HORSE HAIR
The horses haircoat is as thick as human hair. The mane hair is thicker and tail hair is twice as thick. What does the hair tell us about health, genetics, stress and medications?
The horse’s hair coat reflects his health status. The hair coat is shiny when the horse is receiving adequate nutrition and regular grooming. The horse with a compromised immune system due to malnutrition or disease has a dull haircoat with hair that turns the wrong way, or a long haircoat that fails to shed.
In hot & humid climates, there is increased exposure to sun and sweat so the haircoat becomes dull. Frequent baths to wash the salty sweat away, along with shade or stalling the horse during the day helps.
A coat with patches of hair loss, can be due to a bacterial (rain rot) or fungal (ringworm) infection of the skin. These are treated with medicated shampoos, sprays, or ointments. It takes 30 days for the hair to grow back.
Hair loss from itching the mane & top of the tail is due to an allergy to the gnats (noseeums) or small simuliam black flies. Treat the horse with Repel or Deep Woods Off with Deet at dawn and dusk to prevent the gnats from biting. Fly sprays do not work on these gnats. An anti-itch relief shot or powder from the Vet helps.
Hair loss on the neck and chest is from IBH/ insect bite hypersensitivity to the flies. It can be treated with natural insect sprays, MTG, or diluted Skin So Soft. It should be applied at dawn and dusk.
HAIR TESTING
Hair testing is usually done with mane samples, but tail hair can be used.
Cortisol levels in the mane hair can assess stress levels over the previous weeks and months. A blood test only provides the level of cortisol on the day that the sample is pulled. The stress of training causes elevated cortisol levels. Elevated levels would indicate the training work load is too hard.
Complete mineral analyses of hair are not accurate, except for copper & zinc levels or for lead toxicity.
Drug testing uses hair analyses to detect use of drugs long after the drug has exited the blood. Labs focus on banned substances, which can be detected 6 months after its use.
DNA TESTING
Mane/tail hair can be tested for color or pattern genes and congenital diseases. Horses with the infamous quarter horse Impressive lineage have been tested for the HYPP defect for years. Most breeding horses today are 7 “panel” tested for defects and diseases. Selecting a mare or stallion that has negative panel results will ensure that your foal will not have those congenital diseases/defects. Appaloosas, Paints and desired colored horses are often tested for color and pattern. This will determine if they are homozygous (2 copies) or heterozygous (1 copy), or do not have the gene needed to pass color to their offspring. Testing is now available for the presence of gaited genes in horses.
Genetic hair tests can also be used to identify breeds in an unregistered, grade horse. For a genetic test sample, pull 20-30 strands of mane hair that has the roots on the ends. Texas A&M Veterinary Bioscience Animal Genetics Lab, University of California at Davis, and Etalon Equine Genetics do genetic testing.
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