Rugging up horses that live out for Winter . . .

Cherry Blossom

Has anyone officially rugged up yet? My three are fine at the minute although I'm wondering if I should be thinking about it soon!

roxychix

just have light outdoor rugs on my pair at min to keep the rain off. but one will be clipped soon so he'll have is thick rug 300g with neck cover on when it starts to get colder but the other lassie is really frightened by the clippers had a bad home so shes not clipped before we got her at 4 so she'll have her medium weight one on then bout 200g fill. hope that helps

KazNCD

Mine is turned out during the day and stabled at night and he is rugged up in medium weight turnout since end of August:eek:. He very very sensitive and started to lose condition so rugged him up and he has been fine since.

Cherry Blossom

Mine are all fat, hairy, unclipped cob types and my set up is so they can go in and out as they please for the time being, will have to move fields soon due to grazing though so they'll go out in the morning and in at night so I'm thinking I'll start rugging them when they move. They'll be back where they are now (in combo rugs) when the worst of the weather hits.

byhookorbycrook

my small fat cob is wooly,so had to be clipped two weeks back. He has a trace clip now and his winter rug on.Last year, we got him a bib for under his rug to stop it rubbing,as even though it's an excellent fit, it rubs a bit when he grazes. woreked a treat, would suggest them to everyone who rugs their horse.

eorna

Not at all! it was 17 degrees today!:) But then i never clip mine. As a rule I don't rug up until it gets below zero. Horses are much tougher than we think.It drives me mad to see poor horses out sweating in rugs on a mild autumn or spring day. Native breeds don't really need a rug at all -although I'd feel bad if they were out without one in the really tough weather.Shelter from the wind is even more important in my opinion. Which is overlooked by many. Plant a good thick hedge people - an a native one at that!;)

Yeager101

It's still pretty warm out there. Would leave it until the temp drops another 4 degrees or so u less you have clipped the horse

sh1tstirrer

I kept my thoroughbred mare out all last winter without any rug. She did have the run of 20 acres with plenty grass and was never clipped so she had her natural winter coat. When I bought her the year before she was in poor condition so I put a rug on her during the winter.

silverfox88

My mare is full clipped and still toasty in her lightweight with a summer sheet underneath it. she goes out during the day and is in at night though. not going to put her into her winter jammies until she really needs it!!

jeawan

Mine are all Fat and hairy and not rugged up at the moment will probably do it this weekend as we are getting allot of ground frost now where i live

chamaid

Looking for a water proof rug with a long neck on it. any rough ideas of cost and where to buy if thats allowed here.

Chicken Run

my native ponies are fat & hairy too - they'll get a rain sheet on when it turns really cold & wet as they're both prone to rain-scald...

I've also bought a mediumweight for each of them in case we get the really low temperatures as they live out all year round and are kept on a quite small bit of field under a field-shelter at night so can't move around to keep warm as much as I'd like (OK and It'm a bit soft with 'em too)

emer_b

Slightly off-topic but didn't want to start a new thread for this question.
I have some grazing land that I use for ponies from April to October. However, I'm going to put one small pony on the land over the winter. Is the pony likely to damage the land during the winter when there is no growth i.e. flatten the surface, muck it up and inhibit growth in the spring?

fits

Depends on whether the land is well drained or not. Also the area the pony will be on. (ponies shouldnt really be on their own anyway). My horses live out over the winter on well drained land.

eorna

Hi Emer b,
It also really depends on the size of the field. And do you only have one field? The ideal situation is to over winter in one field and rest other field from Oct/Nov to spring.If you have one large field and only one small pony on it it should be ok for regrowth. But if you have only 1 small field say under 2 acres it going to be pretty slow to regrow. But what should be done in that case is take the pony off the field in the spring give it about 5 or 6 weeks to recover then you'll have a nice bit of late spring grazing. Fields need to rested and grazing rotated. Even if you only have a small amount of land it's always better to divide it up into at least 3.