You can tell whether a horse is healthy and happy by its shiny coat. Dull horse coats can be caused by nutritional deficiencies in your horse’s diet, worms and parasites, as well as lack off regular grooming.
As a horse parent, you would surely want your horse to have a healthy, shiny and beautiful coat every day. The only way to make it is by taking care of it and paying attention to your horse’s needs.
If you like horse riding, spend time reading useful tips to make sure you ride a horse properly.
Let this article shows you the incredible and easy ways to make your horse coats shiny. Here are the five ways of it:
- Do Regular Grooming
Washing and grooming your horse regularly is important to maintain the healthy coat. While washing and grooming your horse, make sure you use clean tools.
Soak all brushes, including mane and tail brushes and combs in warm water. Use a small amount of dishwashing detergent too. Then, rinse them well and dry them in the sun.
Groom your horse regularly. The coat’s color may get dull due to the salt from the sweat. It will also irritate the skin, especially if the horse is not groomed properly. Brushing your horse regularly will help remove dry skin and dead hairs while distributing oils throughout the coat.
Unlike humans who need regular baths, you should keep baths to a minimum to horses. Surprisingly, frequent soapy baths will leave the coat dry and dull. It will also strip the natural oils. There’s no rule on how often you should bathe your horse.
Only consider a bath if your horse is covered in mud. Make sure you also monitor dandruff as it is one of the indicators that you bathe your horse too frequently or not frequently enough.
Brushing your horse coat regularly is important too. It will help remove dead hair from the coat and stimulate the horse’s sebaceous glands that are in charge for releasing oils. These oils will cause the hair to lie flat and shine.
- Give Adequate Nutrients
Making your horse coat shiny is not only by grooming it frequently. Ensuring that your horse eats a balanced diet also plays an important role. Good nutrition here includes adequate protein and fatty acids. All the nutrients depend on the level of activity and medical needs.
Supplements may also be needed. Supplementing can be a good way to add additional nutrients to your horse’s diet. You can also consult with your vet if there’s any case of deficiencies.
- Add Some Oils to Your Horse’s Diet
The next thing is adding some oils to your horse’s diet. A dull coat can be caused by lack of fatty acids, such as Omega-3 and Omega-6 in the diet.
There are various ways of adding oil to the diet. First, you can add oilseeds, such as sunflower seeds or extruded full fat soybean to your horse diet. Y
ou can also add liquid oils to the diet. Almost all oils are known to have positive impact on coat shine, such as cold pressed canola or soybean oil.
Do you know that fish oil is also beneficial for some animals? Read it completely in benefits of fish oil for cats and how can fish oil help combat civet shedding.
- Control Your Horse’s Health
Determine if your horse needs worming. Your horse may experience rough and dull coat, lethargy, extended belly and slowed growth due to worms. Pay attention to these symptoms and if you notice any of these symptoms, then consult with your vet to ward off the worms.
Worms don’t only attack horses, it can attack some animals too, such as elaborated in symptoms of worms in cats.
Be aware of any underlying health condition. If you see that your horse’s coat changes a lot, it may be caused by problems with its health. Some health problems may require medical attention from your vet.
For instance, a fungus infection will lead to shedding matted or clumped hair. Weight loss, diarrhea and nasal drip are the symptoms. Also spend time reading new horse species from horse breeding progress.