Hair Care

I've written about Izzy's hair color a few times, but I can't find the posts I wanted to share about how much his coat fades in the summer. Suffice it to say that since we left our last barn a year and a half ago, his chocolatey coat filled with dapples is long gone.

November 2015

I have lots of photos like the one above. And the shine is just good health as I am not much of a groomer. At our old barn, Izzy had a large, two-sided covered space in which to hang out. His water and feed were positioned there, so he spent a lot of time inside.

Izzy's last stall.

Izzy now lives in a huge dry "pasture" that has trees for shelter, but no actual roof. He loves it and doesn't seem to mind standing outside during the occasional rainy day.

Half of Izzy's dry lot pasture.

While I love being able to let my boys be real horses, our 350 days of sunshine are hard on hair. Last summer, Izzy turned into a buckskin.

August 2017 - is that a buckskin I see?

He won't wear a flysheet for longer than eight minutes, and he refuses to stand in the shade even though I've begged. So this year, I am trying something different.

In the past, I've stuck with Pyranha Fly Spray as it was the most effective on our fly population. Since it's oil-based though, I think it contributed to the burned hair that Izzy gets. So for this year's fly season (all nine months of it), I've switched to Equiderma Neem and Aloe Fly Spray. I can't say yet whether it works as well as Pyranha, but it does smell good and since it's water based, I am hoping it will be kinder to his hair. I ordered two new bottles over the weekend to take advantage of Riding Warehouse's gift card promotion.

My new summer arsenal.

Another product I am trying is Knotty Horse Apricot Reconstructing Conditioner. I've been using it for nearly a month. First of all, it smells really, really good. At $28.95 though, it has to do more than just smell good. So far, I am spraying it pretty liberally all over Izzy's body each time I groom or ride.

According to the directions, you can even use it under the saddle which is great because that's the part of Izzy's coat that suffers the most from sweat and sun. Even though I hose him off, the salt in his sweat is still pretty harsh. The product claims that it repairs damaged ends and softens the hair.

Kind of shiny and not too faded yet ...

It's too early to tell how effective my new protocol will be. I like the Knotty Horse Conditioner though. It leaves Izzy's coat looking pretty shiny and feeling smooth. It's too soon to say how long the effect lasts though. Just in case it is working, I ordered a second bottle to have as soon as the first one runs out.

​I'll keep you posted.