Horse changing colour!

[Orangedog01]

I know this sounds crazy - but my chestnut mare is getting black marks all over her body! It looks like she has rolled in oil, but she hasn't. Everyday there are more marks! the only change i have made to her diet is going from original Dengie Alpha to the oil Alpha. Has anyone got any ideas as to why this is happening?
Would appreciate any ideas!!

 

[silverbreeze]

How long has she been on that field? how old is she? Does she have access to any hedge rows?

 

[samstar]

my chestnut has black splodges, I've always put it down to her breeding welsh x

 

[Orangedog01]

Hi ! she has been in the field for a month - she is 10, and she can't get access to any hedgerows, or fencing -(as its electric) The grass is quite good at the mo - my other 2 horses are in the paddock next door - and they have no marks ! very strange!

 

[Orangedog01]

it is all v odd. She is a warmblood, i have never come across this before with a chestnut! it has appeared as she is shedding her winter coat.

Unless someone is playing tricks on me and painting her while i am at work !! x

 

[samstar]

oh dif breed.

But the same in, hers only shows when she's lost her summer coat.
Have you got pics at all

 

[Orangedog01]

I will take pics this arvo and post them, she will be black all over by then end of the week if it carries on!
xx

 

[samstar]

and I'll try to remember to get stars dark

marks and we can compare

ooops smiley in wrong place lol

 

[Annagain]

I remember this happening with a friend's chestnut a good few years ago. She got the vet out and I can't remember what he said it was, but I do know that he said it wasn't a problem and to ignore it. Sorry I can't be more specific! Maybe something to do with protein if my memory serves me correctly?

 

[chelljacobs]

Ohhhh if only J would turn all black! So easy to keep clean then!

 

[Shellby27]

I have a black shetland x welsh who was brown as a foal, jet black until 6 years old and now is dapple grey?????? My Rosie goes from being very bay to just a bay head and a grey body in the summer.

 

[silverbreeze]

May well be something in the grass then, loads of things that they eat affect their colour. I have a chestnut that changes colour every year. He normally has a few dapples but this year he is covered in them!

 

[silverbreeze]

I have just found this on a website.. American but they are very much into colour genetics:

Bend Or spots are also named for the TB stallion who bore them. They are random dark spots on a lighter coat, often seen on chestnuts and palominos. They vary in size, sometimes only dime-sized, and sometimes as big as an outspread palm.

http://www.whitehorseproductions.com/ecg_basics4.html