What are the minimum rugs your horse can survive on ?

Question

I'm Getting a horse and he will live out 24/7,

But he will be worked 6/7 days a week and showed/xc/sj so i think he should have a trace clip.

What rugs would he need as a bare miniumum i was thinking:

Turnout Rug ( Maybe two Lighweight and Heavier ) - Do you need both or can 1 do ?

Cooler/Travel Rug

Thanks Please Help

Answer 1

HE DOESNT NEED ANY IF YOU DONT WANT TO USE ANY. FOR MY SHOW HORSES WHEN IT IS REALLY COLD LIKE 25d F OR LOWER WE  HAVE A LIGHT AND HEAVY AND SOMETIME A MED. ON ALSO. IF IT IS WARMER WE HAVE JUST A MED AND A SHEET. AND EVEN WARMER JUST A SHEET.

IF THEY R COLD UNDER THE RUGS THEN PUT MORE ON IF THEY R HOT TAKE SOME OFF. USE YOUR HEAD.

HOPE I HELPED.

R HORSES R IN A BRAN SO THEY R NOT AS COLD 4FOT ABOUT THAT SO THAT IS A FACTOR.

Answer 2

this depends on the weather, type of horse and if it keeps weight on well.

two lightweight turnouts on at the same time are very pointless and top one is more likely to slip.

my newforest had a blanket clip and had a middle wieght turnout- he is a very good doer and doesnt really get cold.

x*x  

Answer 3

Where do you live?

I live in Wyoming, where it can get to -20 below.  Some of the mules are clipped to 1/2" fur for showing purposes.  

I use a heavyweight blanket on them but anything above 35degrees F, and it comes off.  

Answer 4

If your horse gets a thick winter coat, he may just need a heavier turn-out for the extreme weather of winter...if you wanted to get him a light weight one for the more mild days, that may be a good idea as well...but make sure that if you are going to blanket him, you start doing it when it gets cold outside, dont wait or he will get a thick winter coat...couple with a heavy winter turnout, he could over-heat or get uncomfortable in this blanket...I would say 1 lightweight & one warmer blanket will do fine, but remember he does need a shelter with 3 sides on it...you may want to put a 1/2 wall on the 4th side, so he has protection from every direction...you could also put a sliding door on the 4th side that will slide across the remaining 1/2 of the shelter, so if he does need to be completely inside for a wicked storm, its possible.  

Good Luck!  

Answer 5

It really depends on where you live and how cold it gets.  I find that people always seem to think that the weather in their area is too extreme for their horses to do without rugs.  When I had horses that were worked all winter I did a trace clip early in the year and put a light blanket on when they went out but only if it was below zero or windy.  Since you're calling them rugs I suspect that you might be in Great Britain where the real problem is not cold but wet and wind.  In that case you could probably do with two lightweight rugs using both of them if the weather is very cold.  Keeping them dry and out of the wind is the real key.  And you'll always need a cooler if you're working a horse in cold or wet weather.

Answer 6

Everyone finds their own style of rugging their horse!

Personally I have (for one horse turned out 24hs):

1 lightweight turnout standard neck

1 medium-weight turnout high neck

1 heavy-weight turnout with neck rug

1 duvet (for under a lighter weight rug just in-case*)

1 medium-weight stable rug (not used v often!)

1 fleece rug (wicks the sweat away/keeps them cool/or warm- great invention!)

(* I tend to avoid layering as modern rugs are designed to go straight on the horse and help prevent them overheating)

As an absolute minimum I would recommend 1 fleece rug and a medium (200g) high neck turnout (high neck stops the rain running down their chest)

Hope this helps!

Answer 7

I would go with a layering system. Make sure you use a waterproof hood too to make sure that rain will be kept completely out.

My horse gets a full clip for the winter, he doesn't live out 24/7-but he does get 7-10 hours of turnout daily. We use a full body slicker/sleazy(including the neck) as the base layer to prevent rubs, then we use a fitted cooler with a hood and belly strap, a heavy weight stable blanket, and then a medium weight turnout. In fall we ditch the stable blanket, and depending on the temperature the cooler. We have a heavyweight turnout on hand for the very cold days.

I imagine that since your horse will only have a trace clip, you won't have to blanket that heavily-but I would definitely use the 3-layer system(cooler, stable blanket, turnout)

Edit;

Midnight_Ashes, horses can certainly be worked 7x weekly. You need to go about it in special ways though. A. Keep the horse from getting bored. B. Allow adequate time for muscle recovery after a hard workout and C. Have 1-2 "chill out" days atleast weekly-where you either get on bareback and just get them moving a bit, hand walk, lunge, and then spend the majority of the time grooming.

I try to spend 7 days at the stable in the winter, 2 of those days are spent jumping, 3 are spent schooling the flat and dressage, but often times we'll go and work on bridlepaths around the stable and walk, trot, canter working on straightness, relaxation and suppleness on the trail-horses enjoy it alot. Than 1 of those days are simply just spent hacking, walk trot and canter, we work on really suppling and stretching the back, loosening up. The last day is spent bareback or handwalked with the rest of my time focused on grooming. We emphasize warming up and cooling down especially in the winter, and arrange our hard workouts accordingly to allow for muscle recovery.

Tip to the OP, I order alot of wool blankets(I love the big plaid ones) off of ebay for 10 bucks each, after my ride I use a scrim sheet under a big wool blanket to cool out and it works very well for preventing a chill. Also, we order the blankets from Scheinders, they have great selections, good service, and really good pricing.

For a clipped horse, I would make sure he's getting LOTS of hay, and I'd imagine he needs quite a bit of fat on that schedule. I feed alfalfa cubes in the winter in addition to his hay. Make sure he's getting all his nutritional needs met, it's really very important, especially in your situation, to really watch him closely-when we clip we take away their protection, so we need to give them that back.

Answer 8

Okay, horses need a day off and SHOULD NOT be worked 7 days a week, it's not fair. From the sounds of what you want to do, your horse really should be stabled. Competing is hard work, your horse will sweat up and have nowhere to cool down. Only giving him a trace clip is opening him up to a high risk of chill, or worse. For what you want to do, he should be at least blanket clipped. To give you an idea of how many rugs you need, I have 2 horses and 19 rugs (4 of which are show rugs) and I still have to borrow other people's sometimes because of one reason or another - either one has been torn, needs emergency cleaning, has got wet etc. etc. I could do with more! One of my horses wears, in the winter (when blanket clipped):

a cotton summer sheet (underneath, to keep the inside of his heavier rugs clean and free from grease which reduces the need for frequent washing)

A lightweight rug - standard neck (100g)

A mediumweight under rug - full neck (200g)

a medium weight under rug - standard neck (200g)

a heavy weight full neck (400g)

Your horse may be one who feels the cold. The horse discussed above used to weather out in allsorts of weathers in one heavy rug then all of a sudden one winter he just got so cold, and now he really feels the cold and is rugged from August - June.

On the other hand, I have a TB who, even when fully clipped, wears only 1 heavy weight or medium weight rug. Unless its below freezing he doesn't have a neck cover because he gets too hot.

My horses are stabled overnight in winter and live out in summer. They are turned out daily in winter too.