How To Keep Your Horse Slick All Year Long

It’s that time of year when the days get shorter and the temps get cooler and most horses start growing their hair coat. Most horses who live out side year round need that hair to keep warm all winter and some horse owners whose horses don’t live exclusively outside will clip their horses to keep their hair coats short. But there is a way to keep your horses slick all year long.

Since we have horse shows all year, our goal is to keep our horses’ hair coats slick no matter the time of year and to do so without having to body clip. Body clipping is time consuming, dulls the hair coat and makes the hair often grown back thicker so it is preferable to just keep them from growing hair. Studies have shown that 16 hours of light a day will keep horses from growing hair no matter the temperature. 16 hours of light actually stops the hair from growing and will even shed out a furry horse in the middle of winter in about 30-45 days.

If your horse primarily lives inside during the winter and does not need a thicker hair coat to keep him warm you can keep them slick by having lights on in your barn. The light needs to be bright enough so you can read a book in their stall and they need at least 16 hours of it, turnout in the daylight counts as part of the 16 hours. We keep our lights on a timer that kicks them on at 6:00am and on days when it is not cloudy and the horses go outside the lights kick off about 9:00am and then turn on at 4:00pm and then stay on until 10:00pm. So between the lights in the barn and the sunshine they are getting 16 hours of light. All of our horses stay super slick and don’t grow any hair.

Of course since they don’t grow winter hair they still need to be kept warm and our barn is heated and kept about 58 degrees or warmer all winter. Our horses also wear sheets, mid-weight blankets and blankets depending on the temperature to keep them warm. I keep a battery operated digital thermometer in the barn so I know the temperature and can adjust their clothes accordingly.

If you want to keep your horse slick this winter just invest in a timer for your barn light and make sure they are getting 16 hours of light.

The digital thermometer I use in my barn.

Since my horse’s stay slick they do have to be bundled up to go outside when it is cold.