I have a medium bay mare. Not super light, not super dark. Has anyone used quic black on there bay? It’s said to bring out dapples. What color enhancing do you use in your bay?
A curry comb. Works every time.
I tried Quick Black on my sometimes black, sometimes dark brown horse when I first got him and was seriously underwhelmed. The best thing for his coat is good grooming and lots of fat. If/when I bathe him, I use Dawn, Ivory, or his medicated shampoo.
Nothing “brings out” dapples. They have to HAVE dapples for them them to show up.
I would suggest some sort of supplement, like black-as-night. I believe smartpak has a version too. I have tried a few different ‘color enhancer’ shampoos but have never seen any results, at least in bays. White and black products seem to work.
If you want him to darken up, you can feed paprika, just make sure you take him off of it before going to a show.
I have grey hair. One day I thought it would be fun to put a stripe of color in it so I took a color enhancing shampoo for red horses, coated a few hunks of my hair with the stuff… Not diluted, straight out of the bottle. Let it sit for 10 or 15 minutes before I rinsed it out… Nothing. No color at all. Not one bit… None… OTOH, I’ve left Quik Silver in too long and had slightly purple highlights…
Fourmares: hahaha :lol:
If the product doesn’t have dye in it, it’s not going to work. You have officially proved that for us!
TBH, I would avoid color enhancing shampoos other than the purple stuff, and even then, the more you curry a grey, the easier it will be to wipe off stains with a baby wipe - but that’s another thread!
Instead, I would suggest the basics: best feed you can get, night turn out to prevent sunbleaching, and a lot of currying but not with a hard curry comb. Get one of those rubber curry mitts. They are so much better. Curry with that and brush off dirt with a stiff brush. Then follow with a sheepskin mitt to bring out the natural oils. Works like a charm, but only if you are following good feeding and turnout protocol.
Most of the color-added shampoos will add a layer of color but then will fade away to orange or red especially if the horse is in the sun. At most I would use a black shampoo for the tail if need be.
Higher fat feed.
Shampoo will do nothing for “color enhancement” (unless you are dealing with grey) nor for dapples.
However, actually GROOMING? :yes: Consistent, good grooming works well.
There are good books available on the subject of grooming. They are full of advice (that is tried and true) however it does require (daily) exertion on the part of the groom…
There really are no shortcuts.
Color enhancing shampoos are a waste of money.
If you are looking for a supplement to give a nice healthy shiny coat, Omega Horseshine is an amazing product and is very economical.
If you are looking for a nice shampoo, I actually JUST used Lucky Braids shampoo for the first time this past weekend. I can’t believe I haven’t been using this up I til now. It won’t darken the coat but made my guy REALLY sparkle.
But my guy still doesn’t have dapples…they either have them or they don’t.
Paprika helps darken. It does test though, so don’t use if you compete at rated shows. Can’t force dapples.
