Don’t you just love knowing your horse is cosy and warm, protected from the elements?
Rugs are a great way to conserve a horse’s heat and maintain bodyweight through winter, particularly those equines that are ‘lighter’, older and those in poorer health.
In some climes, (such as the Southern Hemisphere, with high ultraviolet radiation) rugs are useful in reflecting the sun off dark coats, having a cooling effect and reducing coat fading.
No matter where you are in the world – horses’ optimal body temperature remains 38 ° C (or to be more precise, a range of 37.5 – 38.5 ° C, which is 99.5 – 101.4 ° F).
Dr Lond D Lewis, author of Feeding and Care of the Horse says that horses can cope well in temperatures down to near – 18 ° C (0 ° F), providing it is not windy and rainy as these produce more rapid lowering effects. However with shelter horses may be comfortable to as low as -40 ° C. Isn’t that food for thought?!
Has it ever occured to you that you may be over-rugging your horse? The fact is that horses’ experience of environmental conditions is different than our own – and they have many bio-physical and behavioural ways to regulate their temperature.
So… how can you tell your horse’s body temperature? No – you don’t pop it under your horse’s tongue, you put it into his rectum!
It is easy to see why it pays to have a thermometer in your horse’s first-aid kit reserved for just this job.
No related posts.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve just seen a young lady wearing a thin top and shorts rug her horse on a warm English summer day. It will, I was told, keep him clean and keep the flies off. (The fields are dry and we have few problems with flies.) It is all rather strange. In winter, these horses will wear two or three rugs.
Meanwhile my horse, a part-bred Belgian is never rugged. When I lived in continental Europe, he lived out with a good shelter available in temperatures from -30C to +30C. So did my other horses, including mountain ponies, Lipizzaners and an Arabian. They all maintained weight and stayed in good condition and healthy. Now he has a comparatively easy life.
I must admit that the thing really bugging me in Britain nowadays is the chronically poor shoeing. Half the horses at the barn seem to have collapsed heels and long toes.
Hi White Horse Pilgrim! Thanks for your input. That is an interesting observation regarding scantily dressed lady and the over-rugging her horse. Perhaps she should wear more and the horse less?!
The farrier/shoeing issue is an interesting one too. Where I live we struggle to get good farriers (and they are quite booked up). Some people are ‘barefoot’ trimming their own horses, which in some cases (and depends on what horse does ‘for a living’) can be a good option – but again – like you find in the UK, some problems abound with the issues you mention of collapsed heels and over-long toes.
I encourage people to read a book called ‘No Foot, No Horse’ – written by a master farrier and a veterinarian, I think it was (sorry, can’t check as book is loaned out at present). It is easy for people to be swept up in the latest fad, rather than objectively checking out the science, and learning for themselves what makes sense from an anatomical and biomechanical point of view.
I will add to this thread, with more details when I get a chance. ; )
The young lady was wearing about the right amount to do barn chores on a hot day! As for the horse, well…..
I’ve changed over to barefoot. It started with frustration with the standards of shoeing, however examination of barefoot principles convinced me that it is the right way for many horses. I have employed an experienced trimmer (here in Britain barefoot trimming and shoeing are separate trades as the latter is regulated by law) and results so far are excellent. The trimmer has the combination of practical experience and intellectual understanding necessary to provide a very high quality of hoof care. The key is that the owner / rider must do what is right for the horse (allowing time for transition, picking terrain thoughtfully, setting up a suitable hoof care regime) rather than simply using the horse as a key to fulfilling personal ambitions.
The problems with pathological feet here seem to stem from farriers rushing their work and viewing their trade purely as a lucrative craft skill. The legal system where one qualification gained around age 20 and never needing to be updated, taught by people who learned years ago, stiffles progress too. Considering what farriers here earn, standards are shocking. In my job, for the same effective hourly rate, I could hire a top class engineer capable of designing a complex structure such as a $100m bridge or an architect who could design a $25m building. At the barn, I would most likely get a cocky young fellow who can’t (or won’t) trim a horse to recover from collapsed heels.
Wow, that is thought-provoking. A good farrier is certainly like gold, but that comment says is it all!