First show in 7 days, Shetland moulting in LUMPS! Aargh!!!

[jurisfictionoperative]

What am I meant to do with it! Help!! look!

[IMG]i978.photobucket.com/albums/ae269/mumsphone/e1c2088c.jpg[/IMG] that didn't work, try this!

Oh I give up! Take my word for it, it's horrendous!

emergency clip.... or hours and hours of brushing?

Have you tried one of those coat king things? They are probably not called that, my mind is mush

Bath it, will get rid of all the loose hair

anyone else think how lucky all the nesting birds around the yard are? huuuuuge clouds of lovely soft nest stuff coming off everyone at the moment

One of the welsh ponies at our place was lying in the sun the other day and had a huge crow sitting on her back, actually pulling tufts of hair straight out of her! She didn't so much as twitch an ear and the bird wandered up and down casually taking bits it fancied.

pixel! I cosmically ordered you! and there you are!

how are you?

One word - furminator www.furminator.com/shedless.cfm
I bought the large dog one and it's fine on my horse, and they're much cheaper on ebay!

Hi Mitchy, not too bad thanks. We've all had a horrible hacking cough so I've been feeling grotty myself while having to deal with ds's sleepless nights (and dh's snoring!) as well. It's been a very long Easter holiday! There hasn't been much horsiness going on beyond the basics, though ds has had a few little rides. He loves that shetland more every time he sees her.

Looks pretty good, had piles of hair that big last 3 times we groomed! :-) might buy one, spaniel is pretty hairy too!

I've got a hairy spaniel too (that is not a euphemism or reference to my hypertestosteronism or something like that, I mean an actual springer spaniel).

Hope you feel better soon Pixel

Mitchy.. You have just given me the biggest laugh I have had all week!
Pixel. Who wouldn't love a Shetland. my daughter has that cough thing and has turned into a chest infection Grrr!

Yes ds had the chest infection, a course of antibiotics later and he's still no better and now I've got it too. Dh is still in the earlier stages so he's got it all to come. Still, I'm soldiering on as we horse owners women do .

I felt so grotty yesterday morning that I almost cancelled my riding lesson but dragged myself out because I've hardly done a thing with dhorse what with holidays and all and it was pretty good in the end.
This week was supposed to be the start of my diet/fitness campaign/getting my allotment sorted/ making myself ride dhorse (instead of wimping out), generally get myself sorted out with the kids back at school.

So what did I do today? Yes, did some digging on the allotment and immediately put my back out . I'm sitting here with a hot wheatbag on my back, hoping I'll be able to get up again. Bloomin' typical!

Jurisfictionoperative I found your picture here and I see what you mean! Your shetland looks just like ours by the way, adorable!

Pixel, are you sure you aren't me? Same pony, same crap holiday? Bet your Shetland doesn't wear a 5'3 rug though! I'd hoped that the chest infection was just bad luck. Hope I don't get it as well! As for the 'wimping out' i think it's just a side effect of being a parent! I've been useless on a horse since kids happened! I now use being overweight and 'having ptsd' after falling off and breaking my arm as a good reason to get out of it! You are braver than me.

Our shetland doesn't wear a rug at all, she is a shetland and we live on the south coast of England (plus she hates them ).

Strangely though she hasn't got a coat nearly as thick as your pony's this year, even though she has Cushings, BUT she has an enormous bald patch on her hip so she's not exactly show pony material either. It started off as one of those little marks they get when they get a nip from another horse but within two days it was six inches across. No clue what it is, it's not sore or scaley or anything and the rest of her is fine. Gorgeous vet is coming tomorrow to do her teeth so he can have a look.

Anyway, she may not need 5'3" rugs but her bit is 5", only 1/2" an inch smaller than my 15hh (ish) cob's!

Lol! My shetlands bigger than your Shetland!
Mine lived out naked in Essex all winter has six inches of hair, and WILL be rugged next winter. I'm not going through this next year, she's got hair enough to moult till august!
very interesting about the bald patch, my friends pony had something similar last autumn, it went away in the end, but I would be interested to hear what your vet has to say if you don't mind sharing.

Pixel - my mare started getting a dry scaly patch on her hip. Combination of having dry skin and the rug rubbing against it when she scratched it. Has got better with having the rug off during the day and extra oil in the feed (they had about 6weeks without oil as i kept forgetting )

Well the hair is growing back already so nothing to worry about. It looks like she's been itchy and got a bit over-zealous with having a good scratch! Vet also says her weight is perfect.

She got a good groom today and had her turn at standing surrounded by piles of hair. I should have taken a photo and we could have played snap.

Bit of an update for you all, after a week of intense coat stripping, resulting in nearly a bin liner of shed hair, and a serious bath, Ducky our Shetland is almost fully moulted. We went to the show today, she was shiny, sleek and gorgeous. there were very few people in attendance, so it was a great starter show for DD for the season, and she got 2 seconds and a third place. DD was less nervous than normal, but didn't push herself, but the sun was glorious, and we all had a lovely time. Have now got to start on the other Shetland who still looks like a yak!

Congratulations and good luck with your yak!

We've been using an equine Furminator (much better than a canine one and well worth the extra money) for the last 6 weeks on ours plus of course they are rugged. We also give them regular baths at this time of the year but if we had one that was moulting badly we'd usually not take him to a show.

We'd consider it too late to clip now as it can spoil their coats for the Summer.

Neither of our Sec As are in good coat yet so we're waiting for them - particularly the palomino who we want in good coat so that he is less likely to be beaten as he is now for sale.

The Connemara is coming good now and, hopefully, goes to do a Picton Novice and young M&M class on May 8th - her first show of the season.