A hairy affair ...
The days are getting shorter, the fur of our dear four-legged friends is getting longer and thicker ... The time to change fur has begun.
While many reach for the clipper directly, others sit out the topic with teddy fur longer or leave it standing for the whole cold season. The handling with the winter fur should be decided individually according to the needs of the horse. Important factors here are the type of posture and the workload, with the resulting perspiration behavior.
Sweaty and rained wett
Regardless of whether they are clipped, covered, in a box or in an open stable, one thing applies to all horses: After a strenuous training session, they should dry out as quickly as possible.
Anyone who thinks now: Wait a minute, what about the horses in the open stable, which also get wet from rain. A little digression into the composition of horse sweat. This contains a relatively high proportion of the protein latherin, which reduces surface tension. This enables the horse's fur, which is naturally water-repellent, to "get wet", and the body temperature can be reduced by evaporation. Many people may be familiar with the phenomenon that horse sweat foams up almost like egg whites after particularly intensive units and when there is friction. This is caused by Latherin, which also has a slight antimicrobial effect.
While this is not really a problem in summer, horses that are wet and sweaty are prone to colds in winter, which can cause muscle tension or even respiratory diseases.
Put dry: The thing with the sweat rugs
The well-tried solution for this are cooling blankets. But here, too, there are differences, especially with regard to the material composition.
The most common variants are models made of fleece. These work well on a horse that is sweaty because they absorb sweat quickly. But that's the crux of it all. Fleece blankets absorb sweat, but do not conduct it outward to the surface, where it can evaporate. In plain language, this means that a very sweaty horse needs a second dry blanket after a certain drying time in order to be able to dry further. The topic of accumulated heat under non-functional synthetic fibers and theMicroplastics topic when washing are added here.
If you take a look at blankets made of wool or a wool blend fabric, the processed fiber works in exactly the same way as on the body of the original wearer. It stores heat and wicks moisture away from the body. In addition, blankets made of wool have a higher dead weight and are therefore more supple on the horse's back.
In the past, you used blankets as the first instance after trainingTerrycloth. The cotton fiber absorbs sweat well, is kind to the skin and can be machine washed at 60 degrees. A good solution to towel the horses dry in the first step.
Anyone who has the luxury of a horse solarium can of course fall back on it. Care should only be taken to ensure that there is sufficient distance between the lamps in the solarium and the horse's body.
Take care of yourself - winter as well as summer
As mentioned earlier, Latherin makes horse sweat a certain amount of protein. In addition to the salt content, this is responsible for the fact that residues remain in the fur during the drying process and sometimes even cause it to stick together. In order to maintain the natural function of the fur and to prevent skin irritation, the sweat marks should always be removed. Depending on the stable situation, this can be done with warm water and subsequent drying under the solarium or with the appropriateto brush take place.
The correct routine develops over time and of course varies according to the respective "living" and training situation. We hope we could give you a few ideas for the cold season.