A Question about horses coats, colour changes

[pengapenga]

Today after I had groomed Frits he was enjoying some sunshine when I noticed that his coat had chestnut highlights. He is black and I know that when horses shed coats thier colour changes a bit, and I guess that could explain the highlights. Now for the question and I appologise if it is a rather stupid question :o :D

Can what horses eat effect their coat colour?

For instance if Frits eats a lot of carrots could they effect his coat colour? He gets carrots as part of his diet, what other vegies could I give him? He used to get 'kitchen scraps' as part of his diet in the Netherlands and I thought I would keep him on that?

[chev]

Diet can affect coat colour. It's unlikely that he'd be getting enough carrots to make a difference to his colour though! It might be worth checking he's not copper deficient - that does cause balcks to develop a sort of rusty colour highlight, although if his coat is still very shiny it's unlikely.

Blacks are a funny colour a lot of the time to be honest - true, non-fading blacks are very rare, and most will bleach in the sun to some extent. Some bleach so much they appear dark bay or brown, but if tested they are actually genetically black.

[pengapenga]

Thanks Chev :)

I shall check if he is copper deficient. I have only noticed the red highlights today, he is usually very black. Last week the trainer actually mentioned that Frits seems to be even blacker than when he first met him :)

[Peace]

Have you tried feeding paprika? I haven't, so don't know if it works, but I keep reading that it helps black horses keep their color. Bram is black for about a week after his new coat comes in, but by now (mid-summer) he's bleached out to almost brown in direct sunlight. I like what happens to his mane though - in winter sunlight, it gets streaks of cherry red, just like Ozzy Osbourne! :p But probably not what you want in your show stallion. ;)

[pengapenga]

Feeding paprika, that sounds very interesting :) anyone else heard of this?

Peace I can just picture an Ozzy Osbourne equine :D

[Perfect Pony]

:D well shadow is jet black in the winter and in the summer he goes kinda dark bay, whick looks silly when im show jumping and they call out carla taylor riding shadow dancer!!! Dam him he should be black all yr round with that name!!! :D

[CityGirl]

Paprika is fantastic for keeping the colour dark & rich. I've seen it make a huge impact. The only thing to keep in mind is that it can show up on drug tests as a no-no if you show.

Other things that make a huge difference is BOSS - black oil sunflower seeds. It adds a REALLY nice gloss to their coats:)

[pengapenga]

Thanks CityGirl. I shall see if I can get BOSS here in Australia. Paprika sounds good, but I shall not use it because he is a show horse and they do random drug tests even in the smaller shows, which is what he will be doing this year, next year he go to the bigger shows :)

[entreat]

Are the black oil seeds any different to normal sunflower seeds? If not, you can buy them easily in bulk.

[Styric]

I've noticed my horse's coat changes too!

He's a 10 year old bay standardbred/quarterhorse, and for some reason this summer he started dappling all over. I also suspect he's a blood bay, but I haven't found any information on how to find out for sure.

He's never done that before, but I now have a dappled bay, and it's really pretty.

I'm been trying to find out why he's doing that, but the only thing I could find is that it's an indicator of coat health.

[pengapenga]

I will find out if they differ, I did not think that they did but I have found that in the equine game you learn all sorts of new and interesting things :D

Styric that is very interesting about the dappling :). Was the dappling a good indicator of coat health or not? Not long after Frits arrived I noticed that his coat had some dappling but I have not noticed any for a while now :)

[Styric]

I don't have many good pictures to show the difference, and pardon his scruffiness as it was in midwinter and we'd just had a tough lesson :) Also, the second picture was on a show day, so remember he usually doesn't gleam that much.

I have noticed his coat looks and feels much healthier.. it's not a rough, and he's shiny enough to make most people jealous.

Ever noticed a horse's markings coming and going? Chevy has a star outline that comes and goes. Sometimes it's there and totally obvious, sometimes it's just a couple white hairs.

So I suppose he's living testament that not only can horse's coat change colors, it can dapple/undapple and even markings can change!

Before:

http://styric.no-ip.org/images/winter.jpg

After:

http://styric.no-ip.org/images/spring.jpg

Close up of dapples since the light sucks:

http://styric.no-ip.org/images/dapple.JPG

[pengapenga]

Thanks Styric, Chevy is gorgeous :D My standardbred mare also gets dapples although I have not noticed those lately either. It is winter here and she is often in a rug :) Frits has no markings, he is a friesian and they are not meant to have any white markings although in the breed standards a small white star on the forehead is acceptable, so if I noticed any marking appear I will be very concerned :) Mysty's has a split star marking (the only way I can think of to describe it) but I have not noticed any changes but I shall look out for changes now. :)

[PePpAcOrN]

Hey just thought i'd say.. with the sunflower seed question, when i get seeds for my horses there is a choice between a kind of stripey/grey looking sunflower seed... and jet black ones. I always get the jet black ones. :) it puts a terrific shine on :D They should have them at your produce, if not, a pet supplies store usually has some! :) (thats where i get mine.. pet supplies)

[entreat]

AHHH!! You're right!
I had just never noticed!! Penga - if your hard feed has sunflower seeds, they should be the black ones, as I just realised mine are! I'd never even thought about it, but it makes sense.

caution though - my friend has a couple of sunflowers growing in her field! :p :D LOL!

[Volvic]

I know a black horse who has turned a really light brown just where his tack goes!!! The rest of him is gradually going brown, but he has really obvious markings where his tack has been!

[ticopup]

I have a miniature pony that in the winter is a rich chestnut and in the summer is a pale roan. Very difficult when insurance and passport ask what colour your horse is. eerrrmm depends on what time of the year it is, so for half the year he does not match either insurance or passport papers.

bev

[chev]

Volvic - sweat often causes black hair to bleach to brown, so it's not unusual to see black horses with a brown saddle patch! It can be prevented to an extent by washing the coat down as soon as you untack - only really worth worrying about if you show, where some judges will penalise a bleached coat.

ticopup - true roans often do have two obvious coat colours - a roan colour in summer, and a darker coat in winter. Some have no white at all in their winter coat. The true roan will however always have a body colour mixed with white in teh summer, with head, legs, mane and tail that have no white mixed in at all.If they are the type that then loses all the white roaning in winter, you could note on teh passport that the winter coat is chestnut. Again, that kind of variation is not uncommon. The other thing roans do is grow back hair with no white after injury - opposite to solid coloured horses, who will often have white scars. So a roan that has old scars will often have lines of dark body colour where the injury was - they're called corn marks.