Shedding season

Who needs a ground hog when you have horses telling you spring is on the way? What ‘tool’ have you found works the best for getting the hair off yourself before getting in your car and bringing it all home with you? I try to consider the environment, so hoping to avoid any single use options (like the disposable lint rollers).

I wear coveralls over my normal clothes for most of shedding season. If riding I wear an outer layer I can take off prior to going in the house or car.

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Slightly wet/damp hands or rag. Might sound weird, but it works!

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Agree, this works great, especially on upholstery. Don’t try to vacuum the dog hair off your sofa, just use a damp wash cloth.

But to the topic, I bought a hairdresser smock on Amazon and keep it wadded up with my grooming stuff. Keeps me clean and hair does not cling to it.

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Some sort of overgarment that can be taken off before getting in the car works for me … on the days I remember to use it :rofl:

This is brilliant and would work nicely for the warmer days when I’ve layered too much and don’t want to wear my knee length coat while grooming.

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…you mean, you’re NOT supposed to bring all the hair/dirt/bits of hay home with you?

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Resignation. :smile:

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Rubber kitchen gloves for me and any upholstery

And clippers for the horse - just clip it all off!

For truck upholstery, I use a very slightly damp microfiber cloth. Works great.

My 2 mares are mostly white and my gelding is dun. I haven’t found anything that really removes shedding hair but shaking out my shirt/ sweatshirt and putting it through the washer.

That’s what I used to do, pre-horse retirement. The smock protects you from all that clipped-off fur as well. Oh, and dust in the summer.

Doesn’t fit the non-single use, but I find baby wipes helps to break the static and then I can wipe it off. Sounds like from a few others on this thread a damp cloth will do the same!

Probably not what you’re hoping for, but I impulse bought a horse vacuum at the beginning of the pandemic and I love it so much. I vacuum myself as well as the horse.

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I have a fuzz-ball Paint gelding who starts shedding in late February, white hair first of course. You can tell warm weather is on the way when it is tinged with sorrel. He gets his genuine summer coat in the vicinity of June. Maine has winter, mud season, spring sometimes, and 1-2 months of summer. I worried the first few years I had him because his fetlocks got stocked up for the winter. It was horsehair. He gets so fuzzy that his guard hair can be measured in inches. A few of the little kids call attention to his teddy-bear ears every year. I’ve had him for 21 years.

A few of my little tricks:

Use a regular plastic pitchfork to rake the hair up. You can roll it into a ball and toss it into a muck tub. Really old houses have horsehair plaster or insulation but no one wants any. Our prior barn has a 200’ aisleway and we were not quite out the far end. On a good day there will be a nice westerly breeze that starts at the other end and blows all the hair outside.

Keep a wet washcloth handy. There is so much airborne hair that my face feels all itchy. I’m spitting and snorting. I keep my face damp - it is much more comfortable. I don’t worry about clothing.

I have 4 Back on Track baby pads. Expensive, but I can use any saddle pad. You can’t put white on Paints because either the horse or the saddle pad looks yellow. The BOT baby pads go in the washer. They have to air dry. When they are still wet I toss them in the dryer on air fluff for 10-15 minutes. It gets a lot of hair off them.

I like the EquiGroomer shedding tools. They have the tiny hacksaw blade. They take out an amazing amount of hair. One of the kids liked to steal them to work on the dog. I use the short size. They have a silicone water/sweat dryer that is much better than scrapers. My horse has a fecal water problem. The dryer fits between the cheeks so the skin isn’t irritated. He figured out what I’m doing so he usually separates his legs so I can get in there.

I am hooked on the Epona flexible curry. They call it a groomer so it isn’t always with the curries on some websites. They are much better than they look in a picture. They really are flexible including the knobs. You can use some muscle when you do the legs. They follow the contour of the soft tissue. They are terrific on a shedding muddy summer coat.

A friend gave me some fetlock shears. They are curved and big enough that you can trim the hair that gets wet and holds moisture over the pasterns. I follow the curve of the fetlock and close them slowly you can’t tell they were chopped off.

I can’t pull his mane. He wouldn’t have anything left. He has 2 matching whorls on both sides of his neck. If I cut too short he gets 2 obvious cowlicks. I cut it reasonably straight and a little longer. Switch to smaller size scissors and snip the ends on the diagonal. You can even it up so it looks straight and pulled.

I also have a woolly pinto pony. He looks like a stuffed toy. I find the Epona shed flower works great and I think he likes the harder plastic teeth over a softer rubber curry. I DIY’d a Sleek EZ using a hacksaw blade and wooden paint stir sticks. This time I might just try the blade without the sticks (or use dollar store rulers if I can’t find the sticks). Wearing a face mask (we’ve all got lots of those!) saves me from choking on a hairball. His legs look like they belong on a cast member of CATS. When I’m able to actually see a chestnut I know we’re getting close to the end. When I french braid his mane, his coat is so long that those hairs get mixed into the braid. My life for the next three months is just one fluffy itchy mess.

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I don’t know, but the struggle is real. My barn jacket is an old Columbia ski jacket and the hair that clings to my cuffs and under the arms (hugging ponies doesn’t stop just because of shedding!) drives me bonkers.