New Curly Horse, tail falling out, help!

[crestinglight]

I bought my first Bashkir Curly horse about 6 weeks ago, and she had a gorgeous, luscious mane and tail. Her tail is now nearly entirely bald. I know it is very common for Curly horses’ tails to fall out, but there are ways to prevent it. I looked on http://curlyhorsecountry.com/curlymanecare.htm, but that site is so old and outdated, all the products they recommend don’t exist anymore. I gave her an iodine bath a few days ago, as it’s recommended they get 1 each year.

Some other riders at my barn have recommended M-T-G, but I’ve heard a lot of conflicting things. Does anyone have advice on helping my Curly regrow her tail? It’s falling out so fast I feel like there’s no hope for this year, but maybe next year she could have a thick, healthy tail and keep it.

[Marla_100]

I think you may be saying “falling out” vs. “rubbing out”. If she’s rubbing it out she must have fungal or bacterial issues

causing itching. You might want to try ‘Equiderma’, good for itching and fungus.

Also she may need a feed/nutrition upgrade to supplement the skin like ground flax, black oiled sunflower seeds, Vitamin A.
Also she probably needs worming. Pinworms can cause tail rubbing and neck threadworms can cause all over itching.

[crestinglight]

Hmmm, she does get ground flax, and she was dewormed last week. I don’t know whether she’s rubbing it out, or if it’s falling out, but probably rubbing. I’ll look into Equiderma!

[RTF]

I have had a few curlies that were sent to me for training. If you pull or brush the mane and tail hair on some of them it just releases and comes out. It’s like pulling a mane on a regular horse you have to tug, but theirs just literally falls or comes out. The lady I knew used to not really brush manes and tails, more of a finger comb through to try to separate the dreads. The extreme curlies usually do not have manes and tails. They shed out differently too. Great breed though, I loved the ones I got to work with!

[sheltoneb]

I had an 1/2 American Curly horse. Not sure that it applies, but that particular breed can shed both their mane and tails. My horse shed is entire mane every spring and no, it was not caused by rubbing or an infection. In his case it came out in clumps.

I had read this on the internet, but dismissed/forgot about it. Once it started happening, I tried a variety of fungal/antibacterial treatment thinking something was wrong. I ran into his old owner who said he did it every spring.

[Dajuliz]

I have an American Curly. Her mane falls out completely as does the top 1/3 to 1/2 of her tail. She is truly a broomtail. It is normal. The mane and tail shed may not happen every year. Sometimes she will even have bald spots on her neck and chest. It will grow back quickly. If you think your horse has fly irritation or fungas, then use MTG. My mare enjoyed having bag balm rubbed on the bare skin of her tail just to sooth and moisturize. Her mane and tail grow back very quickly like by October. Like the above poster, don’t brush the mane and tail on your curly. The hair is very brittle and will break. When I showed, I used pink oil. You can find that at a local beauty parlor or salon supply store. It helped to moisturize the mane and tail and made it shiny. My mare’s daughter was an extreme curly and became almost bald in the summertime. It amazed me how quickly it all grew back.

[goodhors]

You might try baby oiling ths tailbone. Oil adds moisture to the hair shaft, skin on tailbone, to help hairs be less brittle, more flexible. We did this on a wispy tailed Appy, and he grew hair. He kept hair growing until it got much better looking, effective as a fly swatter again. Vasaline would probably also work for this, though both products take time to show good results. You have to keep tail hair and bone kind of saturated so hair can’t dry out.

We did this after reading that some Appy hair is more brittle in some breeding lines than other horses hair, hence the reputation for wispy tails from the old days. Can’t remember which color was more brittle. I had known this particular animal when he was younger, had a good tail then. He got into a place that kept him stalled, not great cleaning so flies were eating him alive. His frantic tail swishing had made sores on both sides of rump! Rubbed off any hair growth before it got long. His hair was about 50-50, white and black, but only a couple inches long on top of bone. Once out of needing to constantly swish flies, being moisturized, his tail hair grew well. Had a hock length tail in a year. Longer by the time we sold him, thin but nice looking.

Curly hair is different, so moisturizing could help keep some length to it. Also the fact bugs come in spring, horse uses tail a LOT more in spring, could add to hairs breaking , to appear he is shedding it then. Moisturizing the mane and tail hair often could help keeping more hair on him. The Appy never grew a mane even with moisturizing, just had a few long hairs. So we kept him roached.