When To Start Rugging Your Horse

How to understand your horse s body temperature h h plus.

When to start rugging your horse. They have a field shelter and some drystone walls but exposed to the north. Rainsheet to 50g max no neck covers. The cost of the additional horse gear to keep him warm will be less than your extra feed bill over a season. So here is a handy chart to guide you when rugging your horse this winter.

In the wild horses would gain weight through the spring and summer and use that weight to keep themselves warm over the winter as they gradually lose the weight. The horse has a core inside body temperature of around 37 38 o c and horses are very efficient at maintaining this when the environmental ambient. Many believe laminitis is just a seasonal grass related issue however over rugging can increase your horses chance of developing the disease in spring. Rugging can also be a good choice economically since horses will eat more to get the energy that they need to maintain a healthy body temperature during the winter.

It s important that you know how a horse keeps warm naturally. This is especially important for horses that have white skin over areas such as the nostrils and therefore get sunburned easily. If you want to keep a short show coat you would start rugging lightly in february and increase the layers as the weather cools into. In some instances it can result in colic and increasing chances of laminitis.

If this is an issue for you confine your horse to shade through the day in hot weather with access to hay and turn them out at night. When deciding whether to rug your horse it is important to remember that every horse is different. If horses have access to shade they will utilise it in the heat of the day. For most horses unless clipped and living out 24 7 rugs should not be considered before temperatures overnight begin dipping towards 5 10 c ideally start with lighter rugs and move to thicker rugs as it gets colder after a month of cold weather your horse may be able to swap back to a thinner rug once its acclimatised.

Rugging your horse can lead to big saving in your feed bill. Start mucking out get hot then go round stripping rugs off all the horses as though. Many owners feel their horse s skin to see if it is warm but this is not accurate and can lead to over rugging which can have negative effects on the horse s health. Mine are natives with bib clips and live out at 1000 feet.

When to start rugging and how many layers. Keeping horses warm in winter is critical. They only get the chance to get rugged if its windy wet and cold. Every groom needs a basic guide to rugging horses.

Don t tie them up to rug if they sidle up to you when the rug appears put it on. If they walk off twice don t put it on.