I have been reading on adding a tablespoon of paprika to your horses diet can help keep dark coats dark but a few have commented that paprika is rich in copper and that’s why it works. Why use paprika if copper supplementation would be the same thing? Or is there more to paprika?
I’d just go for the copper, since that so important for many other things! Plus, paprika is a no-no if you show, pretty sure it’s got capsicum in it. You should also make sure you’ve got enough zinc, it’s hand in hand with copper. (Ideally, balance the whole diet from a hay analysis, but guesstimating with FeedXl is a good second option if hay testing isn’t feasible.)
And once you do that, you’ve fallen down the nutrition rabbit hole with the rest of us…lol
4 Likes
It helps with the zinc/copper balance as an antagonist to iron overload. Copper helps encourage pigment, but can’t be given directly without balancing the zinc due to how copper and zinc work against each other as well.
I am feeding 160 mg of copper and 320 mg of zinc for a 1350 pound horse… Ukele. It is a half scoop of each. Just wasn’t sure if paprika had some other mystical power.
I don’t think so.
In the context of what a horse needs, there’s “no” copper in paprika. And this is for a 100gm serving, which is about 1/4lb (454gm/lb)
https://www.nutritionvalue.org/Spices%2C_paprika_nutritional_value.html
[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD]Copper, Cu[/TD]
[TD]0.713 mg[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
So paprika darkens or helps prevent fade from another mechanism? So if you are supplementing with copper, you are still safe with a tablespoon of paprika?
I honestly can’t tell you how paprika works for some horses. I didn’t work for mine. Copper/Zinc have done wonders though.
Color/pigment takes melanin. Melanin requires copper. So the darker the color, the more copper is required beyond just what is required to keep internal functions and hoof health going well.
And yes, there’s no reason to think that even a few tbsp paprika will do any harm, barring the capsaicin testing.
1 Like
This topic comes up pretty frequently- you might want to do a search. The last time I noticed, the discussion got quite …heated …on whether to just add copper, what form of copper, how much copper, whether to do testing, whether to try paprika, etc.
Some products promising darker coats with dapples such as “Black as Night” have quite a lot of paprika, and yes, they would test for showing.
When my horse was younger and I was trying to keep her gorgeous gray dapples I tried adding paprika to her feed. It was probably a coincidence, but she got ill, vet found elevated liver enzymes which resolved in a few days when I stopped the paprika. I have not been able to find any mention of liver effects in any literature or studies but decided I wasn’t going to risk it. Besides, mare said it tasted yucky.
Paprika is a spice derived from the fruits (peppers) of the plant Capsicum annuum. So that is why it will test positive. WRT how “much” copper etc is contained in it may depend in part on where it was grown. South America grows and exports paprika. I’ve seen piles of peppers as big as a school bus waiting to be shipped to plants and turned into paprika.
As a heads up on copper and zinc :the research ( can’t find it right now) said that these minerals need to be fed in a pre mixed formula to make the mineral available in the horses system -it was another mineral I believe. So hoof supplements with copper and zinc have the formula mix to make it useful for a horse. The copper and zinc do equalize iron overload. Too much iron in a horses diet shows up with rust points on manes and tails and even coats, cracked peeling hooves and often excess skin conditions and skin irritation.
If by this you mean, don’t feed straight copper, then you’re right 
You’d never find a straight copper supplement, it’s really caustic like that. I’m not even sure the general public has access to that type of thing.
It’s all going to be copper polysaccharide or copper sulfate or something, in order to be safe to ingest.
Last January I put my horses on California Trace Plus, which is a vitamin/mineral mix with more copper and zinc than most mixes or feeds. My palomino has a very dark winter coat this year - he is usually dark orange in the summer and light gold in the winter. He is currently as dark as he is in the summer - just fluffier.
2 Likes
We are using Ukele so I would assume bioavailability.
Uckele has polysaccharide copper and zinc (as do Horsetech and California Trace). It’s not about the bioavailability, it’s about what is safe to ingest.
If I start feeding copper/zinc now, is it too late to expect to see much difference in fading this coming summer? He’s just starting to lose some of the winter coat, so presumably he has already formed much of the hair that will replace it, but not sure if there’s still at least some hair that’s at a stage to incorporate the extra mineral.
yeah, mostly too late for the Summer coat, especially as far South as you are. But, it still affects skin health, so would possibly benefit if you’ve had rain rot or scratches, and if you have hoof issues it might help there too. But it’s still a good idea to start if you want to find out for the Winter and then especially next Summer.
No, no skin or hoof problems, which is nigh unto a miracle given that he’s out 24/7 and we have been having some variation of rain/mud/outright flooding darn near continuously since freakin’ SEPTEMBER. Particularly striking since he had a heck of a thrush problem in his hinds when I got him in the Fall of '17, and that rainy season was nothing compared to this one. Let’s hear it for getting good consistent hoof care and fixing those contracted heels!
Still debating on sending off a genetic test to find out what color he actually is…
I just started both my horses on copper and zinc from Uckele back in November. I have a black horse and a dark chestnut. Aside from the other health benefits, I am curious how their coats will stay during the summer.
Hijack!
A friend who does breed shows (AQHA & AMHR) claims Black as Knight also accelerates shedding.
With a wooly mammoth mini that I need looking showslick by early May, I am intrigued.
Any field-testing COTHers who can back this up?
