[Dawn]

Here's a photo of my mare. This was taken 2 days ago. Aside from a stiff brush run over the general area where the saddle would go, she'd had no grooming for about a week, and is still shedding out the last of her winter coat. Please ignore me riding her.

[Goonhorse]

While I don't know of any scientific info on paprika, I just read in my most recent Horse & Rider that zoo people feed it to flamingo's to make their feathers more vibrant.

[Dawn]

Flamingos turn the color of whatever they're eating though. I'd bet that really does boost them up!

Even if it doesn't do anything for the coat, my mare loves how it tastes. So that's good enough reason for me seeing as how it doesn't do any harm.

[MissCriss]

Originally Posted by Jess!

Paprika will test for Capsaicin, which is a banned substance for most shows, so stop feeding it 7 days before a show.

THANK YOU for that information! I never knew!


You can actually feed quite a bit of flax. Start slowly, of course, but you can feed up to 1/2 and then up to 1 cup per day. For paprika, I usually feed a big spoonful per day.

I also would not grind the flax, since it goes rancid FAST when ground, and you lose a lot of the nutrients.

[Debbie z.]

A guy at my barn is using sunflower seeds and paprika. It is making her coat shiney and not bleached from sun. A cup= plastic cup 4 0r 6 oz. And a Tsp of paprika. His mare is in foal and she looks much better.

[Quick2Skip01]

Ive used BOSS, and Flax and had great results. My boy was on Boss, his platform feed, and cocasoya last year and he gleamed like a penny.

My mom has been bugging me about using paprika with our yearling to keep her dark palamino. I havent done it yet, and now I wont give it to Skip because I show so much.

[Appylvr]

Someone just told me to use Paprika to darken up my Palomino. Does it do that too? How much should I start him out on? Just a Tablespoon a day?

[AtomicTop]

Dunno if it's different in horses, but unchewed/ground flax seed in humans goes out the other end wasted. If it's not ground it cannot be digested. At least my health store guru told me this. I can imagine that a lot of those little seeds would go ungroun/chewed in a horses mouth.

[NovDressageRdr]

Will it help my grey get darker? (talking about paprika)

[Dawn]

Originally Posted by AtomicTop

Dunno if it's different in horses, but unchewed/ground flax seed in humans goes out the other end wasted. If it's not ground it cannot be digested. At least my health store guru told me this. I can imagine that a lot of those little seeds would go ungroun/chewed in a horses mouth.

That's not true even for humans. Many people add whole flax to their cereal/oatmeal, muffins, breads, etc... I eat a small handful a day myself.

Grinding causes immediate loss of nutrients from the seed. So either way you look at it, you will lose some (though minimal either way) amounts of nutrition. If you grind and then let it sit (even if it is prepared to not spoil) you will lose a lot of nutrients.