The Rug Myth About ten days ago we had a few days of nasty wind and rain, and it was cold too, down to 4 or 5 degrees Celsius at night. Then the wind changed direction and the rain stopped, but the wind was truly glacial, and it started to go down below -5 at night. None of the horses were bothered by the rain, and they didnt shelter much, and when it went cold immediately after they were fine then too. Even those horses who have only just gone rug free this winter took it all in their stride. When it rained their coats were waterproof and they probably ate a bit more hay to keep them warm. Some of them plastered up with a bit of mud for added protection. Then they dried out from the wind, had a good blast round and they were furry teddies again. There was never any stress or upset because they are comfortable and happy in their own bodies, its a feeling you get around them. I was thinking about the contrast between that, and what happened one year when we were still putting rugs on. It was a stress all the time for us, because we had to get the rugs on if there was a hint of rain, and off again if the sun came out. We couldnt leave them cooking in their rugs, which happens quite often because people cant be there to take them off. It also happens much more easily than you might think if theres a bit of sun, however cold it is. This day it was actually 19 degrees Celsius, way too warm for rugs.. but there was a possibility of rain. We decided to risk leaving them off, and of course it rained and then the temperature dropped to 4 overnight. Guess what happened? they all got ill :/ Well most of them, it was a nasty cough with chilled kidneys. I can imagine at the time we were kicking ourselves that we hadnt put the rugs on, yet we didnt realize it was the damn rugs that had caused the problem in the first place! They have no better effect than derailing completely the horses own thermoregulation capacities, and rendering them susceptible to every change in weather and drop in temperature. As well as making them uncomfortable, both inside and out, because they are not comfortable for horses to wear, and the horse cant adapt their temperature freely to their surroundings. When you look at it you can see that it has been an evolution similar to horse nutrition. A marketing scam. There is a lot of money to be made out of peoples concern (fear) for their horses, and there are plenty of people willing to exploit that by selling this, that and the other kind of rug. There is even a ridiculous rug now which is supposed to allow the horses hairs to stand upright still! They pretend it is for benevolent reasons of course, like pharmaceutical companies with vaccinations and worming pastes which are as toxic for the horse as they are for the worms, but it is big money, thats all. Horse breeders and dealers who have been working with horses for years know perfectly well that horses dont need rugs, and anyone else who has avoided the dependency trap. It is true that once they have lost their own protections, horses need patience and the right support to get them back on track. They do come back though, and much faster than you might imagine! Of course the question of convenience is a whole other story, but if people are prepared to sacrifice their horses health to that extent, then that is how it is. It is a choice, but it does have consequences in many other ways. We dont want to judge peoples choices, we just want to support and enlighten if the potential is there for that, and we will always be infinitely grateful to all those genuine experts who set us on the right track when we needed it :)
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 22:36:59 +0000
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