Dull, almost coarse coat

[RubySlippers]

My new horse is healthy and beautiful but her coat lacks shine and is not as soft as I would like it to be. She is in her early 20’s and is fed 6 quarts of Purina Senior twice a day along with Platinum Performance. I recently added SmartPak’s Bug Off with the hopes of it helping her sensitivity to biting bugs as well as the benefits it offers soon and coat.
coat. She is regularly worked and vet checked healthy.

What does everyone do to help your horse get that gleaming coat? Not looking for a show sheen fix but would really like to give her what she needs to have a healthy shine.

I have considered adding coconut oil or some other type of oil to her grain. She is already getting stuff that is supposed to be good for skin and coat but it hasn’t helped much.

I’m out to groom her every few days and always curry the heck out of her and it’s helped but she still has a dull and bleached color.

[walkinthewalk]

My 22 & 23 yr old trail horses do have show sheen coats; one is insulin resistant and has foundered.

be sure your de-working protocol is appropriate for your horse’s living environment. Mine are isolated on 20+ acres and only see a tube of paste twice yearly, three times max if I suspect pin worms.

neither of them get bagged feed or ration balancers of any sort.

they do get a vit/min/mineral supplement.

the IR horse gets his shine from NANRIC’s Extra Strength Biotin 100, daily.

the healthy horse gets his shine from half measuring cup of Omega-3 Horse Shine, daily.

i mix everything with water and 1-1/2 cups of Timothy pellets.

[JB]

What is the forage situation?

If she’s on hay only, there’s little to no Vit E there, and that amount of Sr likely isn’t enough.

IME, coats like that are due to parasite loads, or copper and zinc deficiencies, or both.

No matter how well “balanced” the Sr seems to be in the cu/zn department, if the forage is high in iron, there’s an imbalance in the majority of the diet, so supplementing those helps.

Coats like that aren’t fixed by just adding Omega 3 or a fat supplement. Those things take a nice, but lacking oomph, coat and make it nicer. What you’re describing is an inherently unhealthy coat that is beyond just not enough Omega 3.

[fjordmom]

How do I get mine to shine?

High quality, low NSC/ESC hay, (One is IR, the other did not test IR, but has that easy keeper physique that has IR future written all over him.), Essential K ration balancer, ground flax (which is what I think really helps), and LOTS of elbow grease.

It may take a season or two of shedding out an old dull coat before a new healthier one grows in. Neither have been anywhere near a bottle of coat polish. Over winter I put their tails up in bags and in the spring I have to trim at least 6-8 inches so they don’t step on them.

[RubySlippers]

She is a 24/7 pasture horse on good grass and gets good hay. She was tossed around a bit before I got her and it could be that her body is still adjusting to the current situation as she has only been here since fall last year.

She has had fecal done and is a low shedder and was worked appropriately.

Working on getting her in shape inside and out so I’m open to suggestions.

[Bluey]

Try cutting down the grain and adding alfalfa.
One small flake morning and night tends to do wonders for most horses, especially older horse’s condition.
That is what the U of CA at Davis uses for their re-feeding protocol as the base of their ration.

Just try it for a bit and see what happens.

Our horses only get a handful of grain to mix their medication in, but live on alfalfa, for decades now and thrive.

[Palm_Beach]

Mine are show ring shiny. I feed a first cutting medium quality orchard grass and Triple Crown lite (1-2 lbs a day). One gets 1/4 cup ground flax. I don’t groom much, just knock the dust off before I ride, and they have mirror-like coats.

[Angela_Freda]

Also rarely use shampoo/soap on them, if they are sweaty a nice thorough rinse with the hose is enough to get salty sweat off so as to not damage the coat while not stripping it.
The only coat spray I use is Healthy Hair care, it gets diluted, so I used to make a bottle of just that for non bug season and mixed with fly spray during bug season.

ETA I would think with this horses history that in Fall or next spring, with good nutrition and dealing with any underlying issues if they exist, you’ll get a nicer coat.

[tabula_rashah]

I had one Morgan mare that just had a funky coat like that. She was a bright, copper chestnut but I had her for 23 years since the day she was born and her coat was always coarse and never felt nice like the rest of my horses. There were no health or nutrition issues. She also had a lot of weird swirls in her coat. I’ve met a couple other horses like this, oddly they were all chestnuts.

[EmilyM]

at that age I would probably also test her thyroid assuming the coat is coarse. my then 9 year old had a bit of a coarse coat and he now gets a scoop of thyro-l. he had been fed top quality feed and supplements, but it was his thryoid killing his coat.

[rideon2]

Love Omega Horseshine for coat issues!

[luvmyhackney]

Get the Thyroid tested. After that add some fat to the diet. Then curry till your arm falls off. An old trick is to fill a bucket with warm water and add oil (Baby oil or Skin So soft) a good glug. Then sponge the horse all over. Rub out with a piece of burlap in the shade.

As Angela said above, Healthy healthcare spray is the bomb. As is the Ultra Sparkle light oil sunscreen. I mix it in the fly spray for sunscreen. Dirt comes right off.

[candyappy]

There are supplements out there that have the added vitamins & minerals to target the skin/ hooves/ coat. I would try that. She might not be getting all she needs with just the senior feed.

[Bluey]

@luvmyhackney

Get the Thyroid tested. After that add some fat to the diet. Then curry till your arm falls off. An old trick is to fill a bucket with warm water and add oil (Baby oil or Skin So soft) a good glug. Then sponge the horse all over. Rub out with a piece of burlap in the shade.

As Angela said above, Healthy healthcare spray is the bomb. As is the Ultra Sparkle light oil sunscreen. I mix it in the fly spray for sunscreen. Dirt comes right off.

Be careful with adding fat to horses that may have metabolic problems:

“Our work suggests that there may some potential treatments that focus more on regulating lipids, rather than sugars.”—

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/393…ign=07-03-2017

Just more to consider.

[luvmyhackney]

@Bluey

Be careful with adding fat to horses that may have metabolic problems:

“Our work suggests that there may some potential treatments that focus more on regulating lipids, rather than sugars.”—

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/393…ign=07-03-2017

Just more to consider.

Not saying switch the horse to a fat based diet but adding a cupful of flax with is between 60% and 70% fat helps fill in some gaps plus adds a few calories.OP needs to weigh the food to make sure horse is getting lb wise what horse should be. After pulling the info for the feed, I don’t think the horse is getting the minimal requirements unless horse is small.

[JB]

@Montanas_Girl

As JB mentioned, copper and/or zinc deficiencies are associated with a dull coat,

Not to mention coarse, as a copper deficiency also tends to lead to a fish hook end to the hair, for a rough/coarse feel

[RubySlippers]

My other two horses have PPID and I don’t see any symptoms in her at all but planned to have her levels checked in the fall as a precaution.

She is under 15 hands so not feeding a giant but she was underweight when I got her and due to not being worked in years we kept her grain ration up to prevent weight loss from working.

There has been improvement since I got her but not as much as I would like. I may just be expecting too much too soon but even one of my PPID horses has a nice coat (the other doesn’t) so trying to make sure I have all my bases covered on the daily care before I get into blood work etc.

[dani0303]

My 24 year old is glowing this year. He sprung dapples for the first time in the 17 years I’ve owned him.

This is what he’s on:
6lbs Triple Crown Senior
SmartPak Smart Combo Senior Ultra
1-2 flakes alfalfa
Free choice (3x3x8 bale) 12% protein tested brome hay

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18300877_10213095454609765_8715887474038927825_n.jpg?oh=5394678848e5dfc143477b14759d535b&oe=5A04BAD7
Picture was taken while he was about 80% shed out.

[CanteringCarrot]

One of my horses came with a more duller coat than others. A little course in spots. However, I think that could be from living in the hot and sunny climate in Spain.

Over the last two months it has improved and now there is shine. I use Healthy Hair Care moisturizer, gave a good tea tree oil shampoo once, and groom daily (curry comb and all). He eats pasture grass and a round bale free choice. He does not get much in the way of concentrated feed, so I’m doing an analysis and adding a vit/min supplement since he’s an easy keeper. I’m curious to see if adding that helps! Your horse could easily deficient in certain minerals.

If she’s dull and bleached, it may have to shed out before you see improvement. I always give my guy access to shelter (whether or not he uses it…), hose him throughly after sweating, and try not to deplete the coats natural oils too much with excessive bathing.

In the past in addition to what I do now, I’ve always had my horses on flax.
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