To rug or not to rug?
As the temperature starts to drop and we’re all digging out our thicker coats, many of us will face the dilemma of whether to start rugging our horses. But did you know that horses have a much wider thermoneutral zone than us? This means that they really don’t feel the cold in the same way that we do – the ambient temperature range in which a healthy adult horse can easily maintain their body temperature is between 5 and 25 degrees Celsius. When the temperature drops below 5 degrees Celsius horses can warm themselves up in a variety of ways, including by increasing their metabolic rate, seeking shelter, reducing the blood flow to the limbs (to reduce heat loss) and if it gets very cold they will shiver.
In fact, horses and ponies already have waterproof coats and their own central heating systems - digesting fibre generates heat and this helps to keep them warm from the inside out so the majority can cope very well in cold weather if natural or man-made shelter is provided from the rain and wind.
As ever, all horses are individuals but if allowed to acclimatise to the changing weather many horses will happily winter out without a rug – many of our horses and ponies comfortably live out unrugged throughout the winter, no Bother mine are rugged like ha ha x
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