By Patty Wilber
Shedding in the spring is a long and hairy trip! Mojo started dropping his coat in early March and the others a bit later.
Winter coat growth (which really starts to show on my horses about mid September just in time for the State Fair Show) is stimulated by decreased day length (photoperiod if you want science speak) and declining temperature. Spring shedding is induced by increasing photoperiod and increasing temperature.
Blanketing a horse, keeping it in a heated barn, and keeping it under lights for no less than 16 hours per day fools the endocrine system into thinking it might be summer. The result is a shiny sleek coat even in the gloom of winter. Of course in New Mexico we have 300 days of sunshine so we don’t actually have a lot of gloom, but we do have cold.
We can also grow some hairy horses!
LT started wearing a blanket in January and Stetson in March, but no stalls, no lights and no heated barns.
Shedding diary.
March 2, 2015.
Mojo, the Norwegian Fjord, develops a very thick coat.
Norway: cold. A wimpy-coated Fjord would be a horse-cicle in the dead (dead. get it?) of a Norwegian winter.
NM, not Norway. Mojo is losing his coat despite the less than balmy conditions. Windy! Cold! Hair blowing away!
Plush!
March 4, 2015.
That’s pretty hairy.
March 17th, 2015.
Hair not coming out in pillows today. I guess he decided to save some for later. There is a lot left.
Penny, on the other hand has decided to let it go. She grows a dense winter coat, but nothing like Mojo’s.
LT has been wearing that blanket (increased temperature) since January but she has not been under lights. The blanket alone is working reasonably well. Her coat is much shorter than the others. (But in comparison to the hot barn, fully blanketed, under lights crowd she still looks pretty hairy)
March 24th, 2015
Mojo’s shed rate has not picked up again!
March 25th, 2015
Flat or not, LT’s light colored winter coat hair has decided to begin the evacuation procedure.
Someone needs to sweep.
March 27th, 2015
-
- Penny is shedding like crazy and the spring winds are helping clean up.
Penny’s cinch is now natural hair.
March 29, 2015
Penny’s haircicle.
Indy’s into it! Can’t wait to see her when her baby coat is gone!
March 30th, 2015
Whole lotta shedding going on!
March 31, 2015
LT’s gold-colored summer coat is peeking though!
The hair at the throat latch sometimes hangs on.
April 6, 2015
Throatlatch hair till there but a lot less. already.
-
- Penny and Indy after about five seconds of brushing. AHHH! They will never finish!
April 12 & 13, 2015
I do not photograph LT’s glitter well, but she is nearly done shedding.
Lily was at Palo Duro with us, so I took a picture. Those dark spots are her summer coat growing in under her winter duds. She is a dark palomino in the summer.
Mojo STILL has a lot of hair to lose but his darker summer Fjord coat is showing up on his nose!!
A lot blew off his Fjord Butt before I took the picture! His coat does look flatter than it did in early March.
That hair pile is only from Penny’s hind end. Hair dump is not slowing down. I’d almost be up for body clipping just to avoid all this!
April 30, 2015
LT is pretty much looking like her summer self! Surfboard (blaze in back ground) still has his mid section to go. Penny, top center, hasn’t been brushed in a week. I am scared to see what that looks like. Stetson has been wearing that blanket since early March and he is FINALLY starting to shed. He has always been a late shedder, anyway.
So, hairs to you! I think the unblanketed (and Stetson) might actually be done by mid May. We’ll have until mid September to enjoy their glossy summer selves!
Fascinating. I like the cartoon! Out of curiosity, have you (or do you know anyone who has) ever tried to either spin yarn out of the shed hair, or made felt out of it?
I don’t know of anyone who has done that, but it sounds familiar that horse hair can be used to make felt. On a related note, I read yesterday that horse hair is called “hair” not “a coat” because horse hide was typically not used to make coats…
OK, I like that origin of term! My grandmother had a sofa that was stuffed with horsehair.