Is there any way to prevent a horse from growing coat without having them under lights for 16 hours per day? My mare is turned out 24/7 and I have no way of keeping her under lights, but I’d like her to be slick for showing next fall/winter. I can’t clip her either, rules say no clipping.
No. Lights or clipping.
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Coat is determined by daylight length. Shorter daylight hours = longer/thicker coat.
If you can’t clip or do lights, then the best you can do is blanket early. You’ll get some reduction in coat growth, but more than that you’ll have a coat that always lays down.
Whether you want to subject a horse to constant blanketing, head to tail, little room for their skin to breathe, for many months of the year, is the choice you have to make.
There is a new mask that is being promoted online Called equilume. It is mainly for breeding but I think it can be used for hair coat as well. I have never used it though
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Fascinating. Looks like in addition to cycling mares early, Equilume is promoted for preventing heavy winter coats. Increased prolactin is shown to parallel spring coat shedding. Decreased levels in the fall parallel winter coat growth.
http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/et…nni_thesis.pdf
Interesting! Blue light absolutely has a negative effect on melanin production. It’s ample in natural daylight, where we need melanin reduced, and as it decreases with decreasing daylight, our melanin production increases which is what helps us sleep. So yes, it essentially helps mimic daylight hours. I wonder how durable it is?
Not too thrilled about drugs either… Especially going for a specific side effect.
As for the mask, that’s exactly what I need, thank you. I also need money :lol: Looks like I’ll have to settle for my wooly show horse, thanks for the quick replies everyone!
There are indoor and outdoor masks. I do not have any myself but a good friend has them for show horses and broodmares. She said the outdoor ones are more expensive, so she bought the indoor ones and put some caulking around the battery to waterproof it. Hence now has an outdoor mask. They are designed to be worn 24/7 so I can imagine they are pretty heavy duty. I have never heard of issues with durability. As soon as money loosens up some, I’ll be ordering several.
As others have said you have to keep them under lights starting in the early fall depending on geographic location But not using just average stall lighting. A couple of 200-300 “watt” that put out the proper “spectrum” of light on timers in each stall. Before low voltage bulbs were available one’s electric bill would increase dramatically when using in a number of stalls.
Plus even 100 watt incandescent bulbs run very hot. 200-200 watt low voltage are only warm to the touch and are much more efficient.
TB breeders in KY need/start to get mares covered in February which is out of their “natural season”. Lights have been a standard practice for a long time. But this has the added cost of time and expense of bringing them in everyday. On top of the cost of lighting. Mares do better living out 24/7 also.
There have been a few companies that have come up with a “light” that attaches to the halter and or built into halters.I have been told by friends that the newest generation works and or seems to work really well. They are not “head lights” on the halter which would look pretty strange when looking into a broodmare paddock/field at night.
The company uses small LEDs and seem to have come up with the correct “spectrum” of need light. The “lights” don’t have, need the bright visual light spectrum to trick them. These are not inexpensive and pretty much have to be replaced each season because the battery is not replaceable.
I’d be super interested in halter lights!
I’ve seen some farms who have installed “paddock lights” which are sort of like parking lot light poles. I’m not sure about the success.
Although for what it’s worth, none of my girls grew much of a winter coat this year, all are shedding heavily, one is already 50% shed out, and all are showing heat at the moment. Global climate change may solve all our shedding/breeding woes.
Can’t do pasture lights either, can’t afford that nor do I want the whole herd to stay slick. She’s the only show horse.
She doesn’t get super furry, but distinctly fluffy compared to barn kept horses. Her coat just gets super dense, not long.
It’s more of an annoyance, especially since I can’t bathe her, she stays pretty dusty. I’ll try vacuuming again and see if she’s more ok with it to help that problem. She’s not a dark colored horse so it’s difficult to see her shine when she’s clean-ish in the summer, and nearly impossible when she’s spotless in the winter. Anything less than spotless and she looks like a stuffed animal.
Whose rules say no clipping and what is the reason? What about rules for blankets?
If you can’t clip I assume you can’t blanket and there is no way I’d be trying to prevent a winter coat in that case on a horse with 24/7 turnout. Even if the horse had a stall, they are going to need their hair.
OP lives in Texas so highly doubt horse gets that wooly.Think a horse in the southern states would be just fine if slick coated during winter months. Highly doubt it stays THAT cold to keep a horse blanketed for months at a time. My sister lives in georgia it’s in the mid 60s low 70s. Texas can’t be a whole lot colder then that. Mid 60s low 70s is a heat wave.
Of course you can blanket 
It’s obvious when (most) horses are clipped, and while I don’t at all begin to understand the reasoning behind the rule, it is what it is. There are ways to keep a horse looking more slick, including blanketing.
I am asking because I’d like to know why there is a rule about clipping, I’m in Indiana and some of the barns are zero blankets allowed so I assume some Texas barns might also have this rule.
I am also aware that people on Texas do in fact blanket on occasion.
From the OP, the no clipping rule is a show rule (as opposed to a barn rule). At least that’s how I read things.
There are barns that don’t allow blankets??? :eek:
I know of at least one barn where the BM allows blankets but will not touch them period, so if it’s 60 degrees and you put your horse’s midweight on and went on vacation you’d better have a friend who can swing by.
I know of two barns that do not allow blankets at all. One is a natural horsemanship style barn and the other I am not sure of their reasons. The barns that don’t allow blankets tend to be more "natural’ style barns. I’d always ask.
It was unclear to me if the rule was about clipping for shows or clipping at the home barn.
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For the record, it depends on which part of Texas as to whether you need to blanket or not. I live in DFW and we blanket; average January temperatures are in the 40’s (though not this year). If you live in the panhandle, they get blizzards and temps of 10 or 20 below sometimes, so i would imagine they blanket quite heavily. Now, if you’re down near Houston, or far south Texas, you probably don’t need to blanket much.
My question is why couldn’t you clip 2 or 3 weeks out, so the horse has enough time to get it’s color back before you show? I don’t understand at all the “no clipping” rule unless your horse is a Paso or one of those breeds that allows no trimming at all. Can you explain, OP?
@enjoytheride now that you mention it, I have heard of those “natural” barns that don’t allow blankets :rolleyes: Or shoes. But do allow saddles and bridles :eek:
@TankDiveGirl that’s really interesting - the Paso breeds don’t allow any clipping at all? Ever? Of anything?
I haven’t ever heard of a rule against clipping…so it’s interesting to know that it exists. I have to wonder though, at winter shows with a bunch of horses where clipping is prohibited, won’t there likely be other fuzzballs?
