We all know the routine: The sun is out, temperatures warming up, and the days are getting longer. It’s time to think summer, and as we start to shed our winter wear, so do our horses–it’s shedding season.

To me, shedding season means hours spent at the barn getting the ultimate upper body workout with curry combs and shedding blades, trying to get those last bits of dull winter hair off my horses so their sleek, shiny coat can show through. It is always a chore that finds you covered in more horse than your horse.

You find horsehair everywhere: On the trees and fence posts where they’ve rubbed, in the grass where they’ve rolled, and of course, on your clothes.

Growing up, I became accustomed to seeing the barn swallows’ nests adorned with chunks of winter hair and some strands of mane or tail decorating our barn. It seemed like the birds enjoyed my pony’s constant shedding coat more so than the others because the nests were mostly mud and white hair from Pepper’s gray fuzz. Now they’re brown or they have an orange tint from the chestnut or palomino coats in our barn