Coats born with different coat types

[capall beag]

I am wondering looking at all these beautiful newborns....... I live in Southern Maine, mares still have pretty heavy winter coats, though shedding heavily. Our colt born on saturday was born with a beautiful slick coat, he glistens in the sun but it is a very short coat, like a shiny summer coat.

Now I have seen foals that are born in warmer climates and they look like they have thick, almost wavy coats?

Why is this?

 

[Chamomile]

I don't know why that is either! We have our little filly who has a long wavy coat and then our little colt has a very short, shiney coat. Both were born here withing a week and a half of eachother. Both when it's been pretty chilly... so I guess the weather doesn't have muh to do with it

: And something else that is interesting is that the colt's mama has always had a really thick coat that she didn't shed. We always have had to body clip her. The filly's mama has a beautiful slick hair coat, now anyway. And she shed off all by herself. So the outcome, the shaggy versus the slick coat is backwards from what we thought it would be! I do have to say that the colt's daddy, Erica's Prince Charming has a beautiful slick coat, so maybe he passes that on!

 

[littlearab]

I have had 2 foals so far up here in ND. One was born with a thin slick coat and one with a thick curly coat. They were born 3 days apart. I also lost one foal had he had a slick coat.

Must be just in the genes.

 

[capall beag]

Anyone else have ideas.....it is interesting!

Yes, my colts coat isn't like what I have seen before in a foal coat, it is slick and he looked dry almost immediately! It is very pretty, he looks like a deer

 

[MtnShadowsFarm]

I suppose genetics could certainly be a factor!

Another explaination I've heard is that is can be a sign of "DIS-maturity"..which is different from "pre-maturity"! Premature foals would tend to be born at an early gestation. Dismature foal MAY be born at a "normal" gestation, but not "fully cooked" developmentally. From my understanding, the longer hair is one of the "finishing touches" to the appearance of the Mini foal before birth, so perhaps it just popped out a bit dismaturely?

Having seen several PREmature foals this is almost always a characteristic..short hair coat..but they usually are smaller and have other signs of PREmaturity as well....

 

[Songcatcher]

I have often wondered about the same thing. Obviously the time of year is not the deciding factor. My last foal of last year had one of the thickest longest coats of any of the foals.

Some of the foals from my stallion have thick heavy coats and others have slick coats.

One mare (who has a relatively slick coat) had a colt last year that resembled a buffalo his coat was so shaggy. This year, same mare, colt born approximately same time of year, approximately same gestation period, has a very slick coated colt (although this colt is from my stallion and last years is from a different stallion).

Another mare with relatively slick coat had a foal last year with relatively slick coat. This year, approximately same gestation, same time of year, colt has a really wooly coat.

Who knows?

:

 

[MagicTheMini]

Could it have anything to do with how long the baby "cooked"? I know my BH colt was born at about 375 days and he was a wooly mammoth. His mother never really grew that much hair in the winter and he was born early in the year. Another mare also delivered her baby early in the year, furry mom, same year and he was slick. We are not sure how long he cooked, but he was born on the early estimate of the vet. Mom was somewhat of a rescue; she was real skinny, no proper nutrition, and no one knew she when/if she was bred. Both of these were big horses, born early in the year (feb./march), and opposite of their moms. I was told hair was one of the last things to develope, so maybe that has an effect on it...Just a thought. L