Black mane with burnt orange streaks!

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fattylumpkin

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Anybody have any idea how I can keep my bay's mane looking black and not like I've given her a bad peroxide streak job? I always trim these bits out out and have done for years, but eventually they grow back in and a few streaks turn a frazzled burnt orange colour. I've read that this can be due to copper deficiency in the diet but I'm doubtful this is the case with mine as the current livery manager has her eating a whole barrage of oils and supplements and mineral pellets, and I've always taken care to match a balancer with each hay analysis. Everything at the roots is black.

Her natural coat colour is some sort of bay, she has a thick dorsal stripe from mane to tail, stripes on her legs and withers, and is a kind of light bay which turns grey looking where she is clipped. Mane and tail are solid black (or would be if I could find out what I'm doing wrong.) I don't use any sprays or conditioners so maybe it's time to start? Or re-check her diet? Blergh!
 
My old boy's mane used to do this. I always assumed it was sun bleaching. As he got older and clung on to his coat a bit his coat started doing it too. Is it worse in summer? If so, you could maybe try a fly rug with UV protection? You can get (human) sprays which are supposed to prevent sun bleaching too, might be worth a try?
 
Lack of copper can cause bleaching and reddening of black hair. My buckskin changed colour quite dramatically when I started him on a high copper mineral supplement, from cream to really golden, and his tail went from red tinged black to proper black. What's the copper level like in your supplements?
Edited as I didn't read your post properly!
 
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My dun mare had this in mane and tail, but I like it as i am a red head too (not natural) all I can say if a few cut them otherwise dye them or leave them, don't believe it is anything to do with copper most likely ether red in his blood line or sun bleach
 
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MrsNorris said:
Lack of copper can cause bleaching and reddening of black hair. My buckskin changed colour quite dramatically when I started him on a high copper mineral supplement, from cream to really golden, and his tail went from red tinged black to proper black. What's the copper level like in your supplements?
Edited as I didn't read your post properly!
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No worries! Atm she's getting chevinal plus in her feeds as it's what the livery uses, which says it's 70mg copper per 50ml. Hay analysis mentions no copper so I'm guessing there was barely anything there worth mentioning :o
 
Iron blocks the uptake of copper. Most U.K.grasss, hay and cereals are high in iron.
I looked up Chevinal plus- it has 80mg iron and 70 mg copper.

You could try taking her off that and using something like performance equine winter balancer from Forageplus- zero iron and 400mg bioplex copper.
 
Cragrat said:
Iron blocks the uptake of copper. Most U.K.grasss, hay and cereals are high in iron.
I looked up Chevinal plus- it has 80mg iron and 70 mg copper.

You could try taking her off that and using something like performance equine winter balancer from Forageplus- zero iron and 400mg bioplex copper.
Click to expand...

While I agree with this overall I notice the OP has Sweden as a location so I was a bit wary of giving advice or recommending a product based on average UK forages.

However the overall principle is correct in that iron (and manganese) block the the update of copper and zinc so what you feed needs to look at all the minerals in the forage and supplement these. You could email forageplus, they might have some thoughts.
 
I had no idea iron could do that! Sweden isn't exactly the same as the UK but the high iron levels are there, hay analysis shows we've got 130mg of iron so with the supplements on top she must be getting way more than she actually needs! I'll get in touch with the livery manager, there are supplements other than the chevinal plus that she can have while I look around. Forageplus looked excellent but the shipping costs almost as much as the supplement does!

Thankyou to everyone for the advice. I especially love the mental image of sitting down to give my girl a TLC session and have her lowlights done and then a blowdry ;) she'd enjoy that immensely.
 
I used to ride a very dark bay, as good as black, pony. In the summer he would get a single carrot-coloured streak in his mane. It can't have been a lack of copper as the land was on the edge of the one of the main copper-mining areas in Britain.
 
My pony is brown in the summer, almost black in the winter and has a black mane and tail. He has always had a ginger tinged forelock in the summer which grows out in the winter. I put it down to the fact that his grandfather is a stunning bright ginger chestnut and it was in his genes.
 
It could be simple colour genetics. I have a horse who is genetically "brown". He is almost black when the winter coat comes through, going deep chocolate in winter (with legs remaining darker). His undercoat is a light grey/beige, so he looks that colour when clipped in winter. His mane has very pronounced highlights, and this is part of his colour genetics (or so I've been told). I'm not an expert on genetics (in fact, I didn't even know there was a "brown" gene!), but maybe your bay isn't actually bay, genetically speaking.
I quite like my boy's highlights, so I'm not bothered.
 
Livery manager wasn't so receptive to the idea that my horse is getting an unbalanced amount of minerals when I ran it past her today, but she's off the chevinal plus and on something with no iron at all from tonight. Manager suggested a blood test, which seems like a good idea :) maybe it is just genetics, at least I'll know.
 
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