Hey y’all! I’m a Texas-based horse owner with a very very dark bay OTTB and now that May is here, so too is my least favorite thing about Texas – bleaching.
My OTTB is so flipping gorgeous and handsome, and on the off chance we get to do some shows this year, I’d like him to stay that way. Unfortunately, with the sun, he bleaches like a burnished penny.
So I’m looking for your best fly sheet recommendations that can help beat the heat and keep him dark!
No recs on the fly sheet, but is he on copper/zinc to help keep him dark?
Is he out during the day? Can he be in during the day and out at night?
I am not sure that it is just sun exposure that bleaches, but also the number of hours of exposure. Can’t prove that one way or the other, though.
He’s out 24/7 currently, but we move into a new training program here shortly and that’s bound to change. Either way, I’d love to find a breathable fly sheet to help, if possible!
Sweat! The salt from sweat sitting on their coats will bleach. This is why some horses in fly sheets will still bleach on neck/chest/stifles, and why a horse getting all the supplemental Cu/Zn will still bleach.
I’ve got a Premier Equine superlite fly sheet that I’m swapping out for a bigger size, but it’s supposed to block 70%+ UV rays and the bright white is supposed to keep them cooler. Something like wearing white long sleeves in the desert. It was super thin but sturdy and seemed like a good option, though I’ve got to get a different size (reviews said runs big, I’d say runs true to size unless my horse has bulked up a ton since blanket season).
This is EXACTLY what I’m looking for. My OTTB sweats (which, like, fair, he’s a basically black horse in Texas) but I’d love to help him out if I can
nd1 also allows bleaching no matter what you do to the diet. And nd1/nd1 will bleach worse than nd1/nd2.
Wow interesting!!
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