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Young, Inc. 3/21/19 1:45 PM understanding your horse’s coat The secret to bringing out your horse’s natural shine lies in taking account of how his hair grows. By Christine Barakat he color of your horse’s coat is so integral to his identity that it’s usually the first thing you men- tion when describing him: TA chestnut mare. A palomino Quarter Horse. A leopard Appy. But there’s so much more to the equine coat than color. A horse’s hair SHUTTERSTOCK.COM has important functions, both as part PAULA DA SILVA/ARND BRONKHORST PHOTOGRAPHY DA SILVA/ARND PAULA 1 EQUUS EXTRA grooming of his largest organ---the skin--- care of your horse is enjoying the physiology behind its luster. Here’s and on its own. A year-round barrier beauty of his rich, lustrous coat. a closer look at the science behind to insects and the elements, the On the other hand, a dull, rough or the shine. coat thins in time for hot weather sparse coat can be an early sign of and grows long enough to provide illness, nutritional deficiency or ANATOMY OF A HAIR insulation in the winter. The equine hormonal imbalances. Your horse’s coat is made up of coat is a marvel of adaptation. Naturally, you want your horse millions of hairs, each consisting of For horse owners, a horse’s coat to look good. But when working to distinct layers. If you were to look at a plays another important role---it’s a make his coat gleam, it helps to cross section of an equine hair shaft un- good indicator of his overall health. take into account the structure der a microscope, you’d see a tiny core, One of the rewards of taking good and function of its hairs and the PAULA DA SILVA/ARND BRONKHORST PHOTOGRAPHY DA SILVA/ARND PAULA called the medulla. The medulla is filled LISA DIJK/ARND BRONKHORST PHOTOGRAPHY 2 EQUUS EXTRA grooming HAIR ANATOMY with loosely packed cells that shrink HAIR SHAFT when dehydrated, leaving air spaces. In general, the diameter of the medulla hair shaft determines the diameter of the hair--- thicker mane and tail hairs have larger medullas than thinner body hairs. In gray or white human hairs, the medulla sebaceous is more prominent, but it is missing gland altogether in very fine hair. arrector pili A horse’s coat is not muscle only a barrier to insects cuticle hair and the elements, it’s follicle a good indicator of his medulla overall health. cortex The next layer is the cortex, which sweat provides the bulk of the shaft. This layer gland is 85 percent keratin, a fibrous protein that also makes up hoof walls and your own fingernails. These protein fibers are long and parallel, cross-linked for strength. In addition to keratin, the cortex contains water, fats, melanin (the pigment that provides coloration) and minerals. GROWTH The outermost layer of the hair shaft CYCLE is the cuticle, which is made up of overlapping cells that give it a rough, almost scaly surface. The cuticle an- chors the hair shaft in the follicle and plays an important role in how we per- ceive the shine of a horse’s coat. Each hair grows from a follicle, an organ that combines muscles, glands and blood vessels. Various follicles pro- duce specialized hair cells: The ones on the crest, for instance, are equipped to produce thicker hair, perhaps of a differ- anagen early catagen telogen early anagen ent color, than are those on the flanks. catagen anagen Attached to the hair follicles in a BY CELIA STRAIN ILLUSTRATIONS horse’s coat are the arrector pili mus- cles. When arrector pili muscles con- HAIR GROWTH STAGES: During the anagen phase, the hair shaft is produced and tract they lift the hairs off the surface of emerges from the follicle. In the catagen phase, growth stops and the follicle begins to the skin, which helps trap air between shrink. Finally, during the telogen phase, the hair—which is no longer connected to a them, providing insulation. Run your blood supply—is pushed out of the follicle by an emerging new hair. hand through the coat of a fuzzy pony 3 EQUUS EXTRA grooming on a cold winter day and you’ll notice a Shedding in horses is controlled by fuzzier, loftier feeling. That is the work photoperiods. As hours of daylight of his arrector pili muscles. decrease in the late autumn, Next to each follicle is a sebaceous gland, which produces sebum, a natural melatonin production increases, oil that coats each strand. Sebum not which triggers coat growth. only provides a protective barrier for both the skin and hair, repelling water and inhibiting the growth of micro- T: BOB LANGRISH; RIGHT: CARIEN SCHIPPERS BOB LANGRISH; RIGHT: T: organisms, but it also slicks down the F LE “scales” of the cuticle, causing them to reflect light in a uniform way that our eyes and brains interpret as shine. Hair that lacks sufficient oil has a rough outer layer, reflecting light randomly, giving it a dull appearance. At the deepest point of the follicle is the hair root, matrix and papilla, collec- tions of cells in an area referred to as the “bulb” that regulate the growth and eventually the shedding of each shaft. The activity of these cells determine when your truck seats will become cov- ered in horsehair each spring. THE CYCLE OF SHEDDING All hair, yours and your horse’s in- cluded, grows in three distinct phases: RANK SORGE/ARND BRONKHORST PHOTOGRAPHY • In the anagen phase the cells in F 4 EQUUS EXTRA grooming These days, it’s unlikely that a well-tended horse’s dull coat is parasite related, but it can’t hurt to perform a fecal egg count to rule out the possibility. HOTOGRAPHY P PAULA DA SILVA/ARND BRONKHORST DA SILVA/ARND PAULA the bulb are actively producing the hair each other. That’s why you have no shaft. Hair emerges from the follicle “shedding season.” Your horse, on the during this phase and grows longer. other hand, certainly does. How quickly this happens and how long Shedding in horses is controlled the strand grows depends on a variety by photoperiods. Light receptors in a of factors, including genetics. horse’s eyes relay changes in daylight • The relatively shorter catagen phase length to the pineal gland in his brain, is a transitional period in which growth which produces melatonin. As hours of ceases and the follicle begins to shrink. daylight decrease in the late autumn, • In the final telogen stage, growth melatonin production increases, which has stopped and the hair is no longer triggers coat growth. connected to a blood supply. The hair These changes take time, however. remains lodged in the follicle until it Studies have shown that coat changes is literally pushed out by an emerging lag about five to eight weeks behind new hair in the anagen phase of growth. day-length transitions. Since days be- In people, these three phases occur gin to shorten in June, by the middle of concurrently among different hairs. August---when winter may be the last Equine hair follicles produce You’ll lose about 100 hairs from your thing on your mind---your horse’s win- only a single hair at a time. Your dog, own head every day, but many more are ter coat is already starting to grow in. by comparison, has compound hair growing at the same time. Small chang- Similarly, in the depths of a miserably follicles with one central “primary” es occur in human hair growth rates cold February, it may be heartening to hair emerging and three or four finer with the seasons---peaking in remember that within your horse’s hair secondary hairs surrounding it. This late summer and early autumn---and follicles, his sleek summer coat is al- produces the thick “undercoat” hormonal fluctuations, but as a rule, ready taking shape. prominent in many dog breeds. The effect of photoperiods is SHUTTERSTOCK.COM human follicles are not in sync with 5 EQUUS EXTRA grooming To minimize hair breakage, use a comb with the widest teeth you can find on your horse’s mane and tail. sometimes artificially reproduced to control coat growth in show horses. To delay the growth of a horse’s win- ter coat, for example, he may be kept in a barn that remains lit for several hours after sundown to “trick” his body by simulating a longer photoperiod. Similarly, a horse can be encouraged to shed his winter coat earlier by artificial- ly extending the length of the day the horse perceives. Short of manipulating photoperiods, there are a few grooming techniques you can use to support the shedding process (see “Speeding Up Shedding”), but it will usually take four weeks or even longer.