i am doing an equine course and one of the papers is on stabling and the question is asking to quot;explain two reasons why a horse would be rugged if it was spending the night in a stablequot; in the course book it dose not have anything on this and all the books i have read don't explain it ether. lots of help appreciated
If the stable has a lot of draft coming in thru the windows or doors or whatever. Also if the horse is sick. Pretty basic
You rug a horse if it is cold. Show horses need short coats, the warmth of the blanket takes away the nee for a horse to grow long hair to stay warm. Also, some people do it to keep the horse clean, from laying down and from dust. Good Luck!
As an owner of gray horses, I can say that when I have them stabled, they get dirty much faster (overnight) so I would put a light sheet/rug on while stabled in an attempt to keep at least some part of their body clean. Our barn was quite cold in the winter, even with the doors shut and horses in. The horses that were show horses and under lights, needed to be rugged to be warm. The boarded horses had lighter blankets, but still needed to be covered in some manner. some people feel that keeping a horse warmly covered all winter will decrease the amount of hair grown. Studies do not support this, but the number of hours of bright light does indeed inhibit the growth of the winter hair coat.
The primary reason for putting a rug on a horse is to keep them warm over night. If it is winter, a rug is definitely recommended when stalling over night, as movement is restricted and therefor so is the heat being produced. A lot of people will rug a horse over night if they are bathing for a show. A lot of people don't want to bath the day of the show, and so they bath the night before and rug to keep the horse clean if they choose to lay down. Rugs are also used if a horse had a hard workout in the evening, again to keep them warm over night. Once the sweat cools and dries, the horse may get a chill without a rug, although it's not a huge concern unless the horse had a really hard workout and sweat really hard. I tend to use a rug at night if there are a lot of flies in the barn. It keeps them off without having to use gallon after gallon of fly spray. I also use a rug as just an extra layer of padding, so to speak. I give the stall a look over of course and remove sharp or pointy objects, however if a potentially dangerous object has been missed, the rug will provide a little added protection, and it will rip before your horse's skin. Hope this helps a little!
A horse will only need a rug during cold weather if they have been shaved or do not grow an appropriate winter coat. A majority of horses who are not shaved will not require a rug, when outside or inside. Breed of horse should also be taken into consideration, breeds originating from cold climates are even less likely to require a rug than breeds that originate from warmer enviornments. Another reason a horse may need a rug is because they are very young or very old. Winter foals often times will be rugged because they just came from their mother's very warm womb and do not have coats suitable for the winter weather. Very old horses often can have difficulty keeping weight or growing good enough coats for winter as well. Very ill horses may also need to be blanketed, as will extremely skinny horses. After exercise during cold weather if the horse has worked enough to sweat it is advisable to throw a fleece rug over them for a bit to wick off the sweat and dry the skin and coat. This will allow the horse to remain warm, if you were to put them back outside still sweaty it would cause their core body temperature to drop, which is dangerous during winter months.
