Rugless and Natural
Wherever possible, the Exmoor ponies here live naturally, without rugs or clipping. Exmoor ponies have evolved to cope with harsh and challenging weather conditions and are extremely savvy about finding suitable shelter, from both cold and wet conditions, or flies and midges in the summer.
Exmoor ponies grow an incredible double-layered winter coat that somehow manages to keep them mostly warm and dry underneath. Allowing their coats to grow and shed, as nature intended, is an important part of their care and management.
There are times when some ponies appreciate a rug - particularly those that suffer from a degree of skin sensitivity to midges in the summer. When the ponies to live away from the moors, it means that they are no longer able to migrate as necessary to more breezy upland areas in the summer - and therefore have to deal with the midges and flies in lowland paddocks.