How to Fit Your Horse Rug
Fitting your horse rug perfectly is vital to keep your horse comfortable, protected and performing at their best. A poorly fitted rug can cause discomfort and rubbing so it is important to fit your WeatherBeeta rug correctly:
- First, lay your WeatherBeeta rug over your horse’s back. If your horse has never worn a rug before you may need someone to help hold him while you make adjustments.
- Buckle the chest straps. It is essential that a rug should fit well on the withers and shoulders so that your horse can move freely underneath the fabric without the rug slipping back. Adjust the buckles and ensure you can still slide your hand down the neck of the rug.
- Once you have ascertained that the rug fits well around the neck, slide the rug into position along your horse’s back so that the coat lies flat. If the seam between the tail flap and the rug sit below the top of the tail, the rug may be too big.
- When fitting a rug with cross surcingles care should be taken to ensure that the straps of the surcingle cross in the centre of the horse’s belly – well forward of the horse’s stifle. Again, there should be a hand’s breadth between the straps and the horse’s body.
- Lastly, with rugs that feature leg straps, take the left leg strap, pass between the hind legs and fasten it on the left hand side.
- Take the right leg strap, pass it between the hind legs and through the loop made by the left strap and fasten to the right hand side.
- The leg straps are linked to prevent rubbing and act with each other to pull the rug into place. If you fit the rug well it will displace very little through movement and rolling. If the leg straps are too loose, the rug will slip.
- Adjust the leg straps equally until there is room for the width of one hand (4-5”) between the leg straps and the horse’s thigh. This is to allow freedom of movement.