Skin dies off as a result of direct injury to the cells or loss of blood supply which provides nourishment. The exact cause of skin sloughing could include trauma, loss of blood supply, damage by infectious agents, severe allergy, poisonous snake and spider bites, and many others.

Any sort of skin trauma (especially bites or kicks from another horse) may not initially result in a visible problem other than a slight swelling and what appears to be a scrape. However the skin may actually be more severely damaged, and it may begin to dry up and slough off in a few days.

Sometimes only the superficial layer of skin peels off. In other cases, the damage is full skin thickness, resulting in an open wound underneath. In partial thickness sloughing, there will be thickening of the underlying skin and generally hair will re-grow in the area. For full thickness wounds, scarring may result.