Cool Heat Horse Rug

About/Advantages
•The Cool Heat Rug is not only a winter turnout rug; it offers many other unique advantages.
•The Cool Heat lifts the blanket / rug 12mm or half an inch up off the horses body which allows the hair follicles to function as nature intended benefiting the long term health of the horse.
•Your horse can effectively regulate its own body temperature preventing overheating and chills caused by fluctuating weather conditions. Can be used during and after competition allowing your horse to safely cool down.
•After competition or hard training session your horse can be washed down, rugged and turned out because your horses hair can effectively lift any moisture up off the skin with its natural wicking action which helps prevent chills and skin conditions.
•Allows air to circulate over the entire body. This leads to healthier skin and a reduction in rubbing and hair loss due to itching resulting in a higher level of comfort for your horse.
•No more hassles of the time consuming practice of putting on and taking off multiple rugs. If you are caught with a rug on your horse when the day unexpectedly warms up, your horse is allowed to sweat freely under the Cool Heat, aiding the cooling process.
•You can effectively rug a wet, muddy horse because the mud will dry and dissipate under the rug without chilling your horse
•your horse will have a healthy clean coat so will be less likely to want to rip its rug off saving you a lot of expense repairing rugs. Piloerection is an important function in the process of thermal regulation. It is the horse's ability to speed up heat loss from the body or increase heat retention using their hair follicles. Each individual hair follicle has a small muscle fibre attached to its base called the "arrector pili" and to dermal tissue on the other end. When the horse feels its body cooling in colder weather the arrector pili contract all at once and the hair follicles stand erect. As the heat is dissipating from the body it has to flow through these upright hair follicles which dramatically slows down heat loss and it also helps retain the body heat against the skin, assisting to keep the animal warm. On the other hand when the horse exercises or the day starts to warm up the "arrector pili" muscles relax and the hair follicles lie down allowing the horses body heat to quickly dissipate. This action allows the inner core body heat to quickly escape the body aiding the cooling process. The problem with traditional rugging is that the hair follicles are constantly flattened. When the horse starts to feel cold it cannot raise its hair follicles to slow down its body heat loss. The body heat goes straight out through the blanket so the horse owner then goes the next step and double rugs which is OK while the horse is standing still. This results in many problems when the horse starts to exercise. As we know with any muscles they have to be continually active or otherwise atrophy occurs (muscle wastage). If a human breaks their leg and is put in a plaster cast for six weeks, when the plaster is removed, the leg muscles have wasted away and intensive physiotherapy is required to restore these muscles to their original healthy condition. It is exactly the same situation for the "arrector pili" muscles which are continually flattened with long term rugging. Eventually the horse loses its natural ability to keep warm by raising and lowering its hair follicles. The horse then depends on constant rugging to keep warm in the cooler months. This atrophy to the arrector pili muscles also affects the horse's ability to protect itself in the rain. It can no longer wick moisture up off its skin by raising and lowering its hair follicles. The horse also loses its ability to lift sweat and condensation up off its skin, leading to overheating and skin conditions in the warmer weather.