Rugging Horses In Summer

You want to protect your horse from insects and prevent sun bleaching but you also want to ensure your equine friend is cool and comfortable.

Rugging horses in summer.

In some areas in particular biting insects can cause a real problem for our equine friends as such this is a common reason to rug a horse during the warmer months. Lack of vitamin d is now recognised as one of the major causes of disease in humans and it can become a major problem for horses always covered in rugs. Fully rugged horses with neck rugs often have thin manes with mane hairs falling out due to a fungal infection caused by lack of sunlight. In part 1 we discussed the reasons why many owners choose to rug their horses during the summer months.

It is thought that the natural change in weight of a horse pony in winter and summer allows for a resetting of hormone levels. Very few rugs are required in the summer months your rug of choice would most likely be a fly sheet which due to its colour acts as a heat defensive system retracting the suns rays keeping your horse cooler for longer. When horses have a good gallop hoon around and buck and kick which is what happy healthy horses should do how hot must they feel in their. Many people rug horses in summer in order to prevent their coat from fading in the sun.

Even lightweight summer rugs can prevent your horse from cooling themselves effectively. To protect from insects. They utilise fat reserves built up during the summer to maintain their body heat during the winter. Rugging in summer is difficult.

When a rug is used air cannot pass over their body to evaporate the sweat and cool their body. Some really thick rugs may well approach a tog rating of 15 which would only likely be needed by sick newborn foals or very thin old horses in extremely cold weather. Alternatively even in the evening you may wish for a summer sheet just to keep the horses coat clean. So if we consider that a summer duvet has a tog rating of 4 5 then this would already be increasing the insulation of the horse by a factor of 2 3 times.

The type of rug required for insect protection depends on the horse and the offenders. Bathing a horse in inclement winter weather in cold water is not ideal and is an important consideration in a basic guide to rugging horses. For most horses rugging in summer is simply unnecessary. Some really thick rugs may well approach a tog rating of 15 which would only likely be needed by sick newborn foals or very thin old horses in extremely cold weather.

So if we consider that a summer duvet has a tog rating of 4 5 then this would already be increasing the insulation of the horse by a factor of 2 3 times. If horses have access to shade they will utilise it in the heat of the day. If this is an issue for you confine your horse to shade through the day in hot weather with access to hay and turn them out at night. Horses love to be free and unrestricted to play roll or run.