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Post by gail96 on Sept 28, 2016 11:19:41 GMT
What's everyone's opinions on rugging foals?
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Post by brindlerainbow on Sept 28, 2016 13:56:04 GMT
I suppose it depends on the breed and how hardy they are, what area of the country you live in and whether you want to show the foal at the foal shows and keep it in show condition for early shows as a yearling. I rugged both my foals - section B & a RP, the RP has over 50% TB blood so I didn't feel she would thrive as well unrugged as she would rugged as I live on Dartmoor and we get bad weather!! The section B was rugged because we had a particularly cold winter with weeks of snow and ice when she was a foal. Everyone has different opinions on rugging natives ( foals and older ones ), lots say that being native they are designed to live out in all weathers unrugged but I'm feeble and like my ponies to be warm and dry  My section A who was born on the hills/mountains of Wales and lived out there until a 2 year old adored being in and as soon as it rained he would be the first 1 to put himself in his stable  He was always rugged in bad weather but if I put his rug on and he didn't feel he needed it yet he would pull it off before I even had time to do it up!! If it was cold/wet/windy he would happily have it put on |
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sarahp
Happy to help
Posts: 9,510
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Post by sarahp on Sept 28, 2016 14:41:46 GMT
Nothing here gets rugged, including the foals. They do come in at night through the winter, not because I think they need to but so that I can feed them all separately and handle them. With shelter available and plenty of fibre feed (not hard feed), any breed can live out unrugged unless old and/or ill - or of course clipped. Left to themselves they will find the most sheltered place in the field which will of course vary with wind direction. Left alone they have an extremely efficient system of keeping themselves warm, the hairs stand up to trap more insulating air when it gets colder and by rugging you can actually make the animal colder as the rug prevents this mechanism from working by keeping the hair flat. When it rains most of the water will run off leaving the skin dry and warm, although I appreciate they don't like the rain.
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Post by oldschooler on Sept 28, 2016 16:28:58 GMT
Nothing here gets rugged, including the foals. They do come in at night through the winter, not because I think they need to but so that I can feed them all separately and handle them. With shelter available and plenty of fibre feed (not hard feed), any breed can live out unrugged unless old and/or ill - or of course clipped. Left to themselves they will find the most sheltered place in the field which will of course vary with wind direction. Left alone they have an extremely efficient system of keeping themselves warm, the hairs stand up to trap more insulating air when it gets colder and by rugging you can actually make the animal colder as the rug prevents this mechanism from working by keeping the hair flat. When it rains most of the water will run off leaving the skin dry and warm, although I appreciate they don't like the rain. Totally agree with sarahp's post. We always brought our section C foals in at night for the first winter, fed them and of course handled them. Never rugged any however, and we did some foal shows. But expectations are now higher at foal shows, and a rugged foal will look "neater" than one unrugged. My attitude was that if you started rugging you had to continue, and to be honest i did not want to make work for myself. But mine were section Cs and did very well with the regime we used. I have left an odd foal on a mare over the winter living out, particularly if the foal were late, and all these (both mare and foal) did very well just fed on hay. Never gave hard feed whilst out as there would have been a riot with the other ponies. |
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sarahp
Happy to help
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Post by sarahp on Sept 28, 2016 18:03:22 GMT
As far as I'm concerned nothing gets shown from here any more, they go away, but yes, they were rugged for the sake of their coats, not their well being, when I did.
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Post by comanchediva on Sept 29, 2016 5:14:15 GMT
Last winter we rugged our Dales foal as he didn't put up much coat and we felt he needed it. The Fell foal who did the foal shows was unrugged, he had that much coat it would have been ridiculous to put a rug on him.
As said above it depends on what they are and where you live and therefore your weather. We get some shocking with and rain on the top of our hill so sometimes they need the extra protection. It also depends how soon you want to show them come the New Year.
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Post by lucynlizzysmum on Sept 29, 2016 5:30:31 GMT
I'm interested in this as have just acquired my first foal! She comes in at night partially as Sarah P says - but also for my peace of min too - at least if I know she is in out of the wind and rain I can sleep and also she is then not getting up to anything she shouldn't LOL - she is a traditional so has a lot of foal coat at the moment. If she is anything like Flossy (our other coloured) she will put up a lot of coat - we had to clip her before POYS as she was getting so sweaty when ridden so she is rugged, but I never rugged her as a youngster. She was rising two when we got her.
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My section A who was born on the hills/mountains of Wales and lived out there until a 2 year old adored being in and as soon as it rained he would be the first 1 to put himself in his stable 
He was always rugged in bad weather but if I put his rug on and he didn't feel he needed it yet he would pull it off before I even had time to do it up!! If it was cold/wet/windy he would happily have it put on 
