Why is she moulting in the middle of summer?

little_flea

little_flea

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As above really... mare is shedding a lot of coat, no idea why.

We have recently changed her diet due to bad feet so she is now on a diet that is higher in vitamin B and biotin - presumably this should make for a better coat? Spoke to nutritionalist about this and they didn't think it could be related to any change in diet.

I can't see any baldness or anything like that, perhaps a little scurf here and there but she is out overnight and doesn't really get groomed a lot. Otherwise coat seems healthy and pretty shiney.

Any experience of this? Should I be worried or look out for anything?
 
_HP_ said:
Longest day has been and gone....she's getting ready for winter:eek::)
Click to expand...

True, but TBH mine was doing something similar before this.... I just put it down to the fact due to the fact she is now out and I wasn't grooming as much as I didn't want to remove too much of the natural protection
 
Argh winter is upon us!

I also thought it was due to less grooming but it definitely isn't - I am riding another horse as well who is (if humanly possible) groomed even less and she is not shedding her coat. Definitely something unusual with my mare.
 
Hot, and, as _HP_ said, we're into July already:eek::(

Mine are shedding like crazy and they don't have much left to shed. They are also sweating out in the fields in temps of mid 30's + humidity so I can see their point, if I was outside and it was 23C at 3am I'd be ripping my coat off too.:)
 
Most of the horses on my yard are shedding as well as mine.
Interestingly, my cats (who rarely venture out) are shedding like crazy too.
I put it down to the really hot weather we are having, as there is no sign that they are getting their winter woolies on just yet .
 
after the longest day my part native starts to go darker then starts to shed, he does it every year. It takes time to grow his multi-layered winter protection and he is not one to be caught out :)
 
Yep, my old girl is at it too - as usual it started immediately after the longest day. She will have a nice set of winter woolies by the end of August. I do suspect that the natives are more sensitive to "nature" and being an oldie, perhaps they like to be a bit warmer than the youngsters. Depressing though, I'm still picking last winters long hairs off my clothes and now the short ones as well :)
 
My understanding was that horses change of winter/summer coat is triggered by the change in daylight hours so as other poster said further up, past the longest day the daylength will be shortening by minutes every week. Mine's doing the same, he starts slowly about now and then he's well away by mid August as he has a humungous lovely hairy coat he grows for the winter. I don't get much big gap of time when I don't go home covered in hair of some length or description but he's worth it!
 
Hmmm. Maybe it is winter... I have only had her for a year but I didn't notice this last year. She is 11 so not really old, and TBxID with a fine coat and generally a warm horse that doesn't need loads of rugging. Oh well, she seems happy...
 
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