48 hours.
That was all it took.
On Thursday, Henry’s face looked like this:
I gave him Friday off, and showed up Saturday morning to this:
WHY THOUGH, HORSE?
It seems like every summer he tries a fun new thing. There was the time all the hair fell off his chest. Then the next summer was a bald spot on his shoulder. Which was the same summer he rubbed the top of his tail out. Oh and let’s not forget the randomly really swollen sheath that one time where I was like omg he’s never going to be able to pee again.
At least he’s consistently inconsistent in his delicate flower-ness? I have come to expect by now that every summer we’re going to have some kind of hair loss and/or skin disaster and/or allergy blowup. I just never really know where or when it will express itself.
But I’ve managed to halt any further progression (and it even looked a bit better this morning) with our favorite fungus products combined with 24/hr fly mask coverage and upping his allergy supplement. Let me tell you how thrilled he is about all THAT. He is so very itchy right now in general, just like every summer. I get that, but I would really appreciate it if he’d at least keep all of his hair where it’s supposed to be. Like… even coverage, at least. No bald spots. Especially not on his face. This mug is so not Instagram worthy right now.
Fairly certain he’s mad at me for riding him at 6am every day and this is his form of payback. Okay, maybe not.
And what was I doing in the 48 hours while he was trying to remove as much hair from his face as possible? Oh ya know… just dropping $$$ and spending hours upon hours (with literal blood, sweat, and near-homicide) to do some upgrades on his wheels. You’re welcome, Henny! But that’s a whine for another day.
breedrideevent.com 
I think the long litany of skin problems, hair loss, allergy, swelling etc is endemic to OTTB’s. That’s how mine was too. My Hanoverian never does any of that…she only turns into a witch every 3-4 weeks (sigh)
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My yellow horse has lost all his face hair from the eyeball down both years he’s come up from Florida. We thought it was the different bugs in CT, but finally realized he was having some kind of reaction to the shipping halter. Baby can’t wear sheepskin I guess.
Jamp took all the hair (and some of the skin) off his nose this weekend too. Right where the noseband goes of course, so now we’re riding without it. Pray for me when I try to jump him later… I put some KrudZapper on it which is helping pretty quickly, luckily.
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Pig always goes almost entirely bald on his face by August. It starts around his eyes, but eventually only his stripe really has a significant amount of hair. His isn’t weird fungus balding, though. Just seasonal effective balding. Balding for ultimate cooling. Or some shit. At least it’s even. Hopefully Henry will even his bald spots out!
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I’m not convinced that Henry’s is fungus either, considering his history of allergies and hair falling off random places in the summer. That fungus stuff we use is kind of just a general skin soother, so I think it’s mostly just stopping him from rubbing more than it’s actually healing any fungus. I think. I dunno. Whatever. I just keep putting stuff on his face.
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Mine would get into fun fights and plain ole arguments with his turnout buddies for a reason to bang his face on their teeth. Or maybe rap his face against a bucket or fence rail and knock hair off his face that way. Right before a show. Never fails, we go up the center line, all clean and shiny and turned out, with part of his star or race gone. So the judge will have something to look at during that long, long trip up the center line.
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Hmmm… maybe that would distract them from the fact that my horse moves really really crooked in front?
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Yeah … face gunk is pretty annoying. So pleasant to try to treat, too.
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I feel like this is maybe Texas’ fault more than Henry’s fault. Maybe? Damn you, you hot, hot, state!
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im ok with blaming it on texas
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Ugh, Amber is soooooooo itchy too. I bought Teddy’s Tack Trunk itch shampoo and am waiting for it to get here so I can obsessively bathe her with it a few times. Because that horse starts rubbing out her mane, her neck, pushes the fence of her run to itch, gets icky black marks all over herself from itching, rolls 10 million times a day…. I seriously can’t keep up. I’m hoping the itch shampoo works tho!
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I use the shampoo and the stay together and it’s what has at least halted the face rubbing.
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Ohhh that’s nice to know. Thanks!
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Spray… not stay… 🙄 can’t type today
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You know, I actually read that as spray…..LOL
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Annie is sporting similar baldness… 😐
Intrigued by the trailer updates!
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ha ha Henry wants to come live in Delaware with Remus. 🙂 I hope his hair grows back soon. Bless him he needs to be in A/C at your house….
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Frankie just likes it when other horses bite him, so he has a rotating cast of hairless areas on the regular. And he’s guaranteed the instigator. So he just looks fresh from the slaughterhouse every summer. Ugh.
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