Nicola
Grand Prix Poster
Olympia tickets for ?10 for NSPCC see charity section
Posts: 2,473
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Post by Nicola on Dec 27, 2005 23:02:14 GMT 1
Hellp
Trying to get some idea of people management so am putting up lots of polls.
Thanks for voting ;D
Nicola
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Post by jor on Dec 27, 2005 23:16:56 GMT 1
cant really vote. Mine are about half and half rugged/unrugged. The ones who need it are rugged, the ones who dont arent... I do try to leave rugs off wherever possible, for example this year I have a riding pony mare who is spending her first year out 24/7 and her first year without rugs. She is doing very very well but was in very good condition when she came. My ponies who are clipped are rugged, my old girl is rugged as is the older broodmare and my leased broodmares and yearling are rugged. (yearling being produced for showring early 06) oh and the older tb broodmare is also rugged but she is up sharing moorland with cows and two weanlings!
I prefer to give mine ad-lib haylage and fibre based feeds (with balancer) for inner warmth but am not anti-rugging in the slightest. I ADORE rugs but I dont like to rug those who dont 'need' it.
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varkie
Grand Prix Poster
Grand Prix Poster
Posts: 4,913
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Post by varkie on Dec 27, 2005 23:19:34 GMT 1
A sometimes here. On the whole my horses live out 24/7 unrugged. However they all have rugs, which sit, waiting the need for use. I tend to find that the horses can cope with cold or wet or wind - the problem comes when you get all of them at once! When its wet, windy & cold is when I've noticed they tend to need rugging.
Sometimes it is enough to give them some hay, or to bring them in for a couple of hours to have a break from the elements & a feed, but sometimes they need the rug. If I can protect them from one element - say the wet - with the rug, then they can cope with the wind & the cold.
This tends to be the worst time of year I find - snow. It's not the snow itself which is the problem, its if we get rain & wind to follow it.
Some years I don't need the rugs at all - last year we didn't - but other years we do. Though I tend to find that the horses are only wearing the rugs for a couple of days a year!
Then of course poor little Peni pony has to wear her Boett all spring/summer/autumn until the midgies die, due to her sweet itch.
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Post by Yann on Dec 27, 2005 23:46:48 GMT 1
Both clipped and rugged here.
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Post by julz on Dec 27, 2005 23:49:10 GMT 1
my horse is rugged, he was clipped, but that has now grown in and not getting clipped again til he's back in regular work. However he lives quite high up, on the side of the Hills, and there's no real shelter, I dare say he probably is a bit spoilt in having a heavy weight turnout, but he's happy and not over warm.
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Post by honey on Dec 28, 2005 0:05:07 GMT 1
well depends. most horses are rugged, arab stallion is out and got 2 rugs on hes a wimp and hates the cold. our brood mare is in and unrugged, two half arab youngsters are out 24/7 and are rugged, and our tb yearling is out 24/7 and unrugged and is looking fantastic.
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Post by mandal on Dec 28, 2005 0:18:42 GMT 1
All mine out not clipped or rugged
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Post by smudge on Dec 28, 2005 0:33:31 GMT 1
3 rugged on 10 acres of natural ground with natural shelter - all in work, all good doers but need a bit extra. All rugged in medium weights so as not to drop too much weight. 2 x ID x TB's and one Arab.
2 unrugged on 4 acres with a field shelter. One is an 8 year old welsh sec D and the other a 29 year old arab - both maintaining weight and looking fab! Would rug if I felt necessary. Free access to good quality hay 24 x 7.
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sobagirl
Grand Prix Poster
Kicking Ass!!! BPBC Member 0
Posts: 1,273
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Post by sobagirl on Dec 28, 2005 0:40:08 GMT 1
I'm the same as varkie. My two are not rugged unless it's bitterly cold, blowing a storm and with torrential rain. A lot of people don't realise that horses can drop weight through being too hot through over rugging. It takes just as much of their energy to keep cool as it does to keep warm! I pity the horses/ponies who are rugged on a warmish winters day!
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Post by jen1 on Dec 28, 2005 1:43:53 GMT 1
2 of 6 of mine are rugged,1 is fully clipped,and 1 is a tb racer who is hard to keep wieght on,
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woolly
Intermediate Poster
Posts: 188
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Post by woolly on Dec 28, 2005 2:43:35 GMT 1
Of two:
one rugged in winter, not rugged in summer;
one (photosensitive pinto) rugged most of the year round.
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Post by Val (Toons&co) on Dec 28, 2005 9:11:52 GMT 1
I try to only rug in extreme conditions (temperatures below 0, windy and/or rainy/snowy). However, I find I'm getting softy with age as I've rugged them more readily this year than last. When it's dry and above 0 the rugs come off. None of mine are clipped in winter.
What I've noticed with mine is that they do cope even with cold rain in their (rather thin for Toons) winter coat but the problem is in April when they start going out 24/7. They don't seem to cope with the coldish rain on their summer coat. Toons gets all shivery and since he refuses to put rugs on his summer coat, he has to be turned in to dry (cooler is ok).
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big e
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Posts: 2,055
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Post by big e on Dec 28, 2005 9:38:31 GMT 1
:Di rug 4 out of 7, the 3 unrugged are 2 shetlands and a shetland cross weanling. I have rugged the weanling but by the morning its in a heap on the floor. I also have bought rugs for the Shetlands but their not wearing them yet but could be from today as we have 2 inches of snow.
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Post by jenniwren on Dec 28, 2005 9:53:48 GMT 1
Have on Welsh Cob and a Part Bred Arab. Have rugged inside and out, but this winter I have a field of my own and we built a nice concrete based shelter on it. We put rubber flooring in and have gates to keep them apart in the middle and across the openings if I need to keep one in. The idea is that they decide when they want to be in our out. They have a big bale haylage for ad lib feeding which I'm planning to continue to the end of March, then dropping back to hay nets. I have not rugged so far. The Welsh is prone to laminitis so leaving her unrugged wll make her bady work at keeping warm rather than laying fat on. The PBA needs extra weight for work and keeping warm and she is fed additional feed. I still have my rugs just in case, but if I start putting them on its difficult to leave them off!
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monet
Grand Prix Poster
Posts: 1,423
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Post by monet on Dec 28, 2005 10:22:47 GMT 1
hi Nicola,
i have 29 horses and ponys and tinker has 5 ponys living at my yard, at present only 7 have had rugs on where its needed, for the last few weeks no ones had a rug on due to it being dry and bright but cold.
my oldest whos is well in to her 40s has not been rugged for two years, shes plump and has a nice thick coat and never seems to need a rug on!
i think things have changed with us because we now live on site and it helps having huge barns to bring them into to dry off, before we lived a few miles away and i had to rug regardless.
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