Today I’m going to be answering one of the frequently asked questions on this site “Do horses have hair or fur?” . As we all know, hair is the slender threadlike outgrowth of the epidermis of an animal. it can also be defined as the hair covering of an animal or body parts.
While fur is the formation of flake-like particles on the surface of the skin, as of dandruff, it’s also the thick soft hair that covers the bodies of some animals.
Hair grows independently and does not stop growing, while fur tends to grow in a more synchronized manner and stops at a certain length. The only difference between human and animal hair is the core of the hair follicles (2).
Horses have several kinds of hair which are more clearer that horses have hair, not fur.
Moreover, all the hair in the horse’s body is all totally different from each other and each of these hair has a special use and function.
Knowing the kind of hair these horses have, will make us realize how wonderful this set of creatures are. We can only group this hair into three different types of hair.
The permanent hair
The temporary hair
The tactile hair
The Permanent Hair
This is where we find what we call the mane, tail, feathers, and eyelashes. The mane makes the horses look beautiful, stronger, and makes it appear more worthwhile. Most people are more after good looking horses.
The mane hair has great use and also helps in presenting our horses with a good look. They protect the horses in their different functions. The eyelashes of the room the vision-related injury. The tail chases fly from peaching on the body as well as bugs, and this makes more sense each time the tail grows taller.
So the least of them all is the horse’s mane. The horse makes use of his mane to shed itself from rainwater, it’s head as well, and also for its blood vessels which is more like the most important of them all.
If the horse’s mane grows longer, healthier, and even thicker the horse will be more protected and valued. Some horses used in some specific areas are allowed to grow their mane down to the knees. While some manes are shaved off totally for some purposes.
Temporary Hair
The coat of the horse is classed up into the temporary hair. It is called temporary hair because of it off two times in a year. First in the spring, and the second time in the fall.
The temporary hair helps in checking the horse’s temperature which is even its a major function. It also gives the horse protective leverage from its surroundings. With this, it shows that the horses will be having even thicker hair around those areas.
Tactical Hair
The tactile hair grows inside the ear of a horse around the muzzle, around the eyes as well.
They are totally thicker and stiff found in the horse’s body. But this doesn’t mean that the horse has fur instead of hair in their body.
Taking Care Of Horse Hair
There are no amount of potions that will enable the horse’s hair to grow if they are not consuming the right nutrition. Healthy hair grows from healthy nutrition and protein. Human hair brushes can not be used for the horse’s hair, you can only use the hairbrush made just for them.
It takes several years to grow just one strand of a horse’s hair so it is advisable not to brush the horse’s hair every day or better still don’t brush it at all. They appear beautiful when brushed but for protection is best we don’t brush them at all.
For removal of dander (1), as well as loosening the horse’s tail, we are advised to brush the dock of its tail bone. The blood flow and growth of the horse occurs when you brush the top part of the horse’s tail bone.
Parasites, insects, and irritation can also make the horse rub its tail. So in other, for your horses not to be rubbing its tail, you will need to protect it from parasites, insects, and irritation. And this will be possible if you regularly de-worm the horse, use insect repellents and visit the veterinarian for the anus irritation.
Treat your horses if found with any form of sores and it should be done properly.
One of the best ways to keep our horses from rubbing its tail is by keeping them in clean surroundings.
Your horses also deserve a bubble bath.
And this can be possible with the application of little shampoo, water in a bucket. You do this by holding the bucket with one hand and deep the tail into the bucket with the other swishing it thoroughly and then rinse.
And is good to note that the horse is the only animal that cannot be killed because of its hair. The horses have soft hair which is similar to human hair. It is long and soft and it keeps growing.
This is also proof that horses do not have fur because fur’s growth is limited, strong, thick and they are possibly found in some animal’s skin but not that of the horse. The only area in the horse’s body that has thicker hair is the ear but it is not as thicker as that of a fur.
In conclusion, Everything we’ve read above about the horse’s hair, the different kinds of hair, maintaining good hair for horses, etc leaves us with the idea of what kind of hair a horse has.
And with these, we should know that never in the history of horses can it be recorded that horses have fur. Just the way humans have hair, so do horses.
In comparison between hair and fur, physiological, chemical form, and genetically, there isn’t any difference between them, Both fur and hair share the same forms.
But not as to say horses have furs like a dog, cat, and other animals. So horses have hair and not fur.
Glossary
