Spring has sprung! I’m happy … and also a little hairy!

Every year, Duchess, my “grandma” horse, starts shedding before me and my fellow-human weather forecasters think it’s time. But always, before long, she proves herself right. This year, the weather has quickly gotten unseasonably warm. Or then again, maybe she just starts early because she knows it’s going to take her so darned long to lose the 80 pounds of hair she packs around each winter.

It’s this ability to quadruple her haircoat that gets us wondering if she might not be part yak. And then we think: maybe that’s the reason for her remarkable longevity, too. What’s the lifespan of a yak? (And we’re talking here about a yak who’s kept in captivity and fed massive quantities of senior feed.) Hybrid vigor, maybe?

At any rate, the photo above shows what she lost this morning at breakfast. I was tempted to weigh the hairball that could pass for a small pony, but then decided I didn’t want to have to clean the kitchen scales afterward. Because, if you’ve got horses, you know what I’m telling you … horse hair is sticky. It clings to everything. Fortunately, I’m beyond caring if people see me with a horse-hair-coated jacket.

The good news in all of this is that my dog doesn’t shed. He just loses – at long last - his winter blanket. His buzz-cut of a haircoat doesn’t provide much warmth, so Whistler wears a Weatherbeeta dog blanket when it’s cold. He rejoices – in that gangly, gawky my-legs-are-too-long Weimaraner kind of way – whenever it’s time to put on his binkie. And now, for the most part, anyhow, it’s time to put it away. He rejoices about that, too. (Of course, he also rejoices when it’s time to eat, time go to bed, because it’s 10 a.m., because tomorrow is Friday, etc.)

I’m rejoicing because spring is here at last. The time springs forward this weekend, giving me another precious hour of daylight in the evenings. And that means more time to spend with the ponies. So what if I’m a little hairy when I come in the house?

Happy riding (and don’t forget to set your clocks Saturday night)!
Holly Clanahan
Editor, America’s Horse magazine

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