Black Horse Turned Rust Color

fairhavenranch · Black Horse Turned Rust Color

My 9 year old gelding, who has always been jet black, faded to rust this summer for the first time. In winter he grows a very thick coat of rust and roan hairs but he always sheds out to jet black with roan hairs in the flank.

We have had some nutritional changes this year and I am wondering what I may have eliminated that may have contributed to this.

Thanks,
Traci

karmikacres

Copper and Zinc play a big role in coat color. Need to make sure your ratios are correct. Fe:Cu:Zn:Mn should be 4:1:3:3. You might have excess iron which competes with Copper. For more information than you'd ever want to know, you can take an online course with Dr. Kellon where she teaches you how to balance an equine diet. Excellent courses.

Karen

PasoBaby_CarolU

A horse with a red gene will be a fading black and turn rust colored. It's often considered sun bleaching, but it really is a red gene. A non-fading black horse does not change.

The magic ingredient in those color enhancer products is paprika.

You should probably check your mineral content and fix it first. If that doesn't solve the problem you can either keep him in the dark or feed him paprika...or just enjoy a horse of a different color.

fairhavenranch

He has never faded like this before. His mother is black and she never faded but his father is sorrel so I guess genetically that makes him a fading black. But something must have changed enough to bring the fading out for the first time this year.

It's quite radical actually.

Traci

appellativo

I don't know whether a deficiency would cause a horse to be more prone to fading, but a friend of mine's black horse faded this summer and then got an injury which required him be kept stalled for several weeks, and he is now jet black again, with no change in his diet. I think it's entirely feasible that with the changes in the weather (as caused by astronomical changes ie the sun's relation to the earth, because the sun is going through recent changes as opposed to their absence in the past...sunspots and flares, etc) it is possible that sun bleaching alone could be the cause. It's all speculation though, and of course you should be sure his diet is balanced properly.

Mandy'sMarty

Erin--If the horse you described was stall boarded for several weeks after being taken off pasture board...then it's possible that horse was not eating pasture forage for several weeks...and if that horse was used to being boarded in a pasture with high iron content in the soil, grass, and water....well, then you have a likely explanation.

My horse lives in a world where there is way too much iron--in the soil, grass and water. Iron was mined in this region in the 19th century. The mud here is red. Iron competes with copper metabolically in the horse. Copper is very important in maintaining coat color. I have to be diligent in maintaining Mandy as a redhead.

fairhavenranch

Leah

Copper deficiency

misstux

When Dusty was on the Sterretts pellets with minerals balanced to the hay the pellets were made from (by Dr. Kellon), he did not fade. With paprika he turned red.

appellativo

the horse I mentioned earlier is kept in a 1 acre paddock where there is little to no grass. But, a little stressed out grass may have been enough to cause problems..??