Cob owners - general advice needed on living out

[tryingtocookacurry]

Hi all, I help look after a cob who lives out. Whenever it gets to this time of year, I always wonder what I should or should not be doing for his general health. Lots of people on the yard all have their own opinions with regards to him living out and this has made me worry that he is cold, lonely, hungry etc. All the others are brought in every night! It is so difficult to ride at the moment as well as it is so wet. What is/are your daily/weekly jobs for yours?

it is more natural and healthier for him to live out, whatever people say, sorry but many horse owners these days do not have basic knowledge of horse care and pamper their ponies as though they were human.
is he a welsh cob? unclipped? if so he does not need a rug. although to maintain condition if he is working you might want to give him a belly and strip clip and put an outdoor rug on him at night.
if he has good 24 hour forage then he will not be hungry as he is not really working at the moment from what you say.
Is he in a herd with other horses? if so he will not be lonely. if 'all the other horses are being brought in' who is he with at night? if he is alone, the other people on the yard may have a point as horses are v social animals and need company.
as it is v muddy now we give our pony's legs lots of attention to prevent mud fever; washing/ careful drying/rub with salt water and dry again/purple spray/protective lotion but that is just us and our routine.

Thank you for your response and it's lovely to hear someone tell me that living out is a good thing as this is what his owner tells me. His owner very much likes him to not to be pampered. And this is where the opinions from the yard starts and therefore my confusion.
He is not clipped as his owner doesn't want him to be clipped but as he is sooo hairy at the moment, I am finding it difficult to hack him as he is so sweaty afterwards.
His owner didn't want him to be rugged but to enable me to ride in the winter, I have started to rug him. He is currently in quite a big rug and I was wondering if he might be too hot and to swap it back for a lighter one especially as he is wearing it all day and not just at night as I only go up acouple of times a week and therefore can't keep swapping rugs - but again, this was because a couple of people mentioned that they felt sorry for him.
In the day, he is with a group of other horses but at night he is on his own and always has been. Not sure how to solve this problem!!
He is not fed and just grazes except for when his owner brings him a big bag of carrots.
How often should he be exercised through the winter?

yes the sweating up in an unclipped horse is a problem and might cause them to lose a bit of condition. Still it is not long now before he will start to lose his winter coat. As for exercise, to prevent too much sweating up, perhaps go for long long slow rides, it is not really fair to ask him to do fast work if he is unclipped.
Personally I think a light rug would do, those cobs are so hardy, they evolved to live on the mountain after all!
Being left alone at night is not ideal but if he does not seem distressed by it then fine, he does have company during the day at least.
be careful of other people saying they 'feel sorry for him' they might be a bit ignorant and next thing they will be on the phone to the RSPCA!
does he have good 24 hour forage, eg haylage etc.?

No Haylage, just grass! Should he be on extra? He puts on weight very very quickly so very rarely give any extra. Hope we're doing the right thing.
My only hack is up a steep hill which is too much for him at the moment so I have been just schooling him in the outdoor school for about 25 minutes. Nothing much really and he is not sweaty afterwards.
The young girl who I share with takes him out on the road for a quiet hack 2 days a week also. I am too scared to go out there as it's a very busy road so my only option is the hill which I have stopped doing.
I think I will swap his rug back today as you have suggested. It's such a learning curve and I always feel out of my depth!
Thank you so much for your advice.

if his condition is OK, and he has kept weight on through the winter with just grass, then he is a 'good doer' and will be fine. some of them seem to live on fresh air! is his coat reasonably shiny and what shape is his bum when you stand behind him? google 'condition score horse' and some really good diagrams come up.
are there no other hacks apart from along the main road? what a shame...
do not worry winter will be over soon!
you are v welcome for advice, i only learnt stuff by sharing with other people !

I will look at that now - but without looking, I can tell you that he has a massive bum and is most definitely a good doer!

Great charts! He is probably a 4 at the moment. He has always been a 5 but with me getting involved a couple of years ago and trying to keep him exercised then he is usually around 4. We got him down to about 3 in the summer as he had to go into a smaller field and even then people at the yard were saying how skinny he looked! Sigh!

Hello, I have had a cob for 17 years, in that time she has lived both in and out. I personally don't believe there is ever a need for a cob to be stabled (though mine did love it-easier for her to beg passers by for treats!), mind has a very lightweight rug on in this weather, more as a wind break than anything else, it also keeps her cleaner!

Could you move to a field where others live out? That would be the only thing that concerned me as horses are sociable animals. Can he see / hear the others from where he is? Other than company at night, I'd switch to a lightweight rain sheet and maybe give hay when weather is particularly bad.

The best thing I ever did was invest in a field shelter, takes away all the rug / don't rug / 2am hail storm worries!

Hi, I am going to do exactly what you said and speak to the farmer and see who else is out as I think there maybe some further up the top that maybe are left out overnight.
A field shelter would be fantastic but they cost loads and loads of money don't they? and we also have to swap fields all the time and therefore he wouldnt be able to use it.

Ah, yes mine was £1500 I think, but definitely worth it, maybe you can sweet talk farmer?! Sounds like a good plan re field moving.

hmm many fields have a natural shelter/windbreak though.

had a cob as a teenager, a long long time ago.
outside all year round, no shoes, not clipped.
after working when sweaty I let him roll and them put him in the shelter (a carport with 3 sides boarded up) with some oats until he was dry.
I only fed extra hay in winter when I was working, getting him in at lunchtime so he could dry before putting the saddle on. never used rugs (he would pull themdown and piss on them).

My cob has never been in a stable in his life and keeps very well living out. He does have a shelter which he loves but even in this awful weather he would rather be at the top of the field in the gales eating the grass than in the shelter with his hay. If you can't keep changing rugs I would opt for the lighter one. They can move around to keep warm but can't cool themselves down if too hot.

You will all be very pleased to know that I have changed his rug :) He is now in the lightweight one.
I asked the farmer if I could move him but he said not to bother. The 2 fields next two him both have horses in overnight and he said he most certainly is not distressed. I feel much better now!

Another question for you all - who do you insure your horse withand what for? He currently has no insurance and I don't think the owner wants to bother but to ride him on the road I would at least like to insure him for 3rd party so that if any accident happened then we are covered.

You could join the BHS, then you will be covered for third party.

Be careful with BHS - I used to have their Gold membership and thought I was insured for riding my share horse, then someone on here pointed out that BHS doesn't cover you if you pay money for your share.

I now insure via Petplan - it is a policy specifically for people who ride but do not own or permanently loan a horse. It covers me for injury, 3rd party insurance and there is also some cover in case the horse is injured in my care.

Sometimes a lightweight sheet is COLDER than no rug- you are flattening his coat and stopping it from trapping an insulating later.

As for what rug/should he be clipped/what should I feed him/is he fat etc no one on here can tell you that. You need to speak to his owner (not the yard busy bodies) and do what they suggest.

You can check temp under the "armpits" or see if they are tucked up.
Clipping wise- if they are in work I like to clip them so they don't get sweaty, or take ages to dry which leads to them getting cold.
Feed wise- you want constant forage- grass/hay/haylege. More than likely won't need mix or oats.

My TB is fully clipped, hunting 3 times a fortnight + hacking and living out full time - he is well rugged up and has a hood, plus two hard feeds a day. That's it though - he's got a big field, a haynet in the stable (which he doesn't touch) is out by choice in all weathers and is a much happier horse for it.

It may be worth looking at a small clip down his throat and neck to between his front legs, just to alleviate some of the sweating. It won't make any difference rug wise and may help you keep his weight down - I had my pony bib clipped and was about to put a rug on when the clipping lady said "no, he's too fat, let him shiver it off"! He was much younger and fitter then and it did him no harm at all.

Thank you everyone. I will definitely have a word with the owner about getting him clipped next winter.

Mine all live out with bib clips, rugs and hay 3x daily. I only rug as it gives me a fair chance of riding if the weather is ok and I can be arsed Always feels like such a slog at this time of year. On clay soil as well which doesn't help.

Frostyfingers makes good points. I would either want a horse to be left unrugged and hairy, or if they were rugged I would give them a bit of a clip, anywhere from a bib clip to a full clip depending on the amount of work they are doing, how sweaty they get when worked, and what rugs they have. My horse (who I describe as a cob - more on this in a minute!) is fully clipped and wearing a medium weight rug atm.

Which brings me to my next point - just checking that you are talking about a welsh cob or gypsy cob? They are a different beast altogether to a hogged cob (which is what mine is.) Welsh cobs are designed for living out on an exposed mountain in all weathers. They are adapted to eating a sparse diet and getting the most from it, and are often what people refer to as 'good doers.' Gypsy cobs are similar. Hogged cobs vary in quality, but are supposed to be more of a short, stout hunter - Grandpa's Hunter is what they used to called them. They are usually kept clipped and hogged, and could need more feed through they winter.

I sympathise with you on the wet weather/riding, btw. I was supposed to hunt today but it was cancelled because of the rain and wet ground. It stopped raining for a bit this afternoon, but I couldn't get excited about going out. It is just muddy slop everywhere here atm.

Our pony lives out 24/7, though he's in a herd who live out. He's been in a rainsheet the last week just as he rolls and with all this rain he was vile. He'd only get a fill rug if the temperature is consistently below zero

He does really well on it, and is very happy. I'd never consider bringing in a cob who kept condition on tbh

I owned a show cob (15.1, hogged, by Irish Draught out of Welsh mare) and he was shown in the Summer and hunted hard in the Winter. He did come in at night in the Winter and was well fed - plenty of coarse mix and barley rings to keep his condition plus hay but he went out in the daytime 365 days. He always wore a medium weight New Zealand in his field as he was quite a hot horse and didn't need a heavyweight. This enabled us to keep him clean and dry for riding - nearly every day.
He got lean whilst hunting but I stopped in early January and then we packed the weight back on for the show season starting in late March.

Backinthebox - I think he is a Gypsy Cob!
Singing - this is why I encouraged a rug in the first place as he was so so wet last year that I struggled to ride him
Pixel - I have now joined the BHS