Hello,
I was wondering if anyone knew the average coat length for horses in summer and winter. I managed to find that summer coats are on average about 6mm but I’ve had no luck with finding winter coat length and I’m not certain about the summer length.
I’ve got a senior horse that has tested negative for cushings but grows a coat like a yak that doesn’t shed well and with his heaves being aggravated by him being too warm I’ve decided to clip him. I was hoping to clip him to whatever the average horse coat length is so he will match the other horses for blanketing/etc. but can’t seem to find any information; the other’s haven’t grown in their summer coat yet for me to measure, and their winter coats are fairly short because of blanketing (15mm) so I’d like some additional opinions.
If anyone has even a rough idea that would be great:)
Jazz21
Not sure there’s an average. My WB gelding’s Summer coat is barely shorter than my TB mare’s Winter coat :lol: The TBxPerch is in between, and the TB mare’s son (WB stallion, still 85% TB) is between the Perchx and the mare.
In the end it doesn’t really matter. If he’s not shedding fast enough to keep up with rising temps, there’s no harm shedding. As they get older and the immune system stops working as well, coat shedding can take a back seat
You also can’t correlate coat length or density to how warm it keeps a horse. That’s a very personal thing. It also factors in thickness and coarseness of each hair shaft.
You could clip him with the hair, instead of against it, with a 7 blade, on a test spot and see how it looks.
If the other horses have a 15mm coat with blankets, and you’re trying to “match the other horses for blanketing” isn’t that the length you’d be more or less aiming for?
@JB I tried clipping with the hair but it looked hideous lol, it was all jagged and squared off. I think for the summer I’ll stick with the 6mm, I bought a #5 blade so I’m hoping it will work out:)
Fair point about the other horses coats lol, I didn’t even think of that :lol: get too into stuff sometimes and miss the obvious. Winter is a long way off now so I’ve got time to see what works for him I guess.
Still think it’s weird there isn’t anything online, you’d think there would be an article or something about coat length.
Thank you:)
I was going to write exactly what JB’s post says - I have a WB mare with a fairly short but very dense winter coat; a TB mare that grows a longer coat but always needs blanketing; an APHA mare that has a long AND dense coat and never needs blanketing.
I think there might be averages with regard to breed/type but definitely not all horses as a species. So many differences in coat and hardiness that it probably wouldn’t apply across breeds.
Plus even with similar coats, age and health can affect resilience to cold and also heat. So your senior horse might be on a different blanketing regime than the younger horses regardless of the clipping.
@S1969 I know there’s a lot of variety but I would have thought there would be a blog post from someone, or a study on seasonal hair growth or something that would mention it at least to one specific breed or something lol
@Scribbler Weirdly enough despite being 30 with no teeth and mediocre health he usually seems to be pretty warm and I don’t blanket him as long as the other ones.
Thanks for the tips everyone:)
