Why Do Horses Change Their Coats?

It's approaching that time of year where your horse will be preparing their summer coats due to the hotter weather and longer days. This means they will no longer require a thick, dense coat to keep them warm and instead will grow short, finer hairs to protect them from overheating in the heat.

 Your horse’s pituitary gland will register the increasing daylight hours and release hormones to stimulate their hair follicles to grow. If you have a healthy horse, they will flaunt a sleek and shiny coat with their summer coat. Due to this, you should take into account when your final clip of the year will be, as you don’t want to disrupt the growth of this new hair.

 It's important that you look for signs around February/March as this is when they are beginning this transition of coats. One of these is moulting, in which you’ll notice more hair than usual coming off onto their rugs. To stop this hair becoming embedded in the top lining of their rug, place a summer sheet underneath, remembering to change it regularly.

How Can You Speed Up the Transition?

The transition between their winter and summer coat can often take a while, as horses have their own unique moulting patterns. However, you can help them speed up the process to reveal their beautiful summer coats! Here are some tools that are worth investing in:

Rubber Curry Brush

Curry brushes are perfect for taking a large amount of loose hair from your horse's coat quickly, as its rubber bristles can delve deeply into the coat. You can shop our full range of grooming brushes here.

Shedding Blade

A shedding blade works wonders in removing the loose hair from their coats. They work perfectly on thick natives; however, you should be cautious around sensitive areas on your horse and on thin-skinned horses.

Wahl Grooming Glove

From Wahl, the grooming glove is a mitten style curry comb with gentle rubber bristles of a variation of sizes to help remove shed hair. It features a meshed reverse side for easy cleaning.

Exercising your horse frequently throughout the transition will also make the hair come out much easier than before, as you are getting their blood circulating much more.

Despite these tools being extremely helpful, unfortunately for you, you will probably end up working up a sweat whilst removing this hair, it’s hard work!

The Last Clip

When you feel that it is suitable to give them one more clip before you hang up your clipper until the next season comes around, make sure to take a large amount of hair off and cut it short. Doing this makes your life much easier because there won’t be so much moulting hair getting everywhere! Just keep in mind that the weather will be cold, so cover them up in a warm rug.

Shop Now