Friesian scurf

Many Friesian horse owners will notice around this time of the year that their horses get a little scurfy. People who are new to the breed often begin to worry that the horse has flees or mites etc but in most cases it is purely dry skin and this is easily seen on the coat. This tends to happen twice per year, when the coat is changing from summer to winter and then again when the summer coat starts to come through. It is perfectly normal and doesn’t last for long. It can be quite frustrating as the more you groom them the more scurf seems to appear. Bathing the horse seems to work really well for a day and then the day after, there seems to be 10 times more dandruff visible on the coat.
The worst effected areas seem to be at the withers and under the mane, also the legs. With most of them this dry flaky skin seems to just appear from no where and then disappears again within a few weeks (some within days). I don’t believe any form of treatment is required, it is just nature taking it’s course. Although grooming is appreciated! This is the time that we need to be careful with manes as if the horse is trying to itch the dry patches they may accidentally rub off sections of the mane so what I do is plait the mane up and make sure the horse is groomed daily with a stiff brush so that they don’t feel the need to stand rubbing on fences and field shelters etc. 

A lot of other breeds of horses will also experience the scurf from time to time but of course the jet black coat of the Friesian is bound to show up the scurf more.