White hair from badly fitting saddle **panic!**

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HaffiesRock

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Background info first off, sorry it's long.

Bought my Haffie end of July last year. He was very cheap as he had catching and mounting issues. Anyway, went to try him and bought him although he was very nervy. He was enormously overweight, with terrible feet and generally quite neglected I think. He came without tack as the saddle he was using was another pony's. It was one of those cheap Hi Lite adjustable gullet one's.

Got him home and on a diet and started doing lots of groundwork and making friends. Had the vet out to vaccinate him and give him the once over, specifically his back due to the mounting issues. She said other than being obese he was in good health and his back seemed OK, but she recommended me an Osteo. He came out and gave ponio a good check over and did his stuff. He said his back was great and he only had one small tight/tender patch that he'd sorted and he was ready to start ridden work.

Next comes the saddle fitter. On the phone she asked what size saddle he had been in before, so I text the lady I bought him from and she said a medium! Saddler measured him as... XXXW!!!! She didnt have anything close to that fit so recommended the Wintec Wide. I bought this in XXXW with the XW AND XXW gullets and she came back and fitted it as an XXW showed me with the gauge how to measure the width etc and showed me how to change the gullets. (A few weeks later, with weight loss he changed shape and I put in the XW gullet which looked a lovely fit)

Wonderful, so now by early October he's ready to start work. He's already done a lot of ground work and lungeing so I worked on the mounting issue and it improved significantly. I hacked him most weekends (quietly at walk and a bit of trot for an hour at a time) for around 6 weeks until mid November when the weather turned vile and I turned him away for winter.

As he grew his winter coat from end of September, I noticed a lot of white hair on his back. Not in a particular shape, just the odd hairs here and there. I've left him be all winter, unrugged so not groomed just checked over.

Today I got my shedding blade out :D As I was grooming it became glaringly obvious the white hairs are saddle shaped, and there are a lot of them (i'll take a picture tomorrow) I was gutted :(

So my questions are these:

There were no white hairs what so ever in his summer coat, and I have done minimal riding in a saddle I had fitted, so could these be from the previous saddle that was very small? Or would the white hairs be in both coats? I pray it's not something I have done :(

He was previously owned by a girl, then passed onto her friend as he was too much, then to her friend who is a dealer to sell as he couldnt be caught, and if he was caught, couldnt be mounted. This was over approximately 2 years.

If the damage is from a previously bad fitting saddle(s), it would completely explain his mounting and catching issues which are both now gone.

I am going to show him in hand this season, but what if the white hairs stay in his summer coat? He will hardly do well and I'll look like an awful owner who doesnt look after my pony's back.

I'm just a bit upset about it, its like he's wearing a half pad of white hair :( and while I am quite sure I havent caused it, I'm still really gutted :(

Sorry it's long. If you got this far I'm just about to crack open an Easter Egg :eek:
 
I wouldn't panic - we bought one that had a similiar issue.

I rode him all summer in the saddle he came with, but then came to clip him come winter and found two large white patches! I had the saddler straight out and the saddle was actually a good fit, so must have been one used in the past, maybe even as a youngster.

Every summer the patches dissapear only to reappear in the winter.
 
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Sidney said:
I wouldn't panic - we bought one that had a similiar issue.

I rode him all summer in the saddle he came with, but then came to clip him come winter and found two large white patches! I had the saddler straight out and the saddle was actaully a good fit, so must have been one used in the past, maybe even as a youngster.

Every summer the patches dissapear only to reappear in the winter.
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I can cope if they're in his winter coat only (which is a rich chestnut colour) His summer coat is a very pale palomino and I really want to show him so need the hairs gone :(

Poor pony has been through a lot in the past. Some people are so cruel :mad:
 
I had this last autumn and its absolutely gutting, mines bright bay so glaringly obvious im hoping to god that it wont come through with her summer coat, the worst thing is the jump saddle was recently fitted. Since have had new dr saddle which is a perfect fit and the patches have reduced ever so slightly, now just to shell out for another jump saddle :(
 
My haffy has just had a bad case of hives which left him all lumpy and scabby all over his body, with a large patch down his spine. Fast forward 3 weeks and the steroids have worked, scabs are gone but hair is growing back white. So he has a nice white "dorsal stripe" which im thrilled about :-( so watching this thread for a magic solution!
 
It's highly likely that the hairs are from the last saddle but if they are in the new summer coat then the current saddle has to be under suspicion. Haffies aren't easy to fit, I have a couple on my books that are in very flat trees (front to back) though one is in a "neat" tree and one a very wide hoop tree.
 
Haffies are indeed a nightmare to fit, I've had 5 saddles in 5 years, one of which did some nasty damage and left some serious white patches, which, over the years have totally gone, took about 2 years for them to totally go. Mine has a gfs haflinger exhange now, hopefully it will be the last one we buy as £1k a year in saddles is no longer an option for me. So, theoretically the white could well be from the original saddle, would also fit that he didn't want to be caught or mounted at the time, who could blame him if the saddle hurt.
 
My haffy has had the same problem, I changed the saddle and in the summer the white hair fell out and grew normal again. I now check very carefully but after one hunting session where the saddle had been reflocked and she had changed shape slightly it happened again to my horror , but again after getting the saddle right the white hairs have gone. I do believe that haffies with so much white in their coats are quite prone to this and it takes very little for the hair to grow white - looking closely at the long hair on my girl I can see the hair change colour on its length!! tip is brown, then a section of white and then brown again where the problem was resloved - all on the strand of one hair! fascinating changes.
 
HaffiesRock said:
Thanks everyone.

I'll try and take a picture today. I really REALLY hope they fall out with the winter coat. x
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If you have changed the saddle to correct the problem then they probaby will, I think if this sort of thing is overlooked and a continual problem then the hair root becomes too damaged. Fingers crossed for you, know the feeling. Look closely at the hair and see if it changes colour long it's length.
 
Will do Clava. They seem to be underneath the ginger hair. I first noticed how bad it was when it had been raining and his top coat had separated out a bit. Think its more obvious now as he's shedding.

It never really occurred to me before that it could have been a saddle issue as he has so much white hair anyway, I just assumed (wrongly I guess) that the white hair was part of his winter coat, specially as it was under the ginger. Then when I noticed the patch is saddle shaped I was mortified :(
 
Took some pictures today. Not great ones, but you can see the white hair, if not the shape.

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He's not been ridden over winter. I turned him away in November and have only just started lungeing him again without a saddle.

I ruffled up his hair so you could see the white underneath. He's also shedding so his hair is all over the place like a bog brush :eek: x
 
HaffiesRock said:
He's not been ridden over winter. I turned him away in November and have only just started lungeing him again without a saddle.

I ruffled up his hair so you could see the white underneath. He's also shedding so his hair is all over the place like a bog brush :eek: x
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The white hairs will be from when he was ridden surely? I have found I've usually noticed white hairs 3 to 4 weeks after the "event" depending upon how the hair is growing / coat changes. The new growth are the hairs to worry about - but you need to find the cause so you can fix it. Mine was obviously saddle issues and from a saddle which was too wide at the time and nearer the wither.
 
Clava said:
The white hairs will be from when he was ridden surely? I have found I've usually noticed white hairs 3 to 4 weeks after the "event" depending upon how the hair is growing / coat changes. The new growth are the hairs to worry about - but you need to find the cause so you can fix it. Mine was obviously saddle issues and from a saddle which was too wide at the time and nearer the wither.
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The white hairs came in with his winter coat and started about mid September. I know this as I went on holiday early September and when I got back I was amazed at how much his coat had changed in such a short space of time. Didnt get my saddle fitted until after this. He was being ridden in a medium width saddle when I bought him, but my fitter measured him as an xxw so I would suspect it was the previous saddle that caused the problems. A lot of white hair came out when I got my shedding blade on him today, I just really hope that they aren't as obvious when he changes coat again :(

I've booked the saddle fitter again for next week to check my saddle before I start riding him again.

Thanks for all you help. x
 
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