Muddy, Fluffy Ears!

[mcnaughty]

Driving me to distraction! My ID Cob mare has huge, ultra fluffy ears. I left the hair on them to help her keep them warm but her head it half clipped.

Question is - should I just take them off too? (the hair not the whole ear!). She has a full neck rug on but manages to literally wallow in the mud, getting lumps of congealed mud all over her ears, sides and front of her head. Oh yes, she is a grey!

Not actually bothered about the colour it turns her but she really hates my attempting to get this mud off as it is in blobs and stuck fast to the sensitive fur.

Would it be more comfortable for her to loose this hair and the mud attached or do I just ignore till spring - she is in at night.

 

[daviedevs]

Not sure what others do but in winter i leave my boys as they are.

It helps that he doesnt mind them being brushed, but also he lives 1500 feet above sea level so in winter it can get rather chilly.

Also most horses know when bits have been trimmed and endeavour to get them twice as dirty anyway!!!!

 

[Happy Hunter]

I had this - with a fluffy ID grey!
Generally left alone actually - Its a fight that I just gave up on.

Using fingers to get the worst off - and apologuising to any company that I was with at the time!

edited to say - Have you tried bunging up the ears with those sound elimating balls (DURING GROOMING) - It prevents the debris falling down into the ears - which cant be nice!

http://www.allearplugs.com/ear-plug...utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=shoppingfeed

Of course this depends if your competing!

 

[HufflyPuffly]

We have this problem with Topaz who is the most disgusting, mud wallowing hippo I've ever encountered! She has got getting filthy down to a fine art, and can get it all the way under her rugs and even comes in with clumps of grass, complete with roots and mud clot, on her! She particularly loves smearing her face in the mud, and rubbing her ears into it and well actually any bit of her!

She hates her ears being groomed or them being trimmed, so we invested in a suggy hoods turnout hood with ears. It was the best thing we've ever bought her!

We were quite cautious as with her love of rolling, thought it might move and she would get it over her eyes like all the horror stories, but 'touch wood', it hasn't moved at all! It has cut down mum's grooming time so she can actually ride after work, without needing two hours of scrapping wet gloopy mud off her, and Topaz doesn't have to have her ears groomed too vigorously! So it's win win for us, it was expensive and does rip if they find any barbed wire or as Topaz did investigate hawthorn hedges too closely, but ours has sown up well and washes well.

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