My five-year-old show mare has grown a long hair coat the past two summers. She is under lights and blanketed in winter and starts growing the long coat in April/May. This summer is worse than last. Last year she shed in September and it was beautiful for about 3 weeks. She is negative for Cushing’s and insulin/glucose levels are normal. She is good weight (Tribute Kalm Ultra and alfalfa or timothy/grass) and is in full exercise/training. Any insight or recommendations?
are you North or South of the equator ?
Did you stop the lights once the daylight got longer? When? Sometimes people use the lights but then stop early. Then the horse gets less light at the appropriate strength in the Spring and starts growing more hair!
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We live in northeast US. We didn’t stop the lights at all - just keep them on steady 8 hours of dark at night to simulate summer. Any ideas on how to get her to drop the coat?
Most horses that I’ve known that are kept under lights either part of the year or all year round eventually seem to have this issue. They’re not meant to stay slick all year round…they’re meant to grow a winter coat and shed it out every year. At some point they just seem to get messed up with the artificial light and screwing with their natural cycle, and they start growing a coat anyway, even if it’s not the right time of year.
My suggestion would be to body clip her this summer and lose the lights. Hopefully she’ll stay good and start growing her winter coat when she’s supposed to (though she may do it earlier and need to be clipped again.) Let her get fuzzy this winter if you can, and let her go through the normal spring shedding that nature intends.
If she must be kept slick in the winter, I’d opt for clipping over lights. I’ve just seen too many horses get out of whack when we mess with their natural cycles.
That’s very interesting. The cycle does seem to be out of whack. I appreciate your thoughts. Thank you!
