Removing the Winter Coat
Winter is the time for fluffy ponies and lovely cosy cuddles but once the days start getting longer again it’s time for the long winter coat to drop and be replaced with a smooth sleek summer coat.
However every horse person knows the pain of shedding season, with hair dropping and ending up everywhere! Here’s what you need to know about coats & shedding.
There’s loads of grooming tools available these days to help with shedding coats however they all need one common ingredient – elbow grease. The good old curry comb is always a favourite and does a great job. Other tools like the Striphair groomer is a great option for removing the old winter coat as it can be used over the whole body including legs, heads & faces which can be a bit trickier for a curry comb. There are also other combs, blocks and blades that can work well however you do need to be a little careful that you don’t damage the new summer coat underneath with them. Whichever tool you select the best piece of advice I can give is to make sure you stand upwind!
One lesser known but extremely effective way of speeding up the shedding season is to use a good coat oil. I recommend using one that is specifically designed for horses skin & hair, rather than just any oil from the supermarket. Not all oils can be absorbed by the skin & hair and people have different skin to horses. The HSE Hot Oil Coat Conditioner is my secret weapon to dropping coats fast.
Without getting too complex, when it’s time for the coat to shed, the horses body produces more sebum on the skin and in the hair follicles. Sebum is a waxy oily secretion that moisturises your horses skin & hair and makes it shiny. You may have noticed that when your horse is getting ready to shed their winter coat, their skin and hair feels quite greasy. Oil based coat conditioners help with shedding because it helps to dissolve the sticky sebum that is around the hair follicle, loosening the dead hair, making it easier for the horse to shed it naturally. The excess sebum around the hair can clog the pores and make it harder for the hair to be released.
It’s commonly thought that shampooing is helpful however, when we’re cleaning, there’s a saying of “like dissolves like”. So using a coat oil like the HSE Hot Oil Coat Conditioner will help to soften and dissolve the sticky sebum oil much better than shampoo. Plus the coat oil does it by adding good oils to the skin rather than stripping all the natural oils away, which is much better for the health of the skin & hair, especially during this transition period. The coat oil also helps to lift and remove dirt and dead skin cells from the coat & skin, which might otherwise interfere with the shedding process.
The act of grooming the coat oil into the hair & skin will stimulate blood circulation and get the sebum moving, which can further support the natural shedding process not to mention the friction of the brush/tool on the hair helps to pull out the loose hairs.
The added bonus of using a good coat oil to help shed is that by applying the oil while the new coat is growing, you’re feeding the hair & skin which is going to promote healthy hair & a deeper colour.
There’s a couple of ways that you can apply the hot oil and it’s entirely up to you which way you do it. You can dilute it in a bucket of water and sponge it on or you can mix it in a spray bottle and spray it on and then groom it in. The bucket is a great option for heavier coats where you want to make sure you get the oil right down to the base of the hair & into the skin and for really intense treatments and the spray bottle is a great option for colder days or when you don’t feel like ending up with wet armpits.
A note about the Hot in Hot Oil… I know it’s called “hot oil” but it doesn’t have to be used hot. The most ideal and effective way to use it is with a bucket of warm water. The warm water opens the pores of the skin and hair so the oil is absorbed better. If you don’t have access to a hot water system you can do what I used to do and take a kettle or thermos of hot water to where your horse is.
If this isn’t possible then the next best option is to apply it to a warm horse. So after they have been worked and their skin is nice and warm, then the pores will be open to absorb the oil better.