Are you over-rugging?
Many owners are guilty of over-rugging their horse, usually without realising they’re doing it. This is where the lines of natural living become blurred. A healthy and unclipped horse can regulate his body temperature much more easily than humans can. When the air temperature is anywhere between 5°C and 25°C, he can control his temperature by opening and closing blood vessels in the skin to retain or lose heat. However, if your horse is clipped, elderly or ill, then he may need a rug to help keep him warm. “When the temperature falls below 5°C, he’ll start to implement his normal systems to generate heat and reduce heat loss,” says Lauren. This includes digestion of forage, fluffing up his coat and trapping air close to his body for insulation (known as piloerection), and shivering. “If you can provide suitable areas for your horse to shelter from the wind and rain, he should be able to cope with lower temperatures when he’s fit and well — especially if forage uptake is increased so that digestion produces a larger amount of heat.”
Fighting the heat
It’s not just when it gets cold that your horse may struggle. It can also happen at the other end of the scale with your horse getting too warm, but this is regularly overlooked. “I often hear people say their horse is all cosy tucked up in his stable, but when pushed out of his thermoneutral zone, he has to find ways to lose heat,” says Lauren. “This is all the more difficult when he’s wearing a rug, which stops heat evaporating.” In order to lower his body temperature, your horse’s breathing and pulse rate will increase to help evaporate warm air from the lungs. He will also begin to sweat. When overheated, a horse can easily become dehydrated and these things together cause stress to the body. If this happens regularly, it leaves him prone to illness. Your horse’s natural thermoregulatory body mechanisms enable him to cope with fluctuations in temperature — from sweating to cool down to fluffing up the coat to trap in warmth. “Your horse will find this much easier to do if he’s not over-rugged and has access to shelter if he chooses,” says Lauren.