Horse Rug Heating Facts

by Dave MacDonald

When you put your hand under a rug on a horse standing still it should NEVER feel toasty warm. This is a misconception.

It should feel more on the coolish side.

The temperature you are used to feeling under the blanket is too hot for a healthy horse.

Why? Because a horse’s body temperature is supposed to be maintained at 38 deg which they can do effectively un-covered but can’t with rugs on.

With a traditional rug, the only way this temperature can be maintained is if he stands still all day and this is not healthy for a number of reasons one of which good digestion depends on movement.

If your horse is standing still and feels toasty warm then as soon as he starts to move he overheats.

Muscle movement creates inner core body heat. So when a horse starts to feel cold he starts to move then, as a result, he warms up.

As an example, let’s look at ourselves. If the outside temperature is freezing we put on a jumper and coat to go outside.

We feel nice and toasty warm. But as soon as we walk a short distance up the paddock our muscle movement creates inner core body heat so we start to feel uncomfortable so we have to take our coat off.

This is exactly the same scenario with our horses but unfortunately, they cannot take their coat off. So they have to suffer in the paddock because we are doing what we think is right, not what our horse wants.

People who repair rugs are only in business because of two things. One is barbed wire fences and the main one is rubbing horses that are constantly uncomfortable because of what we put on them.

The Cool Heat blanket is not a scientific creation. All it does is shield the horse from the direct wind chill and rain while underneath the horse creates its own comfortable temperature through piloerection and that is not a toasty warm feel.

With a Cool Heat blanket on, your horse will be as warm as he should be and the benefits are many. For instance horses with Cool Heats on do not get colds.

Why? Because chilled sweat against the skin causes colds and with the Cool Heat’s unique rubber ‘fingers’ keeping the blanket off the body, sweat is never trapped against the skin to chill the horse, as under the horse the hair movement (piloerection) lifts the sweat up off the skin and dries it off but with traditional blankets, the sweat is trapped against the skin and this is what chills the horse when the outside temperature goes up and down.