Taking rugs off the horses during the day and leaving the rugs off the old girls tonight

3 years ago
41

The weather is warmer. I was wearing t-shirt and shorts today, even through it's winter, it's warm in the sun when there's no wind. I decided to keep the rugs off the girls while the temperature isn't dropping so low over night and put a light rug on Arthur. I only rug horses when absolutely necessary. Horses prefer it without rugs, as they can roll in the mud and relieve itchy spots, which they cannot do in a rug. The sunshine and fresh air during the day also helps skin health. This is balanced with maintaining weight on the older horses that have more trouble keeping weight on when it's cold.

It's bad for horse health to be overheated, so it's important to take off winter rugs when the weather is warm. In fact, overheating a horse in a rug can be fatal. So horses that are rugged need daily supervision.

Penny has an oil treatment on her back and rump, which is why it looks wet and I had thoroughly scratched and rubbed it before taking the video, so she has a ruffled gel like look. Bear in mind, Penny is almost 30 years old. She moves well, it's important to keep weight on her.

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