FEEDING TIPS FOR PALOMINOS
This information has been supplied by members at various times and is based largely on their own experiences. There are no hard and fast rules about what you can and can't feed palominos but some feeds, most notably those high in protein, can affect their colour.
The palomino colour is bred into a horse and feeding does not produce it but can affect it. It seems to be a reasonably accepted fact that a great many palominos carry a smutting gene which results in a sooty appearance over parts of the coat. It also seems certain that there are feeds which tend to bring out this smutting and worst offenders are molasses, linseed and lucerne in large amounts.
For grazing horses, lush spring feed, particularly clovers and some of the other spring pasture species such as cape weed, also appear to bring out this smutting. An extremely high protein diet in the way of grains and oils can also produce smutting. Pelleted feeds do sometimes contain molasses, linseed etc and it is wise to check the formula before starting your palomino on pellets.
Of course, if you are lucky enough to have a palomino which doesn’t smut, feed it whatever it takes to keep him/her fit and healthy.
It is a wise owner who inspects his horse every few days whenever a change is made in the diet, and if you notice changes in the horse’s coat colour, don’t wait for it to get worse before you do something about it. From the experience of owners, it appears to take three or four times as long for smutting to grow out as it took to put it there!
A general rule of thumb for problem horses is not to feed them anything black, stick to white feeds - for example:
| Don’ts | Do’s |
| Lucerne hay (in large amounts) | Cereal hay (oaten, wheaten) |
| Lucerne chaff (in large amounts) | Cereal chaff (oaten, wheaten) |
| Copra | Grass or meadow hay |
| Black grains /seeds (ie sunflower seeds) | White grains (oats, barley etc) |
| Molasses | |
| Livamol, linseed & similar feed additives | White based (ie dolomite) supplements |
Owners have tried various things to darken palominos with varying degrees of success. Pumpkin and similar 'yellow' feeds have been touted to work as have some of the items listed in the 'Don'ts' column above for smutting. Some vitamin and mineral supplements have also been known to work.
Pregnant mares will often darken due to hormonal changes.
Certainly preventing as much bleaching as possible from the sun helps as many palominos are darker in Spring and gradually lighten off over summer.
Probably the best rule of thumb is to experiment, keeping a close eye out for smutting and when you find something that works, stick to it.
Remember that dyeing a palomino's coat is a very strict NO NO.