How do I darken a palomino's color??

[mgranch]

I recently bought a palomino gelding who is very light almost white in color. He has a faint yellow color with dapples when clipped. I was wondering if there were any good products to make his color more vibrant?? Also, what do you guys use for shiny healthy coats?? I have a silver dapple mare with a dull looking coat and I don't know what to give her to make it shiny and pretty. I've heard flax seed?? Vegetable oil?? What works and how much do you give A sized horses??

Thanks

Gina

 

[Alex]

Ive never used it, but the ppl who make the black as knight make something called Gold as Sun. Ive heard its great!

Boss darkened the mare I leased up.

When you clip him, that takes away a lot of the rich color.

 

[mgranch]

Thanks!! I'll look up the gold as sun. Also, I've been told about the Boss but thought it was just for black horses??

 

[Alex]

Nope, BOSS is for all colors!

 

[Valerie]

Boss does work........as well as just good quality food and vitamins, minerals etc. But also, some palominos are just not as dark. My palomino mare is pretty light....she did get a little darker using boss and getting her usual supplements, however, in the winter she does get much lighter regardless. That said, she will never be a dark golden palomino, because that is not her. I have had golden palominos in the past and they don't tend to fade in the winter months........atleast ours never did.

Congrats...pals are my favorite color!

 

[Riverdance]

If your palomino is pale in its summer coat it will not get darker no matter what you use, unless it is still very young. Some will get darker as they get a bit older, but by three they are as dark as they will get. you can enhanse the color he is, but not darken it. If it is a winter coat, he may shed out darker. I have some very dark palominos that pale out quite a bit with their winter coats, but are very dark and rich in the summer.

By the way, A pale palomino is called an Isabella palomino.

The deeper richer colors come from breeding chestnut to palominos.

Either way, I am sure he is beautiful and you will love him.

 

[Alex]

-- OH!

 

[mgranch]

Thanks everyone!! I do love him so much!! Palomino is my favorite color too and I was so thrilled to finally get one!! I had no idea he was an Isabella palomino thanks I love that. Hey, if I can figure it out I'll post a pic!! Thanks for all the great info!!

 

[maestoso]

I disagree about the 3 year old thing. I have seen palominos continue to darken each year until they are 5.

 

[Alex]

I leased a 5yr old mare that continued to get darker each year...

 

[mgranch]

He is 3 1/2 so I hope he may darken more. If not that's Ok too he's perfect just like he is!! Hopefully here's a pic.

Ok, I'm an idiot I can't figure out the picture thing!! I have the pic uploaded in photobucket then I follow the instructions but it never works!! I will keep trying!!

 

[mgranch]

Here's my Rocket!!

 

[nootka]

For those of you that don't know, Gina's Rocket is my Mouse's full brother (one year younger), and I am SO GLAD to see her here, and him with her.

So not only is Rocket a palomino, it is likely that he may be a silver, too. He had blue eyes when he was a baby, also.

Anyway, I have heard that they do darken over time, and can continue over several years as they mature. I think good food is basically the only way to influence coat, but it takes time.

I feed a couple tbsp. of BOSS as they are going into Spring (i.e. starting now) and kind of discontinued it on my fatty mares or horses that don't need the extra weight.

I've fed as much as a quarter cup to some horses that were thinner.

Rocket looks in good shape, so probably doesn't need more than a few tbsp.

Liz

 

[mgranch]

Thank You so much Liz for introducing us to the board we so appreciate it!! Rocket is a dream come true for me as I never imagined I would own such a gorgeous horse!! He is truly a perfect boy!! I think he gets a very good diet with excellent hay, beet pulp, a little bit of grain and horse guard daily so that should help with his color being the best it can be. Where do I buy Boss?? I want to make certain it is completely safe for him and someone mentioned on here about a form of Boss with a bad additive in it that was harmful for horses so now I 'm a little nervous about it. Liz he weighs about 250-280 lbs so how much exactly do you think he should have of Boss?? Do you feed it once or twice daily??

Thanks

Gina

 

[Jill]

In addition to the genetics the horse either has or doesn't, FLAX seed is what helps to bring out gold tones. Here is my golden palomino, in his winter coat and in his summer coat. AND, he was clipped 5 days before the show type picture was taken (so you can see, he IS very golden).

[SIZE=12pt]Little King’s BT Bacardi Gold[/SIZE]

2004 37.25” AMHR Golden Palomino Gelding – Son of Ima Boones Little Buckeroo Too (“BTU”)

Supreme and Grand Halter Champion / First Place Solid Color

 

[minimomNC]

We have a palomino gelding that is also very light colored.

Not a great picture but here he is as a yearling.

We had him on Gold As Sun for two months and this is as dark as he got, he is three years old now.

We really don't care about solid color classes so didn't see the need to keep him on it. We had to feed a lot more than recommended just to get a small amount of color change. I think it would have worked better had he been dark to begin with but we found that Nu-Image works great to keep great coats on all of our horses.

These horses were on Nu-Image for about a month when these pictures were taken. And both were clipped with a 30 two days earlier.

yearling mare

yearling colt

The best way to get great coats on your horses is just a good feeding program and keeping them healthy.

 

[Jill]

Just as a point of reference, here is a light palomino that I own, Derby. Derby never will be as golden as Bacardi, but I love both colors. Derby does get more golden than otherwise when given ground flax seed

I have also used Select Nu Image and liked it (very good product) but I like ground Flax Seed just as well plus love how it brings out the gold tones.

 

[Riverdance]

I could be wrong on the color getting darker after 3, but my experience has been otherwise. I find if they are born a very dark, almost chestnut color when first born and wet, that they will be very dark as an adult. But, they do go through the pale color in their first year.

I have several palomino's and two of them are quite dark the other 3 are much lighter. Attached? (if I can figure out how to do this) is my 5 year old palomino stallion (not a great picture). He is very dark in the summer, but by the AMHA World show he was getting his winter coat (which is very long and thick in Minnesota) and was very pale by that time. All summer, even clipped he was this rich dark coor. I used nothing to inhance the color.

I too love palominos.

 

[Jill]

It would make sense that the darker they are at birth, the more golden as adults, BUT, see my light palomino, Derby, at one day old and as an adult. He's a little turkey

I didn't see Bacardi as a foal, so don't know what color he was. He was very golden as a yearling, though.

 

[MountainMeadows]

Jill,

I know that you need to feed ground flax seeds - how far in advance do you grind them up and for how long do they stay fresh? I'm wondering if you could grind up a pound and keep it in a Tupperware container & it would stay fresh for a month or so?

Stacy