The Dreaded Winter Hair Rubbing

O

ossy

Well-Known Member
Joined
10 August 2010
Messages
952
Visit site
I have 2 horses that are suffering the dreaded winter hair rubbing. Are there others out there having the same problem and what are people's secret tips on preventing/speeding up new hair growth. Both mine have marks where the reins touch side of neck, bald marks round edge of numnah, and rubs just at the back of the saddle panels. I use the nuumed half wool numnahs, and have extra large for this time of year, which are the best I've found. Each horse has a dressage and jumping saddle all recently had fitting checked and still rub, last year my old horse had same rubbings and was in a gp, so that's 3 different horses and 5 saddles in total so I'm moving away from a saddle fit problem given the other body rubs as well. I seem to attract sensitive skinned horses 😕
 
I find wool numnahs to be much worse for hair rubbing, in fact the only time mine gets rubs is when using wool. Cornucrescine is supposed to help hair growth as it is a mild blister, but I imagine it could be quite messy; I think that there are products out there to help nowadays, but can't recall the name (might be megatek?)
 
My boy is starting very slowly to cast his winter coat and this is when he starts to get into 'itchy mode'! It will carry on now until he's changed coats. All i can do for him is give him a good amount of time naked when he comes in of an evening to do some self itching and some fresh air to his bod....and i give him a good grooming too to encourage the hair to come out.

Other than that it's just a seasonal changing of coats for him and we go through this every year for a couple of months or so! I gradually come home with more and more hair on me as we go on!! LOL
 
I was always told if you see rubbing then the saddle for example is too tight there, so my first thought would be to remove the extra numnah as this will make the saddle tighter, it doesnt give relief as some folk think, for the reins put shadow sleeves sheepskin on each rein and tape so it doesnt move down.
 
Another one with a sensitive-skinned/coated horse who ends up with rubs/no mane by Spring . . . I find that if I keep really slippery fabrics next to his coat, rather than fleeces/thermatexes, etc., that helps. As for saddle pads, anything that can "catch" the coat (like wool) isn't great . . . you're better off with good quality cotton and make sure that anything next the coat is clean as salt/dirt will aggravate rubbing.

Hope that helps :).

P

P.S. Roll on Spring when they can be naked!
 
putasocinit said:
I was always told if you see rubbing then the saddle for example is too tight there, so my first thought would be to remove the extra numnah as this will make the saddle tighter, it doesnt give relief as some folk think, for the reins put shadow sleeves sheepskin on each rein and tape so it doesnt move down.
Click to expand...

XL number not an extra numnah.

OP I find if frank has longer hair he is better with a smooth cotton polypad at times, othertimes better with a sheepskin or similar.
 
mine's losing chunks of mane at the moment. No idea if it's the right thing to do but I'm washing it frequently as the hair that falls out seems very greasy, not sure if the grease is a contributory factor or if there's rubbing that's causing the hair loss and the grease. I'm then applying megatek. I think it helps but it's hard to know for certain.

He also suffers seaonal alopaecia on his legs - he loses his winter coat before growing his summer one so has big bald patches on his legs. I just apply lots of sudocreme to help protect them a bit
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top