Big back problems- white hair

["Quentin Llop" <qhll@eznet.net>]

My experience with white hair/hair loss has been caused not by pressure but
by motion, especially motion combined with rain rot fungus. One horse
developed a patch of white hair that corresponds exactly to her harness
saddle. She only drives in a pair so there is never any weight on the
saddle. When some of the fungus gets rubbed in by saddle motion all the hair
sloughs off and white hair grows in. This is much more common on the young
horses who haven,t as much resistance to the fungus. I think fitting the
saddle carefully over a large area may even increase this problem. I try to
find a pad with some shear so the saddle can move independantly of the
horses back. Sheepskin is great. The no-slip pad (which BTW really works)
has a nice shear but I worry about heat build up on long rides. We have some
sucess using army blankets which are wool and folded into 6 layers. The army
training films are available on home video and show how to fold the blanket
and slide down cliffs!     Washing the horses backs after every ride with a
dilute bleach solution helps.   Libby