Fauna Friday: hungry ponies

You've seen pics like this before but it was just such a lovely bright day and I thought they looked so cute. They are wearing their headcollars in the field, which is unusual but it's because I am now free to ride 7 days a week so may as well leave the collars on for easy access at any time.
I hope you can see the crusty look to their coats, particularly Skylark's (right). We have been having heavy showers of tiny sharp hail which I think is to small to qualify as hail so I call it 'the granules'. Anyway the ponies' coats have got wet with them, then frozen and dried out hard and crusty, like your washing does when you leave it out in the frost. This on ponies actually means that their coats are very efficient. If they are frozen on the outside, then the body heat is not escaping from inside to thaw the frost. They have an inner downy layer in their coats and that is what is insulating their bodies, leaving the long, rough, outer ,guard, hairs to deal with the weather.
So whe you see a pony's coat frozen white, don't say 'Oh, poor frozen pony and cruel owner!' say 'What a well insulated coat that pony has!' Its best coat is the one it was born with.

Hubby update: He's been in hospital for a few days having 5 litres drained form his lung. I hope he will be out by the 7th as it's my birthday.