Preventing/Improving a Sunbleached Coat

[RideEveryStride]

This is my first Summer owning a dark bay, and unfortunately the sun has done a number on his coat and he is now looking more like a buckskin :no:

He is turned out 24/7 in a fairly rowdy group, so I am not sure that a fly sheet would survive out there (not to mention that it gets HOT here). I am also not able to keep him in a stall during the day as it is not in my budget.

Does anyone have any potential solutions to prevent and potentially reverse sun bleaching? I am planning to body clip him before our next show, but he has gotten so light I am not sure how much it is going to help. Fingers crossed!

[Helicon]

Try a coat supplement that contains copper and zinc. I like Reithoof for best quality and value.

[flexion]

The bad news: reversing the sunbleaching isn’t possible and preventatives must be employed before the summer coat grows in. The good news: the body clip is likely to help a lot and there are a few things you can do to make the coat look healthy.

1. Feed fats, oils, omega3s… in the form of rice bran, pure oil, a coat supplement, flax seed, BOSS, biotin, whatever you like. We want shine.

2. Don’t leave any sweat on the coat, always hose (not sponge) off. The salt will further the bleaching.

3. Curry after riding when the horse is warm and you are likely to get more loose hair out. Dapples will help the coat look great, even if it’s overall too light.

4. Black hair dye on the tail if it’s turning red at the ends.

For preventatives for the next season’s coat, start feeding a supplement that contains copper and zinc. Something that isn’t paprika derived and won’t test if you’re showing. This or a fly sheet are the only things that will keep a turned out bay dark. Good luck!

[flexion]

As an example: short coat + shine + a hint of a dapple and my horse looks totally acceptable for an almost-black dark bay (this is without any preventative action taken).

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[equine08]

All of the above are good suggestions. What works for us on a normally dark bay horse with a tan (not red) tint to the coat is washing with a shampoo for black horses. We bathe daily post training. Be sure to hose off all the heavy sweat and dirt first as the shampoo is not a deep cleaner. Wet the sponge and spread the shampoo around full strength on the horse. Leave it on for 10 minutes then rinse thoroughly. It rinses easily. The shampoo also has optical brightners too and makes the horse look darker. It’s about $26/ half gallon which gives us roughly a month’s supply with daily bathing.

[RideEveryStride]

@equine08

All of the above are good suggestions. What works for us on a normally dark bay horse with a tan (not red) tint to the coat is washing with a shampoo for black horses. We bathe daily post training. Be sure to hose off all the heavy sweat and dirt first as the shampoo is not a deep cleaner. Wet the sponge and spread the shampoo around full strength on the horse. Leave it on for 10 minutes then rinse thoroughly. It rinses easily. The shampoo also has optical brightners too and makes the horse look darker. It’s about $26/ half gallon which gives us roughly a month’s supply with daily bathing.

Thank you all so much for the advice! What brand of shampoo do you recommend? I have seen the Gallop Color shampoos, but I was not sure if there are more brands out there!

[BroncoMo]

In my experience, the Exhibitor series of shampoos are the best. They make the “Quick” line; Quick Silver, Quick Braid, Quick Black. I didn’t think Quick Black did much on my youth horse, but that was a long time ago. I am going to start using it again on my clipped and faded yearling.

I agree with the above about copper and zinc. I slacked for a short time on supplementation and my yearling quickly turned a nasty faded color; normally seal brown. I clipped him because show slick does not happen up here in the tundra. So then he became dry, faded, and burnt looking. Lots of grooming, flax, and a hot oil bath now has him shiny and dappled, albeit the wrong color. He looks like a sooty buckskin, but at least he’s shiny and dappled.

Oh oh and I dyed his tail. He’s a yearling and took two boxes of treatment to get the bleached ends. But now has a nice evenly black tail. I just condition often and avoid washing his tail unless I have to.

I feel your pain. But at this point it’s permanent until a new coat grows in.

[candyappy]

What is wrong with buckskin??

[BroncoMo]

@candyappy

What is wrong with buckskin??

There’s nothing wrong with buckskin. I’ve owned a handful. It’s just that he is naturally a dark seal brown. For the time being he’s buckskin until his winter coat inevitably goes poof here in about oh three weeks

[BroncoMo]

Duplicate 🙄

[J-Lu]

I have asked this same question here years ago. Copper and Zinc was what I was told, my vet was skeptical (I live in NC, my horse is out 24/7). I had the diet professionally analyzed and Zinc is on the higher side. I supplemented with Copper and a COTHer scolded me for not supplementing with zinc w=even though I said zinc was on the higher side. Be careful of what you read here, people don’t appreciate your individual circumstances. My horse bleaches to buckskin-ish in the summer. He always has unless he’s stabled inside during the day. This is something my vet and select dark horse owners appreciate.

The diet analysis showed my horse is fine on every vitamin/mineral. I supplemented with some Copper since November but not much of a change. It looks a bit better, but I think he’s shedding more at the moment. His shed hairs are black, his loose hairs are light. His bay black points never bleach, the rest of his coat does. I attribute this to his bay hair. He’s really dark in the winter, almost looks black.

I don’t care about the color so I never used the “color enhancers”. I just made sure his diet wasn’t lacking and it isn’t. He gets Omega supplements always.

[lorilu]

my bay bleached so much this year my neighbor (non-horsey, but Bravo’s pasture abuts their front yard…) asked if I got a new horse…
Now supplementing with a copper/zinc supplement. Hope it helps the next hair coat. Here in Florida we also get winter coat bleaching…