Hairy Question
My first sign of spring; Star begins to shed. 
Just a few loose long hairs but it startles me. After all, it is January 29th. But Star is a wooly bear in winter despite her desert-loving Arabian blood. Literally – I can sink my hand into her hair.
Hair? Fur? We call a horse’s coat hair, but why not fur? What is the difference? Hair and fur are chemically the same; keratin, fat, and water. Turns out, it’s semantics. (English Major me is delighted)
Oxford English Dictionary says the Old French verb “forrer” – meaning to encase – is the likely source of the word ‘fur.’ In the Middle-English romance, Kyng Alisaunder, written in the late 1200s, or early 1300s AD, “furred” is used to describe a garment made of a squirrel pelt. About one hundred years later, the word morphed to the noun ‘fur’ encompassing material both on and off an animal.
‘Hair’ on the other hand, is an older word with Germanic sources. Old English ‘her’, or ‘hoer’ can be found in a glossary in the year 800 ad. By the year 1000 AD, it came to mean “the aggregate of hair growing on the skin of an animal and human head.”
Today ‘fur’ generally is accepted to mean soft coats of animals, while hair is longer and thicker. While the words are used interchangeably, horse folks say ‘hair.’ I also can’t help but wonder, if we call it ‘hair’, do we elevate the horse to near human status? Look at any equine owned by a ten-year-old girl, and you just may see a silky, freshly brushed mane and tail, possibly be-decked with bows and braids.
No matter the name, a horse’s coat is more than just shiny wrapping. It protects the skin and body and is a snapshot of the horse’s health. The hair growth is triggered by the amount of sunlight. Once the summer solstice passes, photoperiodism occurs – a physiological reaction to the length of sunlight. Next August, pay attention to your horse’s coat. You’ll notice the strands lengthen. Temperature does contribute. A blanketed horse will not develop as dense a coat.
In summer the coat is slick and short, protecting the skin from the sun and insects. This is the time we look for dapples over the trunk and hindquarters, an age-old sign of health.
In winter, the hair grows long. The dense long coat traps warm air against the skin, insulating the horse, even in those bitter cold nights. But a wet, flattened, or muddy coat cannot do as nature intended. Protection from the elements is important as well as a good supply of hay to sustain energy to keep warm. Judicial blanketing can also help. Blankets go on when nasty cold wet weather ensues, and then un-blanketing and brushing once the weather passes. Most evenings, while Star and Mae hay-munch, I am brushing the day’s mud bath from their hair.
Brushing is essential to the horse and human. For the horse, it removes dirt and debris, distributes oils and just plain feels good. For me, the act of brushing is welcome after a long day. The repetitive movements and satisfaction of a smooth shiny horse are cathartic.
So, Star’s light shedding is actually on target. It’s been just over thirty days since the Winter Solstice. There is still a long way to go until pounds of hair skim off in the teeth of a shedding blade, but for now, as I brush Star and a few hairs float in the air, I smile and think of summer.
