Connor grows epic amounts of winter coat, as I've discussed. And I do body clip him, but I leave his legs, because I don't show in the winter and therefore I don't care about aesthetics, and it just seems kinder to leave some hair there.
But that means every spring, there is one day where suddenly his legs go POOF and all the hair falls off at once, and I think "Oh my god, when did those chestnuts get THAT LONG?!"
The thing is - the winter coat hides them, REALLY well. His undercoat even wraps around the base of it, making it deceptively difficult to see how big they really are until he sheds. Here:
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| That's not so bad... |
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| OMG | | | |
Since the first year this happened, I try to stay on top of peeling them back a little at a time over the winter, but they grow too fast and are too hard to keep up with (which is the reason the one above has a horn on it). So this continues to happen, every spring.
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| This one looks really small... |
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| ...until you realize it's the chestnut equivalent of an iceberg |
Does anyone else have that one day every spring where the chestnuts come up like daffodils and make you feel like a terrible groom? Please tell me I'm not alone!
haha that claw-looking one is intense! I remember being confronted every spring with some pretty gnarly ergots (is that what they're called behind the fetlocks?) on the Belgian mare I leased back in the day.
ReplyDeleteYes, ergots! Connor has tiny ones hidden under his feathers. I do stay on top of those, they are a lot softer and easier to work with.
DeleteMy dogs love eating chestnut peelings... so every time I groom I peel off anything flaky for them. If I leave them too long, they peel back in too thick of a lump and can bleed. Eek!
ReplyDeleteYeah I know, that's why it takes me forever to peel them back in the spring. But I'd rather do that than take my gloves off and do it when it's freezing outside, which is why I get into these situations in the first place.
DeleteYes, Tristan's get easily that long. He also gets ergots on his fetlock. It's super gross. Honestly, his get so long that I can't peel them, no matter what. I usually have to clip around them and then do a very careful cut with a very sharp knife in the spring. Once they're down, I can keep them soft/peelable. But, super gross.
ReplyDeleteI'm very weird and love peeling off chestnuts, or rather I just think they're really icky when they're long so I'm pretty anal about peeling them off. Katai's are almost always flat to her leg for that reason even during the winter lol
ReplyDeleteLol, don't look at Connor's legs when you're here in a few weeks then!!
DeleteNot so much chestnuts, but Rio grows ergots like I've never seen. My farrier is kind enough to cut them back for me when he shoes, because they've broken many a scissor. The won't just peal off either. Ugh. So gross and weird, aren't they?
ReplyDeleteMine grows fairly large chestnuts that are hard as a rock and impossible to easily peel to I am constantly at them in the hopes they don't get out of control
ReplyDeleteI feed them to my dog like Austen does too lol
ReplyDeleteMy horses chestnuts don't grow much but like Stacie my horse grows some nasty ergots and he's the first horse I've had that even grows them.
ReplyDeleteUgh so gross. I can dress and pick at all kinds of horse wounds but chestnuts make me gag! I have to have a friend do that for me!
ReplyDeleteThe chickens fight over hoof scraps and chestnut peelings - I'm compulsive about keeping them in check. So glad to hear of other people peeling them off. Feel like I read somewhere that it was bad to remove them and got worried...
ReplyDeleteComrade has insane chestnuts. Most of the time I have to get my hoof nippers to cut them. The others cobs are not too bad.
ReplyDelete