to groom or not to groom
Sandy
my horses friend, has a nice thick coat and is also quite fat and
hasn't shown any signs of being cold yet and isn't yet wearing a rug.
She likes to cover herself in mud head to toe and her coat goes sort
of matted on the top - which then, i guess, acts as a barrier against
the cold. But should I still groom her or should I leave her all
muddy as naturally there wouldn't be some human coming along making
her into a fluffy white thing again.......... what do you think??
--------------------------------------
email: sa...@sandygardner.co.uk
online gallery: www.sandygardner.co.uk
Photos of Silhouette: http://www.sandygardner.co.uk/sil1.htm
Laura Newberry
just give her the once over a couple of times a week with a plastic curry
and have done with it. That way you wont take anything out of the coat, but
she wont get matted and rain scaldy. Also, you can have her tied up and
check her for stuff that shouldnt be there like cuts and creepy crawlies
(they love that thick fur!) Also, you dont want her turning into a wild
beast, and not behaving when you do want her to stand and be pampered.
Sandy
>beast, and not behaving when you do want her to stand and be pampered.
HA - she loves being groomed so I doubt theres any chance of that.....
so much that if I'm grooming Silhouette she weedles her way between me
and Silhouette and demands to be groomed and then pulls happy faces!!
Thanks for your answer, I will continue grooming.
Sandy
Esther Young
Sandy <thiswo...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:657f2toqvi8f377c1...@4ax.com...
> Juno, who lives out and is a companion pony that does nothing but be
> my horses friend, has a nice thick coat and is also quite fat and
> hasn't shown any signs of being cold yet and isn't yet wearing a rug.
> She likes to cover herself in mud head to toe and her coat goes sort
> of matted on the top - which then, i guess, acts as a barrier against
> the cold. But should I still groom her or should I leave her all
> muddy as naturally there wouldn't be some human coming along making
> her into a fluffy white thing again.......... what do you think??
Ha! Don't even try getting her white - its a losing battle ;-))
Seriously, though, mine are in the same position as yours, and Lulu (small,
hairy and supposedly white) is unrugged in all the mud. They get a good
checkover twice a day, and once a week I get the *worst* of the mud off, if
it is dry, then I de-matt their manes and tails - and never with anything
finer than fingers, a scraper or a stiff dandy. Not a proper grooming, by
any means. If we're going for a poddle then they'll get the same but with
more attention paid to where tack goes.
If she's got enough coat, Juno *should* be dry (and almost clean!!!) next to
her skin - even in really bad weather. If she's not, thats when problems
(mud fever, rain scald, etc) start.
Lulu has an amazing triple coat. Long guard hairs, a long thick layer that
will 'V' around the guard hairs when it rains, and then a short, thick warm
layer that is always dry. And six inches of beard :-)) Her coat works very
well. I don't mess with it.
Esther
Kay McCart
>leave
>her alone, this lets the coat's natural oils do their job.
Unfortunately however, not for long. Allowing an equine's skin and hair to get
clogged with mud is not at all a good thing. Grooming stimulates the production
of natural oils and allows the skin to do its job properly and to breathe. When
the coat is clogged and heavy with mud the horse cannot "turn" it to create the
natural warming effect which is only possible with the presence of air under
the coat.
Kay
Quorlia
better to leave well alone. The worst thing you can do is rub the mud
into the coat (or simply grooming when wet) as wet can then breach the
coat and make your poor ned very cold.
--
Kirsty <quo...@my-deja.com>
"Horses cannot speak...
...but if you know how to listen they will talk."
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Laura Newberry
a companion or not. So I doubt Sandy would be thinking of grooming when she
was wet anyway. For one it means you have to be at the stables in the rain
for longer :o)
Petra
>>
>But if she has field companions she will be groomed by them
Sorry - that's just nonsense. The "grooming" another horse will be doing is
minimal - and only in places. The bits which are prone to rainscald will not be
groomed by another horse !
>so it is
>better to leave well alone
That depends entirely on the horse. Some will grow a good coat which will not
need any human intervention - some don't.
Some won't the first year they live out - then do the next year - some will
always need more attention.
>The worst thing you can do is rub the mud
>into the coat (or simply grooming when wet) as wet can then breach the
>coat and make your poor ned very cold.
Very true - but for more than that reason. Brushing a damp muddy horse rubs the
mud particles against the skin, leaving minute scratches. The bacteria which
cause mudfever gain entry to the skin and hey presto you have an outbreak of
mudfever or rainscald (which is incidentally the same condition just at
different parts of the body.
Petra
--
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Sandy
all by its self it went fluffy again. She doesn't appear to have any
mud fever on her legs but I have begun to notice some rainscald on her
back in the saddle area and the hair there has gone thinner. last
year when i first went to see her, before I took her home, she had
sores in the same area that looked like saddle sores and the hair was
thin but the riding school said it wasn't because she wasn't ridden
and they thought it was just from wearing her rug......???????
mmmmmmm...........(she was really thin and had quite bad mud fever -
which they said wasn't but didn't know what it was???)
I thought the sores on her back looked bad but they had healed when I
got her though she still had patchy bald bits in this area ...........
i'm wondering if at some point in her life she has had this area
damaged and now its sort of weakened if you get what I mean.
Obviously I'm now treating this area but I thinking maybe I should
put a rug on her, just something light that keeps the rain off as
although the rest of her is fine this area isnt.........or should I
use a barrier there like uddercream or something but I'm not
sure.........
Petra
quickly.
A little bit isn't a problem but if she's already got it I suggest you treat it
and then rug her - she's obviously not up to living out without a rug at the
moment.
It happens dead quickly - and if caught in time a little isn't a real problem -
but it can get worse with terrifying speed (like one day you have a few little
scabs and a week later the coat is coming out by the foot and you have a major
problem. - and big vets bills for antibiotic while you spend much of your spare
time picking off weeping scabs .
Once it's there it's most unlikely she will be able to live out without a rug
this winter !
Nitra got it last winter - not too bad - and I caught it in time - we had
various horses get a little of it this year - those are now in the barns or
rugged.
Do pay attention to it - it's not to be treated lightly !
Laura Newberry
her, then wash that bit (to clean it as well as soften the scabs to make
them easier to pick off) then pick the scabs off (ouch and eugh) Then dry
really thoroughly with a nice clean soft towel.
This winter I have found that protocon has worked really well (thanks Joe, i
think it was you that recommended it!) so slap a bit of that - or some other
sort of cream along the same lines on it (zinc & castor cream for babies
bums, or something)
The most important thing is to keep it clean and dry.
And along the grooming theme again, she sounds like she came from a rotten
home, so I think she deserves lots of spoiling, and that includes grooming!
If you are going to rug her she'll definately need a bit of a dandy brushing
under her rug, it must get quite stuffy under there.
Quorlia
rutt...@aol.com (Petra ) wrote:
> Kirsty wrote :
>
> >>
> >But if she has field companions she will be groomed by them
>
> Sorry - that's just nonsense. The "grooming" another horse will be
doing is
will not be
> groomed by another horse !
>
I'm sorry but that's what I've been taught and the only horses I've met
that have had rainscald/mud fever were ones that were groomed and
ridden daily so I assumed that human grooming of a horse made it more
prone to rainscald/mud fever as you removed oils from the coat.
> >so it is
> >better to leave well alone
>
> That depends entirely on the horse. Some will grow a good coat which
will not
> need any human intervention - some don't.
Well yes, but she did say that the horse was happy living out without a
rug at the moment. I took that to mean she's grown a thick coat and is
keeping warm.
<snip>
> >The worst thing you can do is rub the mud
> >into the coat (or simply grooming when wet) as wet can then breach
the
> >coat and make your poor ned very cold.
>
> Very true - but for more than that reason. Brushing a damp muddy
horse rubs the
> mud particles against the skin, leaving minute scratches.
So why doesn't that happen when you brush a dry muddy horse? The mud
will contain grit (which is what produces the scratches yes?) and
surely it is also possible to rub the mud along the skin if it gets
caught up in your brush? Or should the curry comb break the mud down
enough that this doesn't happen?
> mudfever or rainscald (which is incidentally the same condition just
at
> different parts of the body.
Never knew that - but I suppose it makes sense as they are caused by
the same conditions.
Francis Burton
>> Very true - but for more than that reason. Brushing a damp muddy
>horse rubs the
>> mud particles against the skin, leaving minute scratches.
>
>So why doesn't that happen when you brush a dry muddy horse? The mud
>will contain grit (which is what produces the scratches yes?) and
>surely it is also possible to rub the mud along the skin if it gets
>caught up in your brush? Or should the curry comb break the mud down
>enough that this doesn't happen?
Dried mud tends to fall out of the coat easier with
brushing, so less vigorous brushing is needed to
remove mud when dry, so less scratching occurs?
Wet skin is more easily scratched than dry?
Francis
Petra
>I'm sorry but that's what I've been taught
You were taught wrong and it doesn't make any sense anyway. If you watch how
horses "groom" each other - and then look WHERE they get rainscald you see how
those two can't possibly be connected.
>and the only horses I've met
>that have had rainscald/mud fever were ones that were groomed and
>ridden daily
You must have seen an incredibly unrepresentative sample of horses with
mudfever / rainscald.
> so I assumed that human grooming of a >horse made it more
>prone to rainscald/mud fever as you >removed oils from the coat.
Grooming does not remove oil from the coat - if anything it spreads it.
>Well yes, but she did say that the horse was happy living out without a
>rug at the moment.
If it was happily living out without a rug it wouldn't have rainscald.
> I took that to mean she's grown a thick >coat and is
>keeping warm.
When matted the coat is no longer able to keep the horse warm because the
insulating layer is broken up. Horse's wintercoat mats in "strings" - so you
have partings between the matted bits which let both the water and the cold and
the wind to the skin. The skin swells (like when you're in the bath) and
becomes more prone to scratches - and also the horse gets very cold.
>So why doesn't that happen when you >brush a dry muddy horse?
Several reasons. The mud falls off nicely when dry - you can crumble it between
fingers - especially if there is a decent amount of oil . Wet mud does not fall
off so you rub more.
Secondly wet hair gets flattened to the skin when you brush - whereas dry hair
stands up more (the longer and thicker the coat the more you see that effect)
so when you brush you don't brush the mud into the coat you brush it off it.
A wet muddy horse will get the mud and wet brushed onto the skin, swelling the
skin and leaving it open for those little scratches which let the bacteria in
Lastly the bacteria which causes both mudfever and rainscalled "Dermophilis
Something-or-the-other" is a damp loving anaerobic bacteria - which means it
likes it in damp bits with the oxygen cut off. This doesn't happen when the
horse and the mud is dry - so you can brush the mud off complete with the
bactaeria which are inactive while dry.
Hope that makes a bit of sense
Take care
Petra
The mud
>will contain grit (which is what produces the scratches yes?) and
>surely it is also possible to rub the mud along the skin if it gets
>caught up in your brush? Or should the curry comb break the mud down
>enough that this doesn't happen?
>
>> mudfever or rainscald (which is incidentally the same condition just
>at
>> different parts of the body.
>
>Never knew that - but I suppose it makes sense as they are caused by
>the same conditions.
>
>--
>Kirsty <quo...@my-deja.com>
>
>"Horses cannot speak...
> ...but if you know how to listen they will talk."
>
>
>
>
>
Francis Burton
Petra <rutt...@aol.com> wrote:
>Lastly the bacteria which causes both mudfever and rainscalled "Dermophilis
>Something-or-the-other"
Dermatophilus congolensis
> is a damp loving anaerobic bacteria - which means it
>likes it in damp bits with the oxygen cut off.
Yes, and the scabs which the bacteria cause offer the
ideal environment for them to multiply - which is why
scabs =must= be removed for the disease to clear up
completely.
> This doesn't happen when the
>horse and the mud is dry - so you can brush the mud off complete with the
>bactaeria which are inactive while dry.
I agree with the other reasons you listed, but I don't
buy this one. The bacteria are still there and potentially
infective - they are just not multiplying.
Francis
Petra
>buy this one. The bacteria are still there and potentially
>infective - they are just not multiplying.
not if they're not on the skin and not able to penetrate the skin because
they're dry and so is the skin.
Petra
Quorlia
rutt...@aol.com (Petra ) wrote:
>
> >I'm sorry but that's what I've been taught
>
> You were taught wrong and it doesn't make any sense anyway. If you
watch how
> horses "groom" each other - and then look WHERE they get rainscald
you see how
> those two can't possibly be connected.
My opinion of the person that taught me has taken a very big downturn
thanks to this ng. Grrrrrrr. ;) (not just this thread).
<snip>
> Hope that makes a bit of sense
It did. Thanks.
"If you're afraid to be wrong you'll never learn that you *are* wrong."
--
Kirsty <quo...@my-deja.com>
"Horses cannot speak...
...but if you know how to listen they will talk."
Francis Burton
>
>My opinion of the person that taught me has taken a very big downturn
>thanks to this ng. Grrrrrrr. ;) (not just this thread).
A lot of horsepeople (especially horsepeople) behave
as if they know all the answers, even when they don't.
It doesn't seem to matter if they are professionals
or not. Why is this?!
Anyway, second opinions are the best thing since sliced
bread imho - one reason why this ng is so good.
Francis
JoAnne Billone
have any type of skin condition.
J;0)
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