I’ve only owned my new pony a month, but he’s a chunky pinto and I’m afraid he’ll look like a painted Highland cow this winter. He’s so poofy already and has the longer hairs along his jawline. It’s just making him look fatter. I must get him used to my vacuum’s blowing option.
Ugh! I dread to think how spring will be, with all the white coming out by the handful.
Funny story: the first year I had Cat—she was offered to me free from Penn National after the meet ended—she grew a normal winter coat. But in the spring, ALL of her coat fell out ( in stages, she wasn’t completely nekkid) before her spring coat grew in. ðŸ˜
The vet checked her head to toe, and told me it’s rare, but well documented. I resigned myself to having a bald horse every year, but it never happened after that first year.
I never body clipped one until the horse I have now. He gets this super fluffy, incredibly soft winter coat. He also has little ears that tend to hide in it, so when he’s in full winter-bloom, we call him a baby harp seal. :lol: It’s actually pretty nice to snuggle into on a bad day, but not so practical when riding, so I give him sort of a trace clip so I still have some for “fuzz therapy.”
My app I had as a kid did the same thing! He was a RED bay with a big spotted blanket and you could see the “line” from several feet away. :lol:
My girls don’t really get much of a colour change, but they are at the velveteen rabbit stage these days.
My mare is opposite: chocolate brown in winter, jet black in summer:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UtAjiBpAtwxCgYPY7
PS that summer photo is one of my faves-- Brio taking good care of my 74 yo non-rider mom
My older App/Trak cross has already grown quite a bit of winter coat. Ug…as it’s in the upper 90ºs this week. Poor guy. I can always tell because he has a bald patch that’s about the size of a playing card during the summertime. It’s already completely filled in with white hair. His bay spots are always darker in the winter time, too. And yes, you can feel them! 
My mare is a stunning crispy burnt sunbleached orange in summer. 
Winter is a relief as the tragedy sheds out and her winter coat comes in gorgeously black. On the other hand, it also comes with enough fluff to put a team of huskies to shame. The degree of hair is ludicrous. Right now I’m ignoring that because I’m just pleased we’ve shed out past the “diseased and molting” phase of summer coat blow out. All is well in the world again (for the moment). :lol:
We had almost 3" of monsoon rains yesterday.
Our 21 year old Cushing’s horse must have had a mud wrestling date yesterday.
This am he is covered with mud from tip of ears to bottom of feet.
You can’t see what color he is.
chestnutmarebeware- we leased a OTTB one year, and when we started grooming in the spring when he arrived his hair came out enough that you could see his skin before his summer coat came in. Very unnerving.
I have a sorrel sabino Paint gelding and the white grows in and sheds out before the sorrel, sort of like he is appliqued or quilted. He gets so fuzzy his hind legs look like he is stocked up. Kids look at him and point out his teddy bear ears. I’m addicted to the Eqigroomer because it pulls out so much more hair that I feel like we are making some progress. He starts losing his winter coat in mid-February and takes until late May to finish up.
His registered name is Mr Eternal Fun. I change it for the winter: Mr Eternal Fuzz.
I have a bay and if kept out of the sun in the summer, he looks about the same summer and winter. If he spends more time in the sun, he creeps closer to a really light bay and his dorsal stripe is more prominent.
What bugs me is when he changes coats spring and fall EVERYTHING rubs him that was fine before! His halter, his saddle pads, his existence! And he’s always quite itchy and really appreciates a good curry comb!
I had an Appaloosa a long, long time ago and I don’t recall his spots feeling different… But I probably just never noticed!
My Arab mare has started to get a little fluffy in the last week or so - she has a relatively short but extremely dense coat that feels almost like bunny fur. She also gets darker and turns almost liver chestnut, whereas her summer coat is about the shade of a copper penny and is super silky and fine. She also gets birdcatcher spots in the winter (random white spots all over her).
My horse never grows a thick coat. He gets blanketed. He’d freeze if he stayed in his native Canada.
In the summer, he invariably bleaches when outside (at this barn, he’s out 24/7 in his own pasture with a shared run-in shed). His passport and papers say he’s a black-bay or something. In the summer, his points stay black, but the bay parts bleach and sometimes he can look like a buckskin. This summer, I groomed his itchiness so hard that there were always black hairs present and someone asked me if he was grulla. My biceps are pretty sharp. He gets pretty itchy in the summer due to a mild fly and midge allergy. He’s very expressive if I itch the right spots.
In the winter, he looks black. People have mentioned that they didn’t think he was the same horse with the color changes.
I have grown to love his seasonal changes and his always shiny coat due to my rigorous grooming. Did I mention my biceps? A few weeks ago, a trainer at the barn had a clinic and a participant’s older mother came to watch. She exclaimed frequently the she never saw someone spending so much time grooming their horse, or a horse enjoying the grooming so much, as she witnessed with my horse and me. She said this multiple times through the weekend.
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