is it bad to leave wet rugs on horses?
If in a turnout rug and has just been bought in from the field and is not soaked through, then you can leave it on for a little while. If rug is soaked through and the horse is wet, you need to lay the rug flat on the floor and put a fleece cooler on the horse to dry it off, Once dry, layer rugs (another fleece or a summer sheet, a thin stable rug and then a thicker one, depending on whether the horse is clipped and the horse's coat)
yes. 1st reason: it gives them rain scald, a fungi condition created by humidity under the rug( which is caused by damp or sweat. 2nd reason: they will get very cold and get the chills, if you have no replacement rug there better of without. what i sometimes do is bring them in the stable and take their wet rugs of and hang them up to dry, then go back in a couple of hours and put the dry rug back on. But i wouldn't do that if it was too cold, but they enjoy having some time without a rug on. hope i helped a little and i don't think its a stupid question at all.
If the rug is soaked through change it but if its not it won't do any harm and alot of people prefer to leave a wet rug on to dry off. It's a personal choice and like everything else you get people on both sides of the fence. Just do what you think is best for your horse. You can buy rugs that are for stable/turnout in one rug so they are meant to stay on the horse 24 hours long as you take off and put back on at least once a day. And what about horses living out in rugs? their rugs get wet and they stand in them till they dry.
Of course you should change rugs when they are wet. They get chilled otherwise. If the rug is waterproof and the inside is warm and dry then it is okay to leave them, but it is better to have two rugs so that you can have one on the horse and the other drying.
If the inside of the rug is warm and dry you can leave it on. Its supposed to get wet on the outside when its raining, like how our waterproofs get wet on the outside but are bone-dry on the inside. However if it is at all wet on the inside I'd change immediately. I know of two horses who died of pneumonia last winter because the owners didn't change the rugs when they got soaked through and so they got incredibly cold.
