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 Expert
Posts: 2604
  
Location: Texas | I have a sorrel horse that came to TX 2 1/2 years ago from IA. His coat looked AWESOME when I got him. He was on Ultium & alfalfa. But I always seem to struggle with getting him to have a nice coat. He sweats profusly in the summer, and the first summer his coat really faded & burnt because of the sweat & sun, even though he had a full UV protective fly sheet on any time he was out. So this past summer I kept him in during the day and made sure I rinsed any sweat off. This helped immensly. Now this fall he is already growing his fuzzy coat and it looks dull & rough, when my other three are still pretty & slick. I dewormed everyone with Quest Plus October 4th. He gets 1/2 lb rice bran & 1/2 lb whole oats am & pm, THE Muscle Mass am, Forco am & pm, a flake of alfalfa pm and free choice coastal (same as my others). I can't keep him under lights to keep him from growing a coat. Do you suppose I need to deworm him again? Maybe with an Ivermectin? Or should I double dose fenbendozal i.e. PowerPak him? Start feeding more alfalfa? Any suggestions as to get his coat looking better? Thanks |
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 Expert
Posts: 1520
Location: Illinois | Before shoving dewormer into him I would take a fecal sample to your local vet. They can tell you if its a worm issue and it's not very expensive. It's $30 here and mine always come back clear so I only do a dewormer every 3-4 months at most and mine never come back with worms. That's cheaper than a power pac or doing it every 30 days with no results. It might not be a worm issue. One of mine started growing a mammoth coat early fall each year and it was nasty, dry, flaky, and just gross no matter what I did. Turned out he had developed Cushings and the coat was his only symptom. He was 17 I think. Still is his only symptom, but now at 23 he keeps a thick coat all year. You could try adding fat to the diet and see if that helps. My black horse used to keep a nice coat on SmartPaks Smart Dark & Handsome. It kept him black all year in the sun and before he would fade out to like a dark dappled buckskin color that was ugly and burnt orange looking. It's pretty inexpensive but I stopped feeding SmartPaks so I don't get it anymore. And he doesn't need to stay black to run barrels so I didn't care anymore. Try feeding some type of flax, that can help. If you ad a fatty oil you could probably cut down on the feed just a smidge too, balancing your cost. When it's warm out I condition my horses entire body, letting it sit for about 5 minutes. Keeps them crazy soft in the warmer months and seems to keep the dandruff at bay for a little bit when I first start to blanket them. But by the end of winter all mine have that gray, flaky, dandruff coat & I don't do anything with it. But I don't touch mine in the winter, I let them just be wild mustangs for 3 months with little human contact. There's a lot of different things to try for coats. Grooming in general usually works if you want to put in the elbow grease. Get a round rubber curry and just go to town with it everyday. I've honestly found that works the best, but most people don't want to spend 30 minutes a day rubbing circles on their horses lol |
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 Miss Laundry Misshap
Posts: 5271
 
| Being in Iowa with three hairy fatties at the moment, I can tell you none of them are really shiny. They'll shine up a little when you brush them or when they have run around and the hair is laying down because they are warm.
Otherwise, I probably wouldn't worry about it too much. Winter coats arey typcially thicker, rougher hair and he's used to being cold.
My old guy is from the very tip of TX. That first winter I thought he'd freeze, but now he grows a coat to be proud of. lol |
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Veteran
Posts: 233
| Zinc and copper deficiency will make the best fed horse have an awful, wormy looking coat. Cheapest I've found is from uckele. If you're feeling really fancy, throw some manganese in there too.
places with a lot of iron in the soil are more likely to have horses low in zinc and copper, since they are all processed together. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 883
Location: Southern Indiana | I have a mare that sheds out really pretty darker sorrel in the summer almost chestnut with dapples and in the winter she will get ugly light sorrel coat. She also sweats a lot. I started feeding her 4 oz of flax per day about a month ago and her big booty is still that darker color with the dapples. Her coat is also shiny. I'm interested to see how she looks in the dead of winter.
Bottom line: try some flax! He may be missing some omega 3s! |
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