Your horses winter coat - just for fun

[Obsidian_Fire]

Need something fun this morning. I LOVE the way my mare’s coat changes for winter. She’s a solid nice bay but when her winter hair comes in, she is RED. As in, blood bay. I don’t think I’ve ever seen (in person) a bay so red. I love it.
She also gets a few roan hairs, I have no idea where those come from as they are not there the rest of the year.

Other horses I’ve had, one Arab mare who I referred to as my “marshmallow” because her coat was so thick and puffy and white. I also had a Paint gelding who was like that, except more like a Hershey’s chocolate bar in color.

[chestnutmarebeware]

I know it’s the amount of light and not the temps that cause winter-coat growth, but here in TN I’m not seeing a single sign yet in my three girls. We’ve had some ungodly amount of 90+ degree days this year (40? Maybe more?), and this weekend and next week are supposed to break even more heat records. I’m very glad the woolies haven’t arrived yet!

But once they happen, I do love the winter coats of my the two chestnuts—they get incredibly rich and bright. And the faded brown mare turns nearly black.

[Scribbler]

On my Overo Paint her white patches are a little longer and poofier than her chestnut hair. It’s cute!

[2DogsFarm]

I have 2 who get pretty plushy & a mini who is already about 30% on his way to Wooly Mammoth.
The other 2 do no Majik color changes, although TWH loses his sooty buckskin sunfaded coat & looks nearly true black.

[Bluey]

Today was first day this fall old horse is not slick, but starting to get fuzzy over his hips.

Hoping he doesn’t fuzz up too quickly, as we are still getting in the 90s most days.

[Belowthesalt]

@Scribbler

On my Overo Paint her white patches are a little longer and poofier than her chestnut hair. It’s cute!

Ditto for Appaloosas - you can feel the spots (even without a winter coat) because the white hair is coarser. One of my Appies turned into a furry bear every fall (he was born in the Sierra foothills and grew up in Reno, NV), so he got clipped every year, but my present horse, also an Appy but half Arabian…the only way you can tell he has a winter coat is by comparing it with his summer coat, which, especially on his face, is extremely fine and thin. I don’t bother to clip him.

[DinkyDonk]

Mine don’t get really long hair–it stays around 1/2"-3/4", but it gets really dense

[Rackonteur]

I have a friend whose horse I first met one winter. The horse was a very handsome seal brown. We weren’t close friends, and rode at different barns miles apart, and I didn’t see her or her horse again until the following spring. I didn’t even recognize this beautiful, sleek … blood bay!

[Christa_P]

My TB is a nice bay in summer and looks almost black in the winter

[cayuse]

My black mini turns almost blue black (navy?lol) when his winter coat comes in. My bay is a different color every winter, sometimes he has a faint black dorsal stripe and shoulder markings and sometimes he is just bright bay. My chestnut with flaxen mane and tail gets massive dapples that are textured and not colored. His bum looks sort of like a golf ball. Or cellulite

[MissAriel]

My Knabstrupper stays true to his Danish heritage and looks like a spotted wooly mammoth until he gets clipped. His color doesn’t change, but his spots are raised as well - spots in 3D!

A friend bought a new horse in late winter/early spring. Coming shedding season her lovely pale palomino shed out to the most striking chocolate palomino we had ever seen. Now that winter is coming he is getting back his light coat again.

[BrownMareDon_tCare]

My (formerly (insert sad face here)) dapple gray guy looks even whiter this year now that he has poofed out in preparation for an arctic winter. Even though we live in Southeast Virginia. And it’s supposed to be 90 today. But he’s READY!

[Mango20]

My chestnut is growing some cute dapples this fall. I doubt they’ll still be visible once the hair is as long as it’s going to get. All four horses are a shade darker with the new hair coming in.

[tbchick84]

My horse is a seal brown. His winter coat is dark dark brown, bordering on black. His mane and tail have auburn highlights that come out much more than in the summer. He’s so freakin’ cute.

[Obsidian_Fire]

We have 2 Appy’s and 2 Paints in the barn. I’m going to have to check them out this winter!

@cayuse we need a picture of your mini in winter coat!!

[StormyDay]

My paint, once clipped, becomes completely white from more than a few feet away. I have had people ask me in the summer if I sold my grey horse!

[Displaced_Yankee]

@chestnutmarebeware

I know it’s the amount of light and not the temps that cause winter-coat growth, but here in TN I’m not seeing a single sign yet in my three girls. We’ve had some ungodly amount of 90+ degree days this year (40? Maybe more?), and this weekend and next week are supposed to break even more heat records. I’m very glad the woolies haven’t arrived yet!

Lucky. My guy’s coat is noticeably heavier and thicker. You know, when you turn the hose on them and the water bounces back at you? We are still pushing 92 here in NC! I was waiting to clip until closer to our last big horse show, but I don’t think I can. He’s so hot.

He is, however, a beautiful blood bay year-round. While his pasture mates get very bleached in the summer his coat stays bright. They are all on the same diet (feed/hay/etc) just in different amounts.

[Belowthesalt]

My present horse - AppyxArab - you can only tell the difference between his summer and winter coats by the fact that his summer coat is so fine, it’s practically transparent on his face. One of my old event horses was foaled in the Sierras and lived in Reno, NV until he was nine. I purchased him and he was moved to the SF Bay Area - but he still turned into a polar bear in winter. he was a bay roan w. a blanket/spots, near leopard Appy and his winter coat was might lighter in color than his summer coat, but in any event, I clipped him in late October and generally had to do him a second time in January. At nearly 17 hands, that was a LOT of hair. LOL

[aknightstale]

@Scribbler

On my Overo Paint her white patches are a little longer and poofier than her chestnut hair. It’s cute!

Same with my paint mare!

My bay mustang turns into a woolly mammoth and grows a darker coat. He has a lot more red in the summer and gets dappled, though I wouldn’t quite call him a blood bay. I do love his summer color. He looks like a goofball when he’s shedding though :lol:

[jeano]

Both of mine are dark brown bays (which everyone here in the South calls black) who bleach out quite a bit in summer and really do look quite black while their winter coats grow in. The gelding doesn’t mind the heat and is always lighter while the mare spends more time in the shade sulking. She always fuzzes up weeks before he does and sheds out weeks earlier, too. She gets amazing dapples (no fault of mine-- no supplements, very little hay, rough Bahia/Bermuda pasture) every winter.