Use Diet Supplements to Maintain Black Fur Copper and zinc are two of the key minerals that help keep your horse looking its best from mane to tail. Ensuring your horse has a balanced diet is a good first step to preventing sun damage to their coat.
Alfalfa/lucerne is also known to darken coats so if you need a darker coat you can try adding some to your horse's ration. The minerals copper and zinc are also essential for correct coat color. Making sure your horse's diet is meeting requirements for these minerals will make sure coat color remains true.
Minimize Sun Exposure.
This is the only method that can almost completely prevent the sun-bleaching of your horse's coat. Consider stabling your horse during the hours when the sun is the hottest, and instead turn them out in the evening.
There may be two types of black, fading black and non-fading black. Many, though not all black horses will fade to a brownish color if the horse is exposed to sunlight regularly. This may be due to nutrition or genetics. Some horses appear to have a non-fading black coat that does not fade in the sun.
The MC1R gene, also known as extension, determines whether a horse can produce black pigment. Black ("E") is dominant to red ("e"). Therefore, a horse with the genotype "E/e" (one black and one red allele) has a black base color, but can produce either black or red base offspring.
Many black horses "sun bleach" with exposure to the elements and sweat, and therefore their coats may lose some of their rich black character and may even resemble bay or seal brown, though examination of the color of hair around the eyes, muzzle and genitals often will determine color.
Smoky black foals must always have at least one parent with the cream dilute gene and at least one parent that carries the "E" extension gene associated with black coloring. This could occur one of two ways: A foal could have a smoky black parent or a buckskin parent carrying both genes within a single horse.
A "grey horse is born black, brown, or chestnut, but the greying process starts very early in life -- during its first year. These horses are normally completely white by six to eight years of age but the skin remains pigmented. This process resembles greying in humans, but it is ultrafast in horses.
Typically, when copper is low, chestnut coats will appear to have a yellow tone to them and black coats will have a rust appearance. You might especially notice this color shift in a horse's mane. Coats appear to fade over time due to ultraviolet light causing damage to the pigment leading to color change.
Heavier breeds, overweight horses and those with black coats tend to suffer most in the hot sun. Horses and ponies with pink areas of skin can be prone to sunburn and daily application of a factor 50 sunblock or fitting a flymask will help reduce this risk.
Improve digestion and balance PH levels in your horse
ACV can work as a natural anti-biotic, and can discourage parasites and water-borne diseases. Apple Cider Vinegar also contains anti-oxidants, which are vital to protect the horse's body from free radicals which can cause a lot of damage.
After thoroughly rinsing the shampoo off your horse, consider using a diluted apple cider vinegar rinse to bring out the shine of his coat and repel bugs. The best way to clean a gray horse or get socks and stockings sparkling white is with a diluted bluing rinse.
Called a “milkshake,” it is given to a horse via nasogastric tube about six hours before a race to increase stamina by buffering lactic acid in muscles.
The copper and cobalt in CACOLIV can help darken a horse's coat, producing an iridescent sheen difficult to achieve with an ordinary supplement. CACOLIV may be used as an aid for good coat colour all year round, but especially when horses shed their winter coats.
A sun bleached or dull coat is a classic sign of mineral deficiency and the way to correct this is to put the horse on a more than adequate nutrient and mineral balanced diet. All horses have a requirement for carbohydrates, protein, a small amount of fat, vitamins and minerals and water to stay healthy.
Coconut oil is suitable for feeding horses and offers unique benefits compared to other fat sources in the equine diet. High-fat diets are recommended for underweight horses, hard-keepers, PSSM horses and performance horses requiring additional calories.
The lighter Hungarian variety of paprika also contains high concentrations of copper flavonoids. As copper is required for the manufacture of melanocytes that give bays, blacks and chestnuts their colour this is possibly why paprika maybe beneficial.
The most desirable horse color is bay, followed by chestnut, dark brown, and black. Among racehorses, there are many successful colors: bay, chestnut, and brown horses win a lot of races. Pure white is the rarest horse color.
Ideally, we turn our horses out at night. If you have a problem with coat fade, there is a Henna dye especially made for horses to help keep the coat black. There are some feed supplements, such as "Black as Knight", which may help, however we have not used them.
A black mare named Burmese was gifted to Queen Elizabeth II in 1969 by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The Queen rode Burmese during the Trooping the Color ceremonies for nearly twenty years. Friesian horses are well-known for their black coloring and minimal white markings.
Sunburn is most often seen around the sensitive area of the nose and eyes, and also affects the pink skin underneath the white hair. Dark-colored horses with white markings share this sensitivity. Foals and yearlings are also more likely to become sunburned.
A pure black horse with two recessive copies of the cream gene will become smoky black when you add one dominant cream dilution gene. A double dilute gene will result in a smoky cream horse.
The only way to guarantee a black foal is to breed two black parents, meaning both parents are a/a. Once you have got the a/a, to get a grulla, the foal then needs to carry a modifier. To be a grulla, the horse must carry the basic body color of a/a, then carry at least one dun gene. The dun gene is represented by D.
They are the subjects of human admiration, as well as countless legends, books, and films. The most common black horse breeds are the Friesian, Percheron, Fell Pony, Murgese, and Mérens. The most famous black horse in history is Bucephalus, the horse of Alexander the Great.