{Note: I wrote this post when it was hosted on another service – moving it here seems to have created some formatting problems-actually I suspect it might be the template – but anyway, it has caused the picture captions to be in the wrong places, it should go pretty much picture caption picture caption in sequence, looks fine in edit mode so I don’t know how to fix}

Ahhh, Spring is in the air.  When you spend time around horses at this time of year you will notice something else in the air too, hair.  Depending on the breed of horse, sometimes a lot of hair.

I always dread this particular two or three week window of time.  If you take any shortcuts in grooming before going for a little ride you will find weeks worth of work when you’re finished – everything is coated with hair.  To avoid this (or at least cut down on it), a good, thorough grooming is needed before you throw that saddle blanket on the horses’ back.  In my case, I have a horse who grows an exceptional winter coat and sheds an exceptional amount of hair come springtime.

To quote my husband, Sebi looks like a furry stuffed animal when the hair loosens and tufts of it are sticking out everywhere.  It also looks pretty uncomfortable since it’s bound to be very itchy for him as all that hair loosens.  Take a look at these pictures I took yesterday when I gave him his first big, grooming during the shed out (we’ll have to do this a few more times before all that loose hair is finally gone for the summer).  There was enough hair on the ground to build another horse.

Also bear in mind we just got over a stretch of wet weather and Sebastian just loves to roll on the ground.  So in addition to the shedding hair he had tangled his mane pretty badly (the rolling twirls the hair around and makes some pretty nasty tangles) and looked like he’d been in a mudslinging contest.  I thought this would make for some really strartling before and after photos.

Sebi before the big grooming…

You can see the hair coming out, doesn’t it look itchy?

This close up really shows the mess he was in…

Just touch him (or even stand downwind of him) and you’re covered in hair

But it got better pretty quickly.  Here are the after photos, the time stamps show the elapsed time from before to after.

It took a little while but oh what a difference, the sad thing is a few days from now it will be all tangled up again, the price of a long mane and free roaming spirit – Sebi is loose in the pasture and rarely stays in his stall.

And the hairy aftermath….

Now for comparison, here’s Mick, he doesn’t create near the drama when he sheds out, but he also doesn’t grow near the coat Sebastian does…Mick hadn’t been touched with a brush or shedding blade recently (he got his turn after Sebastian and after this photo was taken)

The cat watched all of this with interest…this is Ramses…he’s the barn mascot of sorts, he used to hang out on the ledge of the stalls on cold days when the horses were inside.  Now he just gets underfoot when something’s going on at the barn (just in  case someone decides to add more cat food to his bowl). Ramses joined us a year ago this past December.  I picked him up on the side of I-65 one night a couple of weeks before Christmas, just south of Cullman, AL. He acts like he’s been here his whole life.

He’s wondering who is going to clean up all that hair!

While you’re here don’t forget to visit us at our website, there is a link to this blog and I’ve added several more features including a “Links” page.  Check it out!

Bye for now, Lisa Isbell.