Worried - any ideas what this could be?

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bex1984

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I fully clipped Murphy two days ago, and was a bit shocked to uncover a patch of white hair on his back
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It is about 3 inches wide by 3 inches high, and a very odd shape, it's sort of a splodge, like somebody has spilled bleach on it (not that I think this is what has happened - just trying to describe it). It's bsiaclly about a 2 or 3 inches further forward from where a freezemark would be (he has one on the other side)

I've never seen it before, and I'm sure I would have noticed it if it was there when he still had his summer coat
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My first thought was saddle, which I will get checked. However, when I put his saddle on, some of the white area is not in contact with his saddle at all, plus he always has a thick, padded numnah. He seems perfectly happy to be tacked up, mounted and ridden, and when I take his saddle off there's no sweat or marks on this spot.

The only thing I had noticed, sometime last week, is that for a few days he came in from the field with that bit of hair lying flatter than all the rest (I just assumed he'd been groomed by another pony - particualy as one of them has chewed the base of his mane).

He is quite happy for me to prod, poke it, brush it (I scrubbed it at first as i thought it was dust!!
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), it's not sore, and there's no damage to the skin. It's not solid white, it's kind of speckly.

I asked a few experinced horse people and they said they'd never seen anything like it before, and had no idea what could have caused it.

Could it be from other ponies grooming him/rubbing against him? Could he have lain/rolled in something? any other thoughts?
 
Bex - I can't picture it either. What do you mean when you say you "uncovered" it? I'd have thought that any white patch of hair would have been apparent before you clipped? As Tasteofchaos suggests, photos would be a huuuuuge help!
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Bex - I can't picture it either. What do you mean when you say you "uncovered" it? I'd have thought that any white patch of hair would have been apparent before you clipped? As Tasteofchaos suggests, photos would be a huuuuuge help!
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It wasn't visible at all before I clipped him!! I was quite shocked to find it TBH
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It wasn't visible at all before I clipped him!! I was quite shocked to find it TBH
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How very odd? Is it actually white hair, or is it just a colourless patch of skin? Sorry about Q's but need the info!
 
I think my horse had something like that 2 years ago. My MW cob was somewhat hairy and he had his first full clip for a couple of months during November. He had two reasonable sized white patches on his back where apparently his saddle had been pinching him. Anyway, got saddler out and the little bugger had changed shape so much we had to have a new saddle. Ended up buying a Bates so that I can adjust things, but I would recommend a saddle fitting for your boy. You may find you need another saddle. Good luck

By the way, my horse did not have a bad back either and he wasnt sore and the white hairs grow out eventually by the following spring. His was not visible before he was clipped either.
 
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How very odd? Is it actually white hair, or is it just a colourless patch of skin? Sorry about Q's but need the info!

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It's just the hair that's white, I had a poke around and as far as I can see the skin underneath is still black, same as normal.
 
TheoryX, that does sound similar, it just seems odd that the saddle is not actually touching some of the white bits! He has changed shape in the past few weeks tho as he has dropped some weight (which will come back on soon when he is in at night over winter). Will get saddle checked anyway - annoyingly the saddler was at the yard yesterday, and i was stuck at home in bed ill
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I would say definately saddle not fitting properly and pinching him. The white patches definately take time to appear and I only found the the ones on my horse's back when I ruffled the hair for some reason and even then they were tiny. They then grew huge.

My horse's white patches went over the summer because we changed saddles pretty quickly and he didn't show any discomfort or upset about being ridden, saddled up either.

Def. get the saddler out to check. The chances are that although the saddle doesn't seem to come into contact with white patch when you saddle him up, it probably pinches or presses down on it when you are sitting on him so def. need saddle checking.
 
Guildford - will get it checked. It could be that it's pinching as he's changed shape a lot recently. I don't think it's coming through white at the roots
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so maybe it was pinching but now isn't - I don't know
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fihunt - how odd!
 
Frank has patches either side of his wither I think from a previous saddle no idea which one as they could have occurred in the spring and not found till following autumn.

They only show up if clipped and are roany rather than all the hairs, I think they get a bit less every year.

and are part of the reason I blanket clip him- so they can't be seen as they dont show up either in his summer coat or long winter one. I would get saddle checked to make sure but otherwise but unduly worry.
 
well that's the other thing - if it's been there for a while it's a question of whether it was caused by his old saddle, or his new saddle (which I've had since about June this year). This patch is roany too.

It just seems really odd that there's no pressure mark or anything when I take his saddle off. But I can't think of anything else it could be!
 
I 'think' that franks might have been when I put a prolite underneath and effectively made his saddle too narrow on the points but as I say I dont know.
 
It's a saddle gall, Saddle pressure causing skin and hair loss, that why the hair is white ,skin damage some horses don't react others bucking broncos, you can also get them where the girth goes.
 
definately get his saddle checked honey, white hairs are caused by the hair root follicle being put under pressure so killing it hence the hair growing white. It may not be permanent as Pidge had two big patches when he had badly fitting saddles, saddles sorted and touch wood the white hairs all went so the damage wasn't permanent. He like Murpy showed no signs of rubs etc it was purely the points of the tree digging in him that caused it.
Let us know what the saddler says? Hope you feel better soon x
 
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