Hi. Modern rugs are much improved, meaning horses don't have the layers of yesteryear when they wore a cotton sheet, a blanket, a Newmarket rug, a jute rug & a roller - & that was in the stable! If the horse is nervous use plastic on a cane to get him more confident. Build up to loads of plastic. Then put small things over the back - saddle cloth for instance. When you bring a rug to him, fold it in half, front to back. That gives you less than 4ft in width to manhandle. It's easy to flop it over his withers, even it up & then fold it open down his back. Work incrementally, flopping the rug over him & lifting it away. Stay calm & he will very soon be calm too. He's frightened himself getting tangled in leg & belly straps. My old boy could remove a rug without any straps being undone & with no damage - I still don't know how he did it. Horses are amazing. Cheers, Jo.

Hi, in my experiences horses get rid of rugs often for a very good reason i.e. they don't want to wear it! Does he really need one? It depends on many things and I wonder whether you could let us know what part of the world you are in and what type of horse he is. As you say "bad weather is coming" I'm guessing you are in a colder climate...

Hi there

My fella had a 'thing' about rugs and we worked out it was the 'approach' that upset him more than the rug itself. Not sure about your little man but that might be worth considering? Anyway, the way we solved it was to fold the rug up really really small. In a safe space that your horse is comfortable in, show him the folded rug - let him sniff it, maybe even let him test it with his mouth. Then, holding the rug walk away with your boy and with the rug in front of you so your fella thinks he's 'chasing/sending it away'.

After that, get the folded rug and use it to scratch your horse on his neck or somewhere in that area that he likes so he associates the rug as something good. Depending on how he is reacting - you could leave the session there and repeat that process another day. That's what we did. End on a positive note where your horse has had a good experience with the rug.

Then after he's happy with the folded rug being used to scratch him near his neck area etc you could then progress further along him. You may get a different reaction there and have to make smaller steps. When you're using the rug to scratch/groom his body if he tries to walk away from it, try to keep the rug on him and THE MOMENT he stops take the rug away. Keep doing that each time he moves away. Timing here is really important.

Once you've done that, then you can unfold the rug one quarter and repeat the process until finally getting the rug on your horse. When you get to that point, put the rug on him and then TAKE IT OFF and keep it off. Then go back and do this another couple of days until finally you put the rug on and it stays on.

It may sound like a whole load of hassle but doing this incrementally with our pony who had a big issue over a couple of days totally solved the problem.

As I said above ours seemed to have an issue with being approached with the rug and he got scared about it and yours is maybe a bit different but I hope the method I used for mine will help you with yours. I think if they believe the rug comes on and stays on from the beginning they don't like it but if you use advance and retreat and don't overload with too much pressure at each session they start to view the rug in a different way.

I hope this helps - let us know how it goes? Lizzie

Hi- what news on the rug situation?! Lizzie