Horse Rugs

Advantages and Disadvantages

Combining Horse Rugs with Natural Horse Care may not seem appropriate as horse turnout rugs are not natural, but they may well have a place for some of us.

Contents

A Horses Coat

Very simply without going into great detail, the horse has an amazing far more effective coat for keeping themselves warm than any horse rug. They can keep themselves warm and cool due to the inate properties of their coats.

We have wintered horses young and old and left their coats in tack. They have survived and looked extremely well at the end of the winter season. Regardless of where you live and the outside temperatures, they will survive extremely well (and better) without being rugged or stabled.

This maybe one answer to the many questions there are as to whether you need to rug a horse in the winter or not.

If however your main activity with your horses involves riding them, throughout the winter, you may find the mud and how they look when they come in from the field very challenging. It will depend on what your ground is like and how good the soil drainage is, as to how big a problem this may be for you, or not.

If it too challenging to leave them unrugged and unclipped throughout the winter months, although they will be fine, you may need to find a compromise that works for you both.

If you decide to use horse rugs, or rug and clip them, here are some suggestions about using rugs on your horses.

Rug Styles & Manufacturers

It is easier if you buy from one manufacturer as each manufacturer is likely to have slight differences with their particular templates and sizing of rugs.

So find one manufacturer that you like and stay with them. This will save you time in the future with fitting and ordering different weights and styles of rugs at a later date.

Weights of Rugs

You can buy three main types of turnout rugs:-

• A light weight horse rug which you can use just as it is getting colder. This is like a thin waterproof skin.
• A medium weight rug. The thickness is usually measured in grams and a medium normally is 200g in weight.
• A heavy weight rug for the colder part of the winter months and these usually are around 370g in weight.

You can also buy different styles of horse rugs. Some just cover the horse's body, others come up the neck a bit and others have neck covers that cover the neck and mane.

The neck covers sometimes are detachable. Detachable neck cover is not something we have ever particularly used; but it maybe something that you will want to consider when buying rugs.

So decide what will suit you and your horse best. If you get rugs with the full neck covers, the horse will obviously stay cleaner.

Maintenance of Rugs

When you change the horse rugs it is best to wash and put them away clean.

This would normally mean that the heavy weights only get washed once a year after use in the winter months and light weight and medium weight probably washed twice a year, i.e. after autumn and spring use.

I suggest you name them all, either according to their weight or according to which horse they belong too.

The best way to store them is either on shelving, so they are easy to see, or on rug racks hanging on the wall. Rug racks will take up more space than shelving.

Find a local saddler or rug repair company who can do any repairs for you. Get repairs done, however small, as this will lengthen the life of your rugs. Do repairs before they are put away. If any of the clips have got broken you can normally buy these separately from horse suppliers.

With everything you do in the yard one of the phrases to keep in your head is,:-

"Order Creates Movement."

So the more efficient you are with everyday work, maintenance and care, the more time you will create for yourself and others who you are working with, or for you.

So mending, cleaning labelling, all needs to be done on a regular basis with horse rugs. If you allow piles of maintenance to build up it can then become a mammoth job. Keep this in mind with general day to day repairs and don't let anyone persuade you otherwise.

Washing Rugs

Washing rugs. If you have access to a washing machine this is obviously the easiest. Use only a little non-biological detergent. If they are very muddy it is better to hose them down first. If you have no washing machine find a local rug cleaning company who can help you.

If they need re-proofing you can now buy waterproof reproofers that you add to the washing machine first and then buy waterproof sprays which you spray on the rugs when they have just been washed, or once dried.

The reproofing sprays can sometimes be strong smelling. so use a dust mask, or just wrap a scarf around your nose and mouth when spraying. Then leave the rugs to dry preferably outside.

Fitting of Rugs

If your rugs are well fitted and of good quality and design you should find in general, you won't get any rubbing problems. Check thoroughly the design of the rug. Spend time being fussy and getting the correct size for each horse.

The main measurement that you will need is the measurement from the centre of the horses chest then going across the shoulder to the centre of the tail.

Rubbed Manes from Horse Rugs

If you get rubbing on the horses mane where the binding sits, between the horse rug and the neck cover extension, you can gently stitched some soft slippery lining material over the coarse binding.

This will stop any further rubbing of the mane.

Putting Rugs on Your Horse

Check the clips and how they do up. Always do the front catch up first when putting the rug on and then check it is sitting properly. Then do up the straps up under the horses belly. Check that the straps under the belly are neither too tight or too loose. Check the tail gate is sitting under the horses tail.

Finally check that the rug is not sitting too tight over their shoulders and front legs. They can often slip back. When checking your horse in the field pull the rugs forward if necessary.

Labelling and Storage of Rugs

With shelving and storage of horse rugs, ideally, you want to create one shelf, (or one section of a shelf) per horse. Putting up shelving need not be expensive but may take a little time working out how best to utilize the space you have available.

Ideally you want to be able to see all the rugs at a glance so that whatever rug you are needing you can quickly find it.

Buying the same colour horse rugs (if possible) for the different weights of rugs can save you time if you have a number of horses. So all light weight ones are green, medium weights are blue etc.

Anything that you can do to keep order in your tack room will be a bonus for you.

See Labelling for more ideas to help you with keeping your rugs in order and labelling them.

Natural Balance

To help create a balance if you use horse rugs aim not to rug them in the summer months. The night before a show or an event you could use a very lightweight rug if that would help you keep them clean in preparation for the next day.

Apart from that, keep them unrugged for as long as you can.