Neck Sweats

[Taylor Richelle]

Ok mini people I need your help..sorry if I sound completely ignorant about this....Ok I want to sweat my stallions neck this coming spring, but this is my first time ever using a neck sweat.

 

Is there a certain brand I should buy? How long do I keep it on? A certain size depending on the mini? Should i clip his neck before putting it on? Please if you guys could give me as much info as possible that would be great! Thank you!! I am just so confused on what to buy and how to use it correctly!

Here is my boy, he is getting a bit of a crest on his neck...I know some of it is his winter coat but not all of it!! (Taken 2 weeks ago)

and this is him back in May...Still had a decent neck

 

[targetsmom]

Since no one else has responded I will at least get things going, but I am by no means an expert! I think there is some trial and error involved. Sweats will work better on a clipped neck but I use some on my mare with a cresty neck (Princess) most of the year. I use multiple sweats: first a throatlatch sweat (2" or 3"??) then I use a neck WRAP which I think is 6 inches wide. Then another wrap over and behind that one that is (I am guessing here) 8". The length of the minis neck will affect the sizes you pick. I have better luck with several smaller wraps/sweats rather than one larger one, but of course it takes more time to wrap and is bulkier. These sweats/wraps are all lined with fleece so they can be left on all the time, but you do need to remove them every so often for the skin to air out.

There is also a knack to putting them on and it really helps if you can watch someone else do it and see how tight they should be. When I started out I was on my own and Princess had just had a neck injury that caused major nerve damage - no movement in her left ear, nostril, or eye for over a month. Needless to say I was quite concerned about putting pressure in the area of the injury, so was not applying the wraps tight enough. They need to be quite tight, but you still need to be able to get your flat hand underneath them.

If your boy is getting a cresty neck you might want to also consider a supplement such as Remission, and maybe even have him tested for insulin resistance. The big issue with cresty necks is that they can indicate metabolic issues (e.g. insulin resistance)which if ignored can lead to founder.

In addition to all the neck sweats, Princess is also on a low carb diet and gets Remission daily.

Good luck!!

 

[SampleMM]

Stars Miniatures are selling sweats and they are really nice. I saw them in person at the World Show in Texas. They are high quality and not too badly priced. They also have a video that you can access from their site that explains how to use them. I believe their site is www.starsminiatures.com Good Luck.

 

[maestoso]

My favorite sweats are the mini express ones. I usually get the 10 inch ones but where your guy is smaller you may like the 6 or 8 inch ones better. I leave mine on about 23 hours out of the day. They really only come off while they are working or if I am doing work around the barn to give them a break and let the sweats air out. I would definitely clip the neck before sweating. When sweat gets caught in long hair fungus can grow, it's pretty gross. Be careful to keep the clipped area conditioned with rose oil or some kind of coat conditioner. Clipping in the winter creates pretty dry skin so you want to be proactive about that.

Some people will only neck wrap at night, and while that is better than nothing, it is not nearly as effective as keeping the wrap on all the time. The biggest mistake people make is in the first week or so they feel bad for their horse because it is rubbing and itching a lot. This is normal. Imagine yourself never having worn a turtle neck or watching or earing and all of a sudden you had one on all the time. Until you got used to it you'd likely be fussing with it. This doesn't mean it's hurting you, just means its something new and different. Same with the horses. They will get used to it and stop itching and fussing.

The individual horse should dictate when you start wrapping. A horse with a fairly clean neck can get away with staying unwrapped until the end of February ish. But I'd start wrapping a cresty stallion in January. It takes a couple months of consistent wrapping to see any major results, so you want to start early enough.

Another big mistake is not wrapping tight enough. This is not only ineffective but dangerous. If the wrap is loose it can easily catch on things, which can cause any number of problems. But you don't want to wrap too tightly either. If you can snugly fit 3 fingers, laying flat between the wrap and neck, that's about right. If you've never done it before it will probably feel like to you that you are wrapping too tightly.

Hope this helps . . .

Oh, and during the snow and mud season I'd recommend using an old cruddy neck wrap, because they will roll and get it all nasty.

 

[Becky]

I agree with Matt. I really like the Mini Express sweats and neck wraps. I use both on each horse. Generally a 3" neck sweat goes on first, then an 8 - 10" neck wrap goes on over that. My show horses wear them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week coming off long enough to dry out each day.

 

[JMS Miniatures]

Stars Miniatures are selling sweats and they are really nice. I saw them in person at the World Show in Texas. They are high quality and not too badly priced. They also have a video that you can access from their site that explains how to use them. I believe their site is www.starsminiatures.com Good Luck.

I got their wraps and neoprene sweat to use right before Nationals. I was desperate to find a sweat for my guy as nothing was working. So I only used it for just a couple of weeks and I saw a big improvement. Highly recommend their neck sweat.

I would only use the sweat when their neck can be clipped, otherwise it just doesn't work under that thick hair.

 

[Farina]

Can anyone explain me how this works? I am thinking of using a neck sweat too but I don't understand how it works...

 

[maestoso]

A horse, just like a human, can build up "water weight." The neck wrap basically draws the water weight out of the neck, creating a cleaner, tighter look. You can tell when it's working . . . when you take of the wrap the neoprene part will literally be wet with the sweat that has been drawn out.

 

[PrestigeMiniHorses]

This post has helped me a ton.

I really appreciate you all posting this. I have watched alot of people wrap and never got the concept of it. Now I think I understand it. And thank goodness I was doing it right. However I need to clip necks it looks like.