Odd shedding

[MiniDashofBlue]

I have a 9 year old B gelding and a yearling A filly that are starting to completely blow their coats. Almost like shedding out their winter coats. They still have hair but when they get groomed the pile of hair looks almost as big as if they had been clipped. They are stalled next to two of my other minis but neither of them, or anyone else, is shedding. I know they can shed their summer coats to grow their winter ones but they have been quite hairy for winter for a while now. I am wondering if any of you have had this happen with your minis? One thing I have thought of is that we have a light in one stall and across another, but the gelding does not get hardly get any light. The light is turned on when we go out at about 7pm and is turned off about 9:30pm when we are finished plus they are usually out during that time. Since the time change this would mean that the horses are getting an extra hour of light. So their brains could be telling them to shed for spring since their "days" are longer. The filly's dam however, gets most of the light so this theory is kind of odd. Sorry for the long speech. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Genie]

One of our mares has shed her winter coat beautifully, as if it was spring.

Her coat shed just as it started to be getting quite cool at night, so quite a surprise.

All the other horses have good winter coats and their hair is not shedding at all, but this mare's coat came off quickly and just as if it was spring.

I have to stall her most of the time and she looks quite healthy and bright eyed. She is in foal for late May or June and the only thing that is different with her, than the others, is that she was never clipped in 2009 and all the others needed some clipping thru the year either for shows or just grooming.

I know this isn't an answer, but she "blew her coat" and has a beautiful, but short coat, with the cold weather very close.

My friend told me that horses shed spring and fall but it isn't something I have ever noticed before.

I will be interested in hearing of any other cases like ours.

 

[MiniDashofBlue]

Thanks for your reply. We are in the middle of the city here in Santa Ana so all 6 of mine are in stalls. Everyone is happy and pretty healthy. Which reminds me, I forgot to add that my stallion colicked in mid august and then again, worse, in mid september. During these times we left one small outside light on so we were able to see. Dont know if this would make a difference but just wanted to mention it.

 

[Sunny]

Yes, one of my mares (but not the other) is shedding like crazy, too! Just like in the spring, the hair is coming off in sheets when I run my hand or a brush over her. We've had unusually warm weather this month, so I don't know how much of a role that's playing, but it's kind of wierd to see her shedding this much.

 

[Minimor]

Two to three hours of light in the evening can certainly make a horse shed out. One winter when we had horses in the barn we had the barn lights on for a couple hours every night, and our horses shed out very early. (I was going to say not this early, but then it was probably about now that we started putting them in at night so of course they wouldn't have started shedding like that this early in the winter!) Our barn has two lights inside & that's enough to light up all the stalls quite well, so all our horses were affected. I don't know just how little light there could be and still have it affect the horses' shedding--so can't say if the little bit of light in that one stall would be sufficient to start that horse shedding out so early. Possibly though?

 

[MiniDashofBlue]

Very true Minimor. We have definitely talked about the lights but like I said its only 2 horses. My mare and colt that actually have MORE light are not shedding at all.

I also wanted to mention that about 3-4 weeks ago I started trying a new type of pellets and hay. Its the teff hay and pellets. I did switch them over slowly and the horses seem to like the new feeds, which we found out has a much sweeter flavor than the grass hay pellets that they were getting. They all get 3 meals of pellets and hay with the third feeding except the shedding gelding who gets a snack and hay at night but the old feed during the other 2 meals. We were shocked at first because the gelding, Boo, LOVES the teff hay. He is the pickiest eater and usually leaves half of his hay, well he cleans up the teff.