Horse Nutrition for Shedding Season

What Triggers Spring Shedding for Horses

• The great hair shed in the spring of your horse’s winter coat happens because your horse’s eyes and brain notice that daylight hours are increasing. Fancy photoreceptor cells in your horse’s eyes notice ultraviolet light, and that message goes to the brain, which triggers shedding. The warmer weather is not a trigger.

• The summer solstice in late June and the winter solstice in late December are when the hours of daylight begin to decrease and increase, respectively. About six weeks after the solstice, your horse should start to shed.

• The summer coat also sheds heavily in the fall, but it’s not as noticeable because the hair is short.  

• It takes energy for your horse to lose their coat and grow a new one. Providing the best nutrition for your horse can help this process, as your horse’s hair and skin health come from the equine diet. 

Horse Nutrition for Shedding Season

• Four components of a horse’s diet can directly affect shedding. Fats, vitamins, minerals, and proteins fuel the skin and hair coat. Ideally, horses have a forage-based diet, with supplements added as needed.

• I will always recommend that an equine nutritionist work with your horse to create the best diet. A horse’s nutritional needs stem from age, breeding, discipline, where their hay is grown, how much and what type of pasture is available, medical problems, weight, metabolic issues, skin issues, and more. The variety of nutrients is wide and complex.

• It’s also easy to overlap supplements, leading to excess nutrients. Or, some nutrients are lacking. A custom diet for your horse is tailored and will likely save you money by streamlining supplement use.

• A balanced diet improves skin health, creates a shiny coat, and boosts coat condition. As the skin improves, coat shedding is smoother.

• As a bonus, you may also see improved hoof quality.

Chia seeds and flax are great options for healthy fats.

Fats

• The key to skin and coat health is sebum. The sebaceous glands of your horse secrete this magic oily substance. Sebum adds shine, helps hair shed, creates waterproofing, and repels stains. Each hair follicle has a sebaceous gland, and diligent grooming helps coat each hair.  

• Fats in the diet support sebum production and, therefore, coat and skin health, as well as shine. New hair is resilient, and fats help retain moisture. When the hair shaft is brittle, it takes stains and breaks easily.

• A fantastic source of fats for horses is essential fatty acids. There are Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids, with an ideal ratio still under investigation. Horse nutrition experts agree that an approximate Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio should be in the neighborhood of 1:4. A horse should have more Omega-3’s in their diet, and this estimated ratio reflects what a “wild” horse would eat.  

• Omega-3 fatty acids have -*anti-inflammatory properties that help with allergies, hives, and irritated skin. These powerhouse fats also improve flaky skin and dry hair. 

Sources of Omega fatty acids

• If your horse eats pasture, everyone wins. Fresh grass is a wonderful source of essential fats. There are Omegas in hay and dried forages, but about half as much as pasture grass. Because grass access and quality vary by season, some horses require supplementation during part of the year.

• You can supplement with flax, fish oils, chia seeds, and canola oil. Cold-pressed flax lasts months on the shelf and adds a gorgeous glow to the coat, without the need for daily grinding.

• Oils such as corn, sunflower, and safflower contain high levels of Omega-6 fatty acids. Yes, these oils will create a lovely coat, but they skew the ratio in your horse’s body.

• For the typical 1,000 lb horse, count on 10-20 grams of Omega-3 fatty acids per day.  

Flax is a great additive to water to entice your horse to drink. 

Vitamins

• Horses need all sorts of vitamins – but for healthy skin and hair, the A’s and B’s are most beneficial for a resilient coat. Vitamin E is another important ingredient and is plentiful in grass pastures.

Vitamin A

• This vitamin supports the hair follicles and sebaceous glands. Vitamin A is essential for the growth and maintenance of healthy skin cells and for the production of sebum.  

• A horse deficient in Vitamin A will have dry skin and a dull coat. Sometimes, sores and hair loss occur with severe deficiency. However, excessive Vitamin A can cause similar problems for horses and lead to toxicity.

• The precursor to Vitamin A is beta-carotene, which is prevalent in fresh pasture and new hay. However, as hay ages, 10% of beta-carotene vaporizes per month. Year-old hay will not have any beta-carotene.  

• Horses need 22,000 to 30,000 IU/day of Vitamin A. Supplementation of 20,000 IU/day may be helpful for horses not on pasture.  

Vitamin B 

• The best horse nutrition for shedding includes B vitamins. These are a family of nutrients created by intestinal bacteria. Wild, right? Let’s talk specifically about the B vitamin biotin, which is valuable.

• Gut microbes produce biotin, but often not enough to support hoof and hair quality. Biotin supports skin, hair, and hooves. The strength and elasticity of proteins are enhanced by biotin. 

• When a horse is appropriately supplemented with biotin, hair and hooves may grow faster, the coat may become shinier, and dry skin may improve. Most horses need between 10 and 30 mg daily, but horses struggling with poor hoof and hair quality may need more.  

• For the horse shedding season, you may need to supplement with 20 to 25 mg of biotin daily. Don’t expect fast results, as biotin supplements typically take a few months to take effect. 

Does your horse need a Vitamin B supplement, such as biotin, to help shed?

• In the long run, it can be helpful to supplement with biotin, provided the overall diet is balanced. The protein biotin can also help hooves over time. Many supplements have a positive impact on hooves and skin simultaneously.

`You can add protein to your horse’s diet, too.

Minerals 

• Minerals are equally crucial to a horse’s coat and skin, especially during shedding. Of particular note are the trace minerals copper and zinc.

• Copper and zinc both work with melanin, the pigment for hair color. Hair bleaches and fades when your horse’s diet lacks appropriate copper and zinc. You may notice reddening or yellowing of manes and tails, too.  

• Copper also supports collagen production in the skin, which helps maintain its physical structure. An average horse needs 100 to 120 mg of copper in the diet per day.  

• Zinc supports cell division, which is necessary for new hair growth at any time of year. Most horses need 400 mg per day of zinc for optimal health. 

Amino Acids and Proteins

• Hair and hooves are comprised mainly of the protein keratin. Proteins are a collection of amino acid chains linked by peptide bonds. Ten of the 21 amino acids horses use for protein production are essential. The horse can’t make these ten amino acids. Your horse needs these essential amino acids in their diet for adequate synthesis of keratin.

• Horses can obtain some protein from hay and pasture, and their protein needs vary. An ornamental pasture horse’s crude protein intake should be about 8.5% of their food. Working horses need a crude protein level of 12% in their feed. Most bagged feeds will indicate the protein content per serving. 

• If your horse eats only hay, note that stemmy hay from late-cuttings or mature plants has lower protein content. You may need to supplement with a quality protein additive. The most common ingredient used to add protein to feeds and supplements is soybean meal.  

Read this great article about protein in horse diets here.

Supplements and feeds can help provide vitamins and minerals for your horse.

Tips for Using Supplements 

• When your horse’s dietary needs are identified, take care of the feeds and supplements. Properly storing items in sealed tubs or containers keeps rodents and moisture out. Having a climate-controlled feed room would be nice, but do your best to keep feeds and treats from exposure to excessive heat or cold.  

• Depending on the feed, buying one or two bags at a time may be better to ensure maximum freshness. The same may be true for supplements; most should include storage information and, in some cases, expiration dates.  

Your elbow grease goes a long way

Help Your Horse Shed in Other Ways

• Daily grooming is usually the easiest way to help your horse shed. Nothing beats a good curry comb session to release loose hair.

• Or, you could let your horse roll and roll and roll. Providing a tempting patch of sand encourages your horse to use the ground as a curry comb. Sure, you must groom out all the sand then, but oh well, more shedding.

• Let your horse exercise and enjoy ample turnout; their movement supports mental and physical health. And sometimes they roll more when out and about. 

• If the weather is good, a bath with a mild shampoo can help boost shedding.

Read more about some tools to help your horse shed here.

If your horse is this shiny in the winter, chances are you are doing all of the right things! 

Your Horse’s Internal Health Affects the Hair Shedding Cycle

• Check your horse’s internal parasite load. Too many internal parasites steal your horse’s nutrition, interfering with shedding and hair-growing capability, and a glossy coat is a thing of the past.

• Rotational deworming is now understood to be a waste of money and contributes to parasites becoming resistant to dewormers. Instead, have your vet conduct fecal egg counts in the spring and fall. Egg counts determine your horse’s parasite load and guide your vet in deciding what dewormers to use, if any. You can also order fecal egg counts via the mail!  

• Your horse’s eyesight may also influence shedding. If the photoreceptors in a horse’s eye are damaged, they are not reading the changing daylight hours, and their haircoat won’t play along.  

• Also, check your horse’s metabolic health. Affordable and accessible tests of your horse’s metabolic status may also reveal pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID), formerly known as Cushing’s disease, and insulin resistance (IR) equine metabolic syndrome (EMS). 

• Sometimes, hair growth accelerates with metabolic changes, and shedding is slow or nonexistent. These tests are also helpful in assessing your horse’s laminitis risk, which coincidentally peaks in spring and fall when grasses are lush and stressed.  

The key takeaway is to let your vet help if shedding or growing a new coat is delayed, abnormal, or not occurring. Then curry some more!