# What do you feed to bring out the gold in Palominos?



## ~Palomino~ (Jan 7, 2007)

Hi,

I was wondering what you all feed to make your palominos goldener (or other colors too)? I have a little palomino who is pretty natural gold but I want to get him as golden as I can!

Thanks,

Gage


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## maplegum (Jan 7, 2007)

I'd be interested too.

I'll keep checking back.


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## Melissa F (Jan 7, 2007)

I dont think there is a feed, as far as i know it just turns out that shade... it'll be interesting if there is tho and it works


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## REO (Jan 7, 2007)

I have heard some people use paprika


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## Jill (Jan 7, 2007)

*Flax Seed* will enhance gold toned horses.

However, some light palominos (like Derby -- jumping in my avatar) will never get to be that deep golden color of some (like Bacardi -- with the purple neck sash in my avatar).

Still, you will see that Flax Seed enhances the gold tones and it also good for coats (oil / shine) on any color horse.

I bought a big bag of it from the feed store and ground it up and stored it in the freezer until ready to use. I have some in there now and will start them on it again in March. Once ground, it will not keep as long as it does whole but I feel it should be ground for the horses to get all of the goodness out of the flax seed.


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## Bess Kelly (Jan 7, 2007)

Jill said:


> *Flax Seed* will enhance gold toned horses.
> 
> However, some light palominos (like Derby -- jumping in my avatar) will never get to be that deep golden color of some (like Bacardi -- with the purple neck sash in my avatar).




This is true!!! :lol: Some just aren't dark.....but, like Jill, I have a few of the lighter ones -- both pinto & solids. I use flaxseed for the omegas in their nutrition but the plus side is the greater intensity of their color. The blacks are deep black, palominos golder and the sorrels bright. Try it, it makes a difference. It does not happen overnight -- will fade some if stopped I'm sure. Since I use it daily, I can only say that within a month you will see more depth of every color. They like the stuff and it's good for them! :aktion033:


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## KenBen (Jan 7, 2007)

I give my horses Black Oil Sunflower seeds. It works quite well. Is Flax seed better?

KenBen


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## Bess Kelly (Jan 7, 2007)

KenBen, I don't know if it is "better".........but sure works!! I used BOSS a couple of years back and had sunflowers growing in their favorite manure spot :lol:

I don't want to add a little of this and that, so settled on the flax. It is supposed/reported/thought




: to have some natural anit-inflammatory properties, as well as an amount of congealing that helps with sand removal. Not having issues with either problems, it's either doing both or the problems never exsisted. Take your pick.


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## StarRidgeAcres (Jan 7, 2007)

I'm using flaxseed and sunflower seed meats currently. It's only been about a month so I can't say for sure how it's working, but I think there's a chance my stallion is getting his "shine" back. As a word of caution, just my experience, but I used Gold As Sun last show season on my Palomino (very light, almost white) for about 60 days prior to Nationals. OMGosh! It turned him this nasty brownish, yellowish color that wasn't pleasing at all, in my opinion. Needless to say, even though I spent a fortune on the stuff, I don't use it anymore. Just my experience.


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## Robin_C (Jan 7, 2007)

Flax contains chiefly Omega-3 essential fatty acids while black oil sunflower seed (BOSS) contains chiefly omega-6 essential fatty acids. You can feed them both together if you'd like. 2 oz per day of flax (a heaping tablespoon) is WAY plenty for an adult mini and 1/2 cup of BOSS per day is plenty. If I had to make a choice between feeding flax and BOSS, I would choose the flax because omega 3's are "better" than omega 6's. Omega 3's are what is found in grass. Horses need essential fatty acids (thus the word "essential"), but the 3's provide more benefit than the 6's.

Both BOSS and flax contain fat which produces the nice by-product of a shiny coat in a healthy horse.

Both also contain protein and minerals. Oftentimes, you can achieve improvement in coat color simply by ensuring your horse is eating enough of the proper minerals on a daily basis (and I'm not talking about putting out a mineral block or loose minerals!). Copper is one element that most likely affects coat color.

Paprika contains beta carotene, the same substance contained in carrots (think orange!). Many people with dark horses use paprika or a paprika-containing product (like Black as Knight, Nu-Image Dark Horse) to enhance and deepen the tones of their dark horse coats. Be aware that some horses don't like the strong taste or smell of paprika and these products can be quite expensive. If you choose to use paprika, pick one of the mild varieties from your grocery store shelf and "taste test" your horse first. Add it slowly at first to get your horse used to the new smell. Build up to about a teaspoon for an adult horse. It will take approx 30 days before you notice the effects. HINT: Take a picture of your horse before you start it, then 30 days later. Paprika seems to work best for red-tinged horses, i.e. bays, palominos, chestnuts. Many people also like it for their black horses, but be aware that it may give some black horses a "reddish" tinge. Also be aware that paprika contains the chemical compound "capsaicin" which comes from the peppers used to make paprika. If you are showing your horse in a venue that might result in drug-testing, you will need to stop the paprika approx 7 days BEFORE competition, otherwise blood tests may indicate your horse is on a pain-relieving substance (capsaicin). There will be no way for the drug results to distinguish between capsaicin as a "drug" and capsaicin as a coat enhancer!

Robin C


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## ponyboi09 (Jan 7, 2007)

This is VERY interesting, how much flax seed do you feed per horse? Is it a percentage of the amount of other feeds?

Just thought i would chime in and ask a few questions too. haha. Oh, and how much does it cost?haha

Will


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## Buckskin gal (Jan 7, 2007)

Like robin saud a heaping tablesoon is enough but we often use two. We can get a 50 lb. bag from our feed store for about $20.00. We grind only enough at one time to feed about a week. Great stuff and good for people too! Mary



ponyboi09 said:


> This is VERY interesting, how much flax seed do you feed per horse? Is it a percentage of the amount of other feeds?
> 
> Just thought i would chime in and ask a few questions too. haha. Oh, and how much does it cost?haha
> 
> Will


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## Robin_C (Jan 7, 2007)

2 oz per day (4 heaping tablespoons) is the max dose I recommend for an average 250-300# adult mini (a full size horse recommended dose is 2-6 ounces.) I personally use 1 heaping tablespoon/day (1/2 oz). Flax has strong anti-oxidant properties and, when fed to excess, *can block the absorption of selenium*. Selenium needs very tight control in the diet -- too much or too little can cause serious problems. Remember -- no item in your feed regimen stands alone...they all interact with one another!!!!

Robin C


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## ~Palomino~ (Jan 7, 2007)

Thank you all for the advice! I am excited to try some new stuff and see if I can get my minis coats looking alot better!

Its to bad you cant speciel order foods from companys with all the stuff you want in it haha! That would be to easy though and its impossible to make things easy when feeding horses haha!!

Thank you all!

Gage


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## frekles93 (Jan 7, 2007)

[SIZE=14pt]OH MAN!! I wish I had the magazine from work! There was an ad in it for color enhancers one for each of the base colors. MAN the before and after pics where amazing. I will look for it at work tomorrow and if there is a sight i will get it for you.[/SIZE]

April


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## StarRidgeAcres (Jan 7, 2007)

Very interesting discussion!

I have a couple of questions: When feeding BOSS, are they fed still in the shell? Does the shell pose any dangers to the horses stomach, intestine, etc? Why do some say they grind their flaxseed? How does that enhance its effects?

Thanks!


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## Robin_C (Jan 7, 2007)

> When feeding BOSS, are they fed still in the shell? Does the shell pose any dangers to the horses stomach, intestine, etc?


Yes, shell and all. The shells are pretty fragile and if a horse has all his teeth, chews his food adequately, etc., he should have no problems digesting the shell. A lot of the benefit is actually in the shell. THere have been isolated reports of horses dying from colic and coincidentally finding undigested shell in stomachs and intestines, but this is certainly not a widespread reportage, and doesn't mean that the horse's colic was caused by sunflower seed hulls. Sunflower seeds have been fed to horses for years and years both in this country and abroad. Nothing new about them!



> Why do some say they grind their flaxseed? How does that enhance its effects?


THere are pros and cons to grinding the flaxseed. On the pro side, it may mean that more of the digestible material actually gets utilized by the horse. Invariably, when seeds are fed whole, there may be a percentage of those seeds that pass through the system undigested. If that % was very high, then I'd have the first Florida flax field (at least during the cool months) because I feed 1/2 to 1 ounce of whole flax per day to 30 head of horses! I do see some seed germination in the manure, but not enough to alarm me. Whole flax has been said to provide some "mucilage effect", that is, it might provide similar benefit as the SandClear products. Understandable since metamucil-type products are 95-100% psyllium which is a fancy word for plant fiber.

When I'm ambitious, I grind it. This has to be done on a daily basis, however, grinding just enough whole seed to use up at one time. Once you grind the seed, oxidation begins immediately as it is exposed to air and light. In other words it starts to lose its benefits. Also, by grinding, you expose the flax seed oil in the same way. It's a fragile oil and will turn rancid quickly. You can postpone these effects by keeping extra ground seed in the refrigerator or freezer in a non-see-thru container, taking out only what you need on a daily basis. Also, steer clear of ziploc baggies full of ground flax that might appear on your feedstore shelves for the same reasons. There is no way to tell when it was ground, unless a store clerk can assure you they did it THAT day! Purchase the whole seed and a thrift store coffee grinder. It only takes a few minutes to grind the seed you will use on a daily basis.

If you'd prefer not to grind it yourself OR feed it whole, you can purchase heat-stabilized flax seed which is pre-ground and then processed in such a manner that it does not lose its nutritive value. Obviously, this is more expensive than purchasing un-processed whole flax, but for many people, it is worth it.

Whole flax will last a good long time if stored in a vermin-proof container (beware - moths love this stuff) in your feed room. If you have a question about whether flax is fresh or not, give it the "sniff" test. If it smells "nutty", it's still good. Bad flax will smell "fishy" -- very distinctive....once you smell bad flax, you won't forget it :new_shocked:

Robin C


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