??? I have never in my life seen "sickness, colds, or
illnesses" related to wet thick coats. My own horses (nearly 50 of
'em) are out 24/7 in all weather, and do sometimes get wet from the
weather--and in over 30 years, I've never had any sickness related to
soaked horses. Nor have I ever in 2 decades of veterinary practice
seen a horse sick from sweating and getting its winter coat wet. Nor
have I ever heard any other vets mention illness from same. ....Are all
five of yours ridden and/or driven daily? That's the only scenario in
which I can even imagine clipping and blanketing being "labor-saving," and
even then, it's about a toss-up. .... ???
I do ride or drive or foxhunt
mine on a consistent basis every week. Mine are not pasture potatoes
by any stretch .
I've found over the past 30 years that clipped horses
and ponies stay comfortably warm when rugged up, are more comfortable
when worked, can be bathed quicker and more efficiently, stay MUCH cleaner,
and dry in a flash compared to being unclipped. Clipping is a HUGE
saving on labor -- I can spend an hour trying to clean a dirty
unclipped horse, and never get it completely clean enough because the
dirt filters down into the coat and just doesn't come out. A clipped horse
can be finished with a few swipes of the brush. It makes a very big
difference when one has more than one to do a day. I can also vary
their blankets, based upon the weather, to give them a consistent level of
warmth -- something that can't be done with a natural winter coat.
I
also like "fussing" with them. It's relaxing to me, they like
the attention, and I get a few minutes of quality time with each one.
Wearing rugs teaches them to stand quietly while I take blankets off/put
them on, walk around and check leg straps and correct any twisting of the
blankets. It often only takes a second or two, but I find they become very
quiet, very relaxed with the regular attention. As I said, clipping and
rugging is a wonderful education, especially for the
youngsters.
Regarding sickness -- I've seen it first hand resulting
from horses left out in the wind and cold rain without shelter. A friend of
mine had her horse at a big stable on pasture board. A very nasty freezing
nor'easter blew through, and she got worried and brought her horse in,
hoping to find an empty stall. Poor creature was shivering and shaking,
teeth practically rattling, to beat the band, his winter fur was soaked to
the skin. She begged for a stall, but the answer was No. I stood with
her and the horse in the indoor arena waiting for the storm to abate.
She then turned the horse out when the storm was over, figuring it would be
OK. It wasn't -- it got sick 3-4 days later. She said several
of the other horses were sick too -- runny eyes and noses, lethargic
looking, etc. Vet was out to attend hers, and others. He told
her to put a waterproof rug on it and keep it on throughout the
winter. She did, and had no more problems after that. I've also seen
horses in heavy winter fur get the chills from being sweaty after a hard
workout when it was cold. For that same reason no self
respecting hunt horse would be ridden with a natural winter coat -- they
are all clipped and rugged.
There was a court case many years back
regarding a jumper horse that had been left out in the elements and got
sick and died -- it was a jumper that had been abandoned when the owner
just stopped paying board. Horse was turned out in a field with shelter,
had a natural coat but had always been stalled. Don't remember all the
details, but ...a few months later it turned cold and rainy and snowy and
the horse got sick from the rain/wind/cold. The stable personnel realized
the horse was having problems and attempted damage control by rugging it up
but the animal was too sick and subsequently died. Owner suddenly reappears
and takes stable manager and owners to court. Claimed huge damages for
death of horse. I think the stable owners and manager won, but
it was interesting, and made me realize not all horses are suited to being
left out 24/7. Believe I read it in Practical
Horseman.
