How much do you rug up

[mags]

With a really thin horse. Jack has hardly any fat to keep him warm bless him, even though he's got a heavyweight with neck cover turnout im wondering if I should put a lightweight rug underneath.

Not something I usually do but worried about him been cold when he is so thin

[jennyb]

I rug according to how warm the horse is. If the base of Jack's ears feels cold, I would rug more. If not, leave as he is! I also check armpits and between the back legs, if they are warm too I leave well alone.

[mags]

I put it on this morn anyway, stop me worrying. Dont hold much hope in the touch test. It depends purely on if your hands are cold or not.... and my hands were like ice this morn.

Its like when you get into bed with someone and they are like ice but they think they are all toasty and vice versa lol

[domane]

I have a skinny, undermuscled 13yo ex-racer and I have tried rugging him up well but he sweats like a pig. At the moment he wears a cheapie MW turnout with neck cover. At night he is stabled in a thin stable rug with no neck. When we had that last bout of cold weather I relented and put a fleece under the stable rug (still no neck cover) and in the morning he was wet again.

I bought a MW Rhinegold turnout and it is MUCH thicker than the cheapie! Have tried him in that in the field and.... you've guessed it!!

I reckon he's just grown a really thick coat and only needs a little extra help......

[greyhorses]

I've never put more than one rug on either of my two but the shetties at the yard have two on and the TB has 3!!!

My friend who had a TB couldn't put more than one rug on him as he wouldn't be able to move so he stood still and shivered!

Might be worth asking the rug manufacturers if adding a rug affects the design of it.

[mags]

The bit that worried me was the fact the second his rug is off he starts shivering, if there warm they dont normally do that.

[hdonna]

I have just bought a 14 hh pony who has a blanket type clip, and has been living in at night all rugged up. She is living out now with a rug that covers neck and seems happy. I am at present just monitoring her as we have only had her since xmas eve

[Louise]

I would say that it really does depend on the make of rug as some are warmer than others - I think it can be quite deceiving sometimes as because it is thick and heavy we think it is warm, but actually these newer designs feel really lightweight but are much better at regulating body temperature and are lovely and warm. Also as Nina says it must be really uncomfortable to have too many heavy rugs on, particularly for a skinny horse. When Tootsie first came to us extremely underweight and really quite poorly (it was about this time of year with similar weather) we had a heavyweight Weatherbeeta Orican (I think) with a fully attached neck (rather than one that is detachable as it lets so much cold in when they put their heads down) and we basically kept that on her all the time and didn't change it so it kept toastie and warm. When we then started swapping rugs about a bit as the temperature started to vary we just put a lightweight fleece underneath and kept that on her all the time and just swapped whatever we needed to on top. She did also have 5 feeds a day and ad lib hay at the time, so that would have helped keep her warm as well of course, but she was poorly and extremely underweight so it is probably a little different! I am a firm believer in ad lib hay, not only for their digestive system, but also to keep them warm - makes a huge difference.

Tootsie was up to a decent weight by April (we got her January) and she still had awful teeth and couldn't eat well, a high worm burden and abscesses coming out of everywhere, so I firmly believe it was a lot to do with keeping her warm that helped her gain weight, as there were still so many things that weren't working properly! She is nice and healthy now though and as long as I keep her warm she seems to maintain her weight pretty well these days.

From what I have read about Jack though I doubt it helps that he is such a worrier, but hopefully by next winter he will be more chilled out and better prepared for the winter and it shouldn't be so hard to keep the weight on.

[jennyb]

Well, I normally have warm gloves on at the yard so touch test works well for me!

[mags]

I tried to find my gloves...not an easy task at 4am lol

[peppertop]

Hi Mags, One of the horses I got last year was poor when we got him, you could put as many rugs on as you wanted and he was never hot. He had 3 rugs on overnight at one point! This year he is out at night and only has one rug on. I definately feel that his system was all over from being poor and didn't help to keep him warm. I'm guessing you've already got him on high fibre feed. I used to feed mine buckets of sugarbeet and alfalfa pellets soaked to a mash as he wasn't the best eater either and because it was soaked he ate more( takes less chewing!) If yours is in the field with others its more difficult, but I used to give my pony a skip ful of this stuff and she would keep coming back and picking at it. I also really like the Copra meal stuff as again its easy to eat but seems to really help get weight on.

[mags]

Hi Ruth. Well I tried to go with the high fibre and was feeding him sugar beet with conditioning cubes but he wont eat the sugar beet atm so is just on conditioning cube 3 times a day. Im hoping that will all change though cos he eats ok to a point then wont eat more so im hoping its just him getting full quick atm. Hope so or he will have to go to 4 a day.

Know what you mean about sugar beet,, I used to do the with alfie when he was thin and he could just keep picking at it.

Thought about the copra but I find some a bit picky about it and with him not been keen on sugar beet...

[mags]

ETA I think its about time we had some pics of your guys on here Ruth... they always sound interesting stories

[peppertop]

Try the soaked alfalfa pellets Mags, most love those.
I wouldn't have a clue on how to post pictures, I am a slight techno phobe!!

[mags]

No excuses Ruth, use photobucket it dead easy honest and is self explanatory

Will Give the alfalfa pellets a try next