Why is my black horse suddenly turning brown?
He was deep black all fall and is just now suddenly turning a very light brown, especially on his hindquarters. His turnout, stabling, feed, etc. haven’t changed at all. He did get shaved in the fall and is growing back in. I don’t think it’s sun damage because the hair is brown all the way to the root. Why is this happening and what can I do to fix it?
My horse IS black, he’s a Friesian and is registered black.
It might be dietary or health related.
My horse looks black part of the year and turns orange and brown in the summer b/c I don’t stable him.
Some horses coats do lighten with age.
There might not be much you can do, aside from a supplement, sheet and some black shampoo/dye before a show.
His winter coat may be lighter. My dark bay horse get’s lighter in the winter because his winter coat is lighter. In the spring when he sheds out he gets darker, but then fades from the sun.
My other horse’s winter coat is black and brown.
Did you have your horse last winter? If you didn’t then that is most likely what it is.
If you did have your horse last winter, and his winter coat didn’t do this, then I don’t know what to tell you.
If it isn’t winter where you are, then again, I don’t know. =]
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He is shedding out. No telling what the new hair will do. But it looks drab and lighter when it sheds.
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Wash it.
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Hes is bleaching from the sun! Give him, Black~As~Knight
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sex-mutation change, if he was a male, she is now a female, if she was a female, its a guy now, eventually he might even turn white and become albino and be half-male and half-female. This is commonly referred to as "a horse of a different color"
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Most black horses fade to brown. After he sheds his winter coat, the new hair will come in black.
I have a filly that was about buckskin before her fist shed at 6 months, and the new hair was black. She looked outrageous!
I’ve seen a food supplement for sale that is supposed to help horses keep their true color…
Edit: the link below should help anyone who is interested in coat color genetics. They do testing to determine what genes a horse carries.
Note that the aa allele condition is rare, and it determines expression of the E gene – the one that says if a horse carries the gene for the base color – black hair. A horse with the "A" allele has the black expression/base coat limited to its points, like a Bay. So it is that a horse with the E gene, but not possessing the aa alleles (a non-fading, all over black) would still be considered a Black horse , because without the E gene the horse does not have a base color of – Black!
Chestnut Fresians are not unheard of, but they are rare.
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http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/coatcolor.php
he’s turning brown because he’s a brown horse. black horses are rare, much like white horses. they are either dark brown or grey, respectively.
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The sun is dieing it. One of my horse is a deep black in the winter, and in the summer he turns to a very dark bay (still lack in some places). Also it nay be his new hair growing in. Valley Vet has a supplement you can give them to turn them dark-er black. It is called Black-as-Knight
http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?PGGUID=722b11f0-a6a4-462a-9984-af41b625168c
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It’s his witer coat. My mares winter coat get lighter is a lot lighter than her summer coat. I dont think there is anything you can do to fix it, but in the spring when they shed, it will go back to the other color. The cycle will keep going.
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I agree with Meg C, she is right, your horse is not BLACK it is Brown.
I do own a TRUE BLACK horse, yes she is rare, and people actually stop and admire her because she is only BLACK. In the winter her hair is still VERY BLACK no matter how dirty she is or what she’s rolled in.
Sorry to tell you your horse isn’t Black ~ but is brown!
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Years of owning horses, having great vets & farriers who know what they are looking at.
My horse is black too and during the summer his coat gets really bleached out and brown. but i bet his winter coat is just lighter. You could wash him with a shampoo for black horses.
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Ok, look. Your is brown. A black horse stays black ALL YEAR ROUND’. People who say that the sun is bleaching his color or whatever doesn’t even make sense. If his turn out and stabling has been the same. Some horses look black but are really brown. But if your horse is registered black, then there is really nothing you can do. If you don’t want him to turn brown in the winter then put blanket on him when the weather gets cold. If you do though, it is complicated. Ask your trainer about the blanket and I am sure that you will be a able to answer your own question.
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If your horse is young he could just be changing colors. When I first bought my mini (3 years old) he was blue-grey. Bright slate blue. Later that year he started getting little white appy markings across his butt. That next summer he turned grey/red and the white markings got larger. Now he’s back to gray but half of his rear end is now covered in a big white patch. It’s the most bizarre thing.
When my sorrel mare was pregnant she had a dorsel stripe.
And my chestnut gelding turns orange in the winter. If he’s not young it’s probably just something to do with his winter coat, and he’ll go back to black once it sheds. Just like my gelding will go back to chestnut.
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sumtimes in different seasons the coat color changes…
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theres a black horse at the barn and every summer he gets lighter from the sun.
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how old is he? i have found some black horses may not stay black. i have a registered black and white overo and he is not black and white. he is tri color. he may have been when registered but no longer. so it could be something permanent
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Sheding out maby I think it may be sun bleching I had a pure black horse it was registered as black on his papers to and he turned brownish from sun bleching.
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often the winter coat is lighter because the lighter colours attract more heat and the darker one repel it, if it is not back to black come late spring when the weather is warm and his coat has been shed then i can’t help you, i am pretty sure that its just lighter to keep him a little warmer. it happens with mine and my sisters gelding and a friends mare, my horse is a chestnut and his coloration is light-ish, but it goes more of a light brown with a red-ish tint, the mares coat is a really dark brown that looks almost black in the summer with a few lighter patches, but come winter its a dark brown.
hope my info was of some use, if not then i apologize for wasting your time, good luck in finding a solution
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