Encouraging summer coats and moulting

poiuytrewq

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Keep them well rugged or slightly on the cooler side?

Everyone else has summer coats peeping though and moulting horses except me! Mine looks as he did just clipped with big hairy legs!
 

rachyblue

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Mine is unclipped (youngster not working) but well rugged as he is a pansy WB, he decided the 1st of March was time to start moulting with force.
 

Clodagh

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Well mine haven't started yet and they have been naked or lightly rugged all winter. Where I work and all the horses live in full neck heavy weight rugs they are moulting like mad, so I say make the poor thing too hot and he will soon lose it!
 

poiuytrewq

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Luckily for me I'm not showing soon! (Good luck with that one!)
My main problem is my clippers half died as I was clipping and I tried to continue telling myself it would be grown out within no time. It's getting to the point I'm going to have to leave the yard with no excersise sheet and I really want it to be less obvious?!
 

Sheep

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My boy looks really odd at the minute- his face itself has summer coat but his cheeks are still winter coat so he looks like he has sideburns! Plus his coat has suddenly gone really liver in colour - he is bay - so he looks rather peculiar at the minute.
 

NZJenny

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Over here it is really common for people to over rug their horses, so they get too hot, in the belief that they will moult out faster. I just think that is cruel!

I think that the reason rugged horses seem to moult faster is you to have brush it out as they can't roll it out. Vigours brushing also tones the upper arms - just remember to swap hand occationally.
 

Laafet

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Rugging does not affect the coat to level you might expect, it is light that is most important in achieving and maintaining a summer coat. So if you want your horse to start shifting it's coat then leave his stable light on and even better get a heat lamp too. We use lights, 150w is best, to get the mares cycling early and when I worked for a large racing centre, lights were used there to maintain coats and prepare the horses for shipping to Dubai.
 

Honey08

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If you get any sunny days (and this weekend is forecast to be nice), pull the rugs off completely for an afternoon and let them feel the sun on their backs - always seems to kick start ours with their moulting!
 

NeverSayNever

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agree what stimulates the coat change is more daylight hours however, once the process has started you can help it. My mare is jet black, but clipped in winter she is an awful mousey colour. 2 winters ago she was turned away at this time of year as i was due to have a baby. She had a LW rug on with no neck. Come May time, her body was jet black and her neck was still patchy and almost brindled looking, she looked shocking! Last winter I made she had a neck cover as well it solved the problem, by April time she was black all over. She was never too warm or anything like that but even a light cover definitely had an effect.
 

southerncomfort

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Ours have only a few loose hairs but this is the first week that I've been able to turn them out without rugs for a few hours (finally stopped raining...hoorah!).

My clipped horse has some fine downy hair coming through which I assume is her summer coat. :)
 

Meems

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I fully clipped my mare two weeks ago, and her summer coat is just starting to come through (in some places more than others)! She lives out and I never over rug her, she's quite a hot bird anyway.
 

yaffsimone1

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I rugged my TB up well all winter so she never really developed a winter coat on her body, her belly and face on the otherhand are from a woolly mammoth. She does look rather odd!

I would say rug up a bit more than usual, trick the body into thinking its summer already and the coat will start moulting
 
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