Shedding winter’s coat
When Old Man Winter comes around our hills, the animals seem to have a built-in mechanism that creates a defense from the cold. Depending on the type of animal, it’s usually nothing more complex than a slightly thicker or more dense covering.
Most horses and cows are not known for having much more than short, slick hair covering the majority of their body. Some of course, do have a slightly more dense covering of hair during the warm months. But when cold weather arrives, all the coats become more thick and dense, even though it may not look that way at first. Closer inspection will reveal many fine, almost fuzzy hairs growing between the slightly larger, and longer hairs of the surface coat.
The underlying body of the animal heats the air in between the fuzzy little hairs, keeping the animal warm, seemingly even in a driving rain. Presumably, the oils in the little fine hairs keep the water away from the skin. Or possibly, the water does get through, but the body’s warmth keeps the skin temperature high enough to prevent the animal from getting chilled.
However, all that is simply conjecture, for I really don’t know exactly what happens, except that it works. And it works quite well, however it functions.
When Old Man Winter packs up and heads back north for the summer, a great change has to happen with the coats of protection for these animals. Warm weather does not require, nor will it allow the presence of additional insulation between the bigger and longer hairs. So the animals have to shed somehow to rid themselves of the additional protection.
The process of getting rid of it for cows is simply to rub against things. Often in the spring you will see a stump or stick, or a limb hanging down from a tree, with winter hair stuck to it. An old cow has found the rubbing spot, and scratched to rid herself of her now-too-warm covering.
Dogs with heavier coats all year will have an almost impenetrable fine-hair coat underneath in the winter. A little spring-time effort with a comb and brush will certainly aide a longer-haired dog rid themselves of the winter coat. But short-haired dogs seem to shed, often on a continual basis, much to the chagrin of the owners, rubbing it off on couches, carpets, and beds. They seem to be especially fond of rubbing against dark clothing to get the finest hairs to come loose. But one of the more interesting processes of removing a heavy winter coat is observed in the equine community.
Most horses are not known for a thick wooly covering, even in the coldest months. Their hair is closer to the skin, and not fuzzy. Or at least most horses aren’t considered fuzzy, but usually appear sleek and shiny. On the other hand, my strawberry roan mare, most appropriately named Strawberry, develops one of the thickest coats I’ve ever seen on a horse. Her beautiful red and white speckled coloring gets amazingly well protected by a very dense and heavy coating of fine hair during the winter months. When spring comes along, she has to get rid of this heavy coat lest she swelter on warm spring days.
To do this, she rolls. And boy does she roll. There have been times when I’ve found bare patches of gravel or dirt in the middle of the pasture have suddenly turned white with all her shedding hair. The dirt seems to scrub and rub better than the grass, so she returns to the bare patch of ground repeatedly, rolling several times.
I have a big circular curry comb that works very well to help her get rid of the heavy under-coat. When I can find the time, I try to go out and give her a good scratching. This fills the teeth of the comb very quickly. A good currying along her broad back rapidly turns the comb into a white pad of hair. If I flip the comb over, it only takes another two or three swipes until I have both sides full of removed hair.
A quick bang on a post, or on my hand will knock the hair pad loose to fall on the ground, and I can then return to my task of combing and grooming Strawberry’s coat. But the results of a currying and brushing session leave their mark on the ground around her, as you can see from the picture this morning.
A couple of mornings ago, I took the curry comb off the hook and ventured out into the pasture with the horses. Dandy came up first, as he always does. He’s the dominant one, and will immediately check out what is going on. Since he also has a small amount of winter fuzz, I started with him. With little effort I had most of his coat in pretty good shape for summer, as his hair is normally shorter and closer to the body than Strawberry’s. Ruby, the little Appy, came over to see what I was doing for Dandy, and nosed in to get her share of attention.
A few moments of effort on Ruby removed quite a bit of her winter covering. By then, Strawberry had come up and was patiently waiting for her turn. Turning to her big back, I repeatedly filled the comb, then knocked it loose on the ground. This created a mess of hair on the ground, and even in the feed pan.
None of the horses were ready for me to quit, even though my morning was getting away and I needed to move on to other tasks. Even Dandy, who can be a bit of a stinker at times, nuzzled me more than once while I worked on Ruby and Strawberry. It was as if he were saying, “Hey, come back over here and scratch my back. That feels good.”