of Silvano a dutch warmblood she is out all year round. Is there a need to put a rug on her i heard rugs can be more bad then good i,d like to know what you think

Wicked

Martin252 wrote: »

Hey all,

I,ve a two and a half year old filly out of Silvano a dutch warmblood she is out all year round. Is there a need to put a rug on her i heard rugs can be more bad then good i,d like to know what you think

it depends on how bad the weather gets and if she has ever had a rug on before. personally i didn't rug my two year old half bred last year and i won't be rugging my two year old connemara this year. but i do have a shelter for them so that's my reason.

if the conditions are very harsh and you feel that she isn't coping with weather i would rug up. but be careful rugging for the first time.