Winter rug advice please

[oftenlurkingrarelyposting]

New to ownership and googling is not answering my questions, so looking for help please. Pony is clipped and stabled... Will a mid weight quilted stable rug be sufficient? From what I can research the other option is a fleece underneath when very cold or a heavy weight rug? Should it be a full rug covering neck or should I buy them as 2 parts? Thank you!

You'll probly get a different reply from everyone who answers!
What breed is ponio? Is he/she a fatty or a thinny? Fully clipped or blanket/trace/bib.
Personally I hate fleeces underneath as they tend to slip back, round, under etc. I'd prefer to have a couple of weights, one for now and one for when its really cold. Don't like neck covers but lots of people do. I'd buy a detatchable neck cos you can adjust how warm they are then.

Thank you snow - he has a school clip and is a chunky fellow, an irish sports horse. I've inherited loads of rugs with him but all odd shapes, weight and condition. Off back to look at options!

well it depends on the pony, what sort of clip they have if any and how much they feel the cold and also the weather. you can layer,I will go to a maximum of three layers, and that keeps my boy happy. otherwise he will pull down his spare rugs and wee on them :( I also think they get colder in stables as they can't move about much to keep warm.

I would suggest a medium weight and a heavyweight stable rug. one thing I have also started to do over the past few years is to keep on a wet turnout rug overnight and if necessary adding another rug underneath for warmth. it is the quickest way to dry a turnout rug, it's all done by morning.

Ah, what's a school clip? Not heard of that before, where do the lines go? I have an Irish Draught mare so probly bit chunkier than your boy. I tend to go along lines of medium weight under 10degrees and up it to a heavyweight at about 3/4 degrees.
To be honest they get used to what you put on them so trick is to be consistent. Lots of people rug heavily but horses don't feel cold like us, they are a big barrel on sticks. As long as they're eating, they produce heat from the engine, they don't have so many muscles in their legs/feet like ours to get cold. I can see the argument for neck covers cos thats a big muscle area to lose heat from but some of them just look uncomfortable to me.
Some horses lose condition quickly if they get cold but sounds like your boy probly isn't that type.
You can check if he's warm enough by feeling the base of his ears and front of nose.
Hope that helps a bit!

Snow.. A trace clip I believe. Good point on consistency, he's on full livery so we only rug him up Max two to three nights, otherwise he's looked after by the yard. Maybe then a heavy and mid weight rug may well be the answer.

What do they put on him when you are not there? I'd be inclined to just go with that if its what he is used to, or are they asking you what you want on him? Sorry, not sure how it works with full livery.

Aero they put on what ever is on the rack, he's well looked after by them but they layer and pick and mix... I'm looking to lose the pile of rugs and exchange with just a couple. If nothing else but to help my dd who is only 8 trying to decide how/what to rug up. I really hadn't realised there wasn't a right or wrong answer to this!!!

It really depends on a) how cold it is/how exposed his stable is and b) how cold he gets as an individual. This is something you're going to have to monitor over the Winter - usually much colder if it starts freezing or there is snow on the ground - when you may need to put two rugs on him.

I'd probably put just one medium weight rug on him if you've given him a trace clip and keep an eye on his condition. I wouldn't be putting a neck cover on him in the stable at this point.

We tend to leave their Turn-out rugs on when they come in and we've only got medium weights on ours at the moment. We only switch to stable rugs if they are staying in during the day (ie for the farrier or when hunting round by us etc).

Thank you all.