The Joys of Shedding Season

I legitimately enjoy shedding season. Sure if you are running late for a lesson and are in a hurry it can be rather inconvenient for your horse to be dramatically evicting 70%* of the hair from his body when you want to just tack and go.

*Not a real statistic.

But I love spending time grooming. At this time of year even horses that are more ho-hum about grooming really enjoy the time you spend removing all that itchy hair. Plus it's super satisfying, like watching a vacuum infomercial. You can usually tell right where you've been and there's a huge difference from start to finish.

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I will admit that most of the time when removing the itchy hair from the horse I seem to deposit it on myself instead, which is less fun. And also while there is a big difference from start to finish, they always seem to be producing more loose hair so the work is never done. By tomorrow it will look like you haven't brushed him in a month.

But let's not focus on the negatives. Enjoy your meditative groom time, build some arm muscles with that elbow grease, and soak in all the horse bonding time. To help you have the most satisfying experience, I want to review a couple different tools you will find in my groom box:

Standard

StripHair

Furminator

Curry Comb

Gentle Groomer

for Horses

The Ungroomed Beast

Initially I was planning on finding the hairiest horse I could in the barn. I know many of the lesson horses don't get quite as much dedicated attention towards grooming, and some horses are just hairier and less inclined to shed out than others (Pepper I'm looking at you)

What looks to be a bunny massacre was just the aftermath of grooming Pepper during the 2018 spring shed season

But I was feeling kind of lazy the day I went out to groom and photograph for this post. The searching and go-getting just weren't going to happen. So per the norm around here, Merlin got to be the subject.

I like to think I groom him pretty well and semi-regularly, but this is the first time of the season I really dedicated an hour plus to attacking his loose hair. He still had plenty of hair for me to demonstrate with, as you will see in the photos below. Here are the before photos so you know what we started with.

The Standard Curry Comb

I started out with the standard curry comb. I'm pretty sure everyone has one of these so not a whole lot to say about it. In this first photo it's kind of hard to see the hair that's being removed. It tends to collect in the comb instead of below it, plus my hand is in the way. I've also included a video so you can see the hair coming off. 

I used the curry comb on his left shoulder area

Normally I would use a circular motion and a little more vigor/rhythm while currying. But as it turns out circles with my left hand while videoing with my right hand was just too much coordination for my poor brain to handle. I did do some actually proper currying before the video starts.

I started grooming down towards his girth area but the video of that part wasn't good so I trimmed it out. Merlin did not love the curry near his belly. He's been having some cinchy issues that I'm trying to track down, starting with careful re-evaluation of saddle fit. More on that in a different post.

Here is my post-curry comb shed pile

The StripHair Gentle Groomer

Next up I moved down to his back and started working with the large StripHair block.

I bought my StripHair back in April of 2016. Originally it came as a kit with two different sized blocks which you will see me use here. They have since remodeled the StripHair. I'd love to try that one out but I can't justify buying a newer version when my current ones work just fine.

 Original StripHair design.
No copyright infringement is intended

New/Current StripHair design
No copyright infringement is intended

The StripHair large block covered a lot of space in a short period of time. And you can see that it is not only getting a large amount of loose hair, but it's also gathering up dust and dirt particles. 

StripHair large block, in process

Without my hand or the block in the way you can really see the hair/dirt pile/
Sorry for the blurry image. 

Interestingly enough if you look this product up on Amazon there are a lot of complaints and bad reviews although the overall star rating is good. The main complaint seemed to be that it takes a lot of effort.

When using this tool I am naturally inclined to dig in and use a good amount of pressure. The nice thing is that because it has no blades or metal, no hard plastic, I feel very comfortable using pressure in a variety of areas. You can really tell when you are going over a group of muscles that the tool massages them and the horse enjoys it. 

Lots of licking and chewing while I was working with the StripHair on his back. 

But I have noticed that you really don't need to add a lot of pressure. I can't say why I tend to do that inherently, but if I just sort of "wipe" the block over his fur it still picks up a lot of loose hair and dirt.

Yes it does take a lot of time because there is always more hair, and yes it is a workout for my arms (especially on this large guy) but I feel like grooming just takes work. And it's supposed to. It's part of the process and no one said good horse care is easy.

Here's the shed pile I got after doing a small area with the StripHair block

The Furminator

Next I moved even a little farther back and worked with the Furminator. Here I did the last section in front of his hip.

You can pretty well see the line at his hip of what's been groomed and what hasn't

I like the handle on the Furminator. It just feels a little better on my hand/wrist than some of the other tools. It's very easy to use, just comb and go.

Because it is a sharper blade, unlike the StripHair, it is not recommended for legs or faces, or anything near the bone. I also find if the horse has a little bit of a sore or sensitive back they may flinch from it across their topline.

But it makes quick work of getting rid of loose hair. I like using this tool quite a bit but I have two minor complaints:

Sorry for the poop pic! Guess I should have cleaned the stall first.
This is the shed pile from the Furminator.

First complaint: the hair doesn't fall out of the blade on it's own, you have to pull/clean it out every minute or so. It's quick and easy to do, but it does create some what of a disruption in the workflow. The nice thing is you can feel when the blade is too full. It just doesn't grip and have the same friction as before. You can feel when that happens so you don't have to be continually checking.

Furminator stuffed full of hair. Better here than on the horse!

Second complaint: there are a lot of caveats to this tool, per the manufacturer instructions. They recommend to only use once or twice per week, maybe more during shed season. Otherwise you may risk skin irritation for the horse.

The blades also don't seem to be super durable idiot-proof.They said dropping it can damage the teeth, which probably means don't leave it on a tail board for your horse to push off.

You are also not supposed to use it on wet or dirty hair, but I do that anyway. I wouldn't use it on hair that is both dirty and wet. I can't imagine mud in the blades would be good.

I honestly haven't had any trouble with mine, even though I don't follow all the instructions. It came with a small blade cover that is challenging not to lose, but so far I still have it. 

Post-Review Grooming

After using and taking photos of all three products, I went back around and finished my groom. I used the Furminator over all of his neck, body, and rump. The big areas basically. 

Then I went back with the small StripHair to clean up as many little areas as I had patience for. I really got in and around his tendons on his legs. I don't usually do a whole lot with the curry comb there if it's not got dried mud, and I don't use the Furminator on his lower legs at all. 

The smaller StripHair is really good for both upper and lower legs. 

See all the loose hair I am getting, just from doing the top half of his upper leg?

I can't honestly say I sit and do every inch of him this way in one groom sitting, but I usually pick and choose a few smaller areas to give extra attention to.

I like that I can get into his "armpit" area. That little crevice between his foreleg/shoulder and where the girth rests collects a ton of hair. It has to feel better to have it cleaned out and de-fuzzed.

I also worked on the grooves on the front of his neck and his chest, as well as all around his hips. The other good place is to go around his tail and on the back of his legs over his hamstrings. This is another area that I don't visit a ton with the curry comb but he certainly has a lot of shedding to do there.

You can see in the video below that he really enjoys having me work on the muscles and areas around the dock of his tail.

I also took the larger StripHair (and sometimes the smaller too) back over his topline and particularly across his rump. I already removed a lot of hair here with the Furminator, but there's always more.

I have noticed that there are times when the Furminator isn't getting anything, says he's good to go, but if I go in with the StripHair I can loosen more.

I will say that while the StripHair does a great job of pulling up loose hair and dirt all the way from the skin, it doesn't actually remove it from the horse. Which is nice because I don't have to clean out the tool like I would the Furminator. But it does mean that I usually have a dandy brush in my other hand to whisk away the the stuff I loosen. Pretty simple to me.

My Recommendation

I actually would not choose any of these products, but all three. I use all of them for slightly different purposes. 

I think the curry comb is a classic and simple tool. If I need the job done quick and adequately, that is always what I reach for. This is my pre-lesson go to if I'm short on time. It's also great for powering through thick, dried on mud. 

I am sure given enough time and elbow grease you could get great results with the curry comb, but my general impression is that it makes the horse look clean instead of actually being clean. 

I like to use the Furminator in early spring when I have a big hairy job on my hands. I think it gets through a lot of work quickly and it seems like itchy shedding horses really like it. 

I use it periodically throughout the year as well, but gravitate towards it most in spring. It does do a nice job with thick winter coats, so I pull it out through winter too. 

I use both sizes of StripHair all year long. Basically any time I'm not in a hurry, I try to go over at least part of the body with this. It's a really safe way to get at loose hair, dead skin cells, and dust/dirt laying underneath the hair. 

The StripHair is advertised to help spread the coat's natural oils around more evenly, and I do believe that happens. At the very least it makes the horse look very shiny and happy. 

The End Result

I actually moved to a different stall halfway through, so the below photos are not even half of all the hair I groomed off Merlin. There is still some mud on his feathers, not because I couldn't remove it with these tools, but simply because I got tired and lazy.

You can see huge piles of just what came off his lower legs. 

The dark fuzz his harder to see, but all those shadow-y splotches are hair wads that were removed. 

Here he is in all his shiny, clean-looking glory! And in just a mere eighteen hours, in typical horse fashion, he will look homeless again. 😂

Shiny rump!

Topline not looking too shabby but definitely a work in progress muscle-wise

Tada! Finished product.
It's mid-April so he's not quite done with all his winter coat, but he certainly looks and feels better after a good de-shedding groom.