Has anybody got a "thin skinned" pony?

[seeker]

My dd's pony has incredibly sensitive skin - the merest hint of a badly fitting rug and she's got sore spots, her bridle has rubbed her now she's not got her winter coat any more and if she's not tacked up really carefully she gets rubs round her girth. Has anybody got any tips to help? She is a working livery, so we can't always supervise her being tacked up.

She's got a rubbed spot on her quarters at the moment and the only explanation is that she rolled and something on the ground rubbed her - sounds bizarre, but that's all we can think of.

I've heard you can harden the skin around girth area etc with surgical spirit. Might be worth looking into? (here for instance)

You could also try using a stretch vest under rugs to stop rub marks. We've been using the ones from Robinsons for years now (look for underrugs on their site, we have the cheapest ones, they are blue) and they have been really good, no rubs at all.

Are you sure the mark on her quarters is a rub? Sometimes when horses bite each other they don't break the skin but sort of graze it and take some of the hair off, especially if one is trying to get away at the time.

Rugs, we have found you have to watch the brand. Many brands who generally specialise in large horse rugs don't get a good fit as they don't scale down properly. We use rhino 'wugs' as the cross front fastening seems to stop rubs, amigo are ok although quite deep, and landa full neck from weatherbeeta. Go for full or high neck, normal neck bands drag and rub more. The high neck wug and the full neck landa seem to float around the pony without any pressure points. And definately use a shoulder saver.
Tack, you can get sheepskin (real or mock) tubes for head pieces, nosebands, cheek pieces and girths, which will really help, also, you could try soft, webbing tack. Libby's is really good and very reasonably priced. (look on eBay) Either way, you can save your stiffer leather tack just for shows. Stiff leather tack can be made softer with neatsfoot oil.
Bald bits, cornucrescine, (get it from tack shops) promotes hair growth, and a friend who is a stud groom swears by coconut oil, (she gets hers from pharmacies, it's fairly thick)
we used to have a pony like this, she was a pain, but looked lovely turned out for a show.

We did a very daft thing - she came with rugs but they were very old and tatty so w, in a fit of extravagant madness, we binned them and bought her new. I suspect the fact that the rugs were tatty means that they were the only ones her previous owners had found that didn't rub her!

I thought that about the patch on her quarters, Pixel, but the stable people insist that nobody bit her. The ponies in the field get on very well, there's not usually any hassle.

How big is the patch? If she is new or fairly woosy, biting could be an option. Or intense mutual grooming might have caused it.

It's a couple of inches across. Just hairless - not raw or painful at all. Hadn't thought of the mutual grooming thing - she does have a "best friend" but he's much smaller than her so I fon't think he could have done it.

Is probably from grooming by somebody in the field. A summer sheet or fly rug would help this, but probably rub elsewhere! Swings and roundabouts! Definitely put cornucrescine on It to promote regrowth.

Thank you!

Oh I love the smell of Cornucrescine! When we got our first pony he had so many bites in the field that when we put the cornucrescine on he looked like an appaloosa! It's good stuff though.

is she chestnut?, my chestnut TB is incredibly thin skinned. i'm convinced (tho' wouldn't tell many folk in nreal life in case they think i'm bonkers !!) that she is allergic tyo her own sweat - we have had occurances where her whole chin has been totally bald and sore, and i've had to have special permission to do dressage noseband less as too sore to put on one. I wash her head, very carefully every time after i ride, ditto girth area. I'm meticulous about washing boots, girth, numnahs really often - in sensitive skin fragrance free eczema washing powder.
We get rubbed spots on the quarters too, she looses 0.005 kg over the winter and gets a rubbed patch ........
not a lot of use am i, except group hugs kind of way

No, she's a very pale grey, but she's an Arab, so she'd not got much fat on her, and I think that's part of the problem. TBs are the same, aren't they - lose a bit of weight and there's bones sticking out everywhere!