Chestnut or Bay?

Birker2020

Birker2020

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There is a very nice looking hunter type of horse which is for sale on a very popular website which has some impressive pictures on the advert and appears to be reasonably priced.

The horse is quite certainly chestnut and is described in the ad as being chestnut. The vendors have included a photo of the horses passport. It states 'bay, colt' on the passport.

How can a horses passport show a different colour to the actual horse? There is no mistaking a chestnut from a bay even as a colt. Maybe they have taken a photo of the wrong passport if they have a lot of horses for sale.

N.B I have protected the vendor and horses identity as much as i can with the photos I've attached.
 

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I think some shades can certainly be mistaken as a foal, it depends how old the foal was when passported, we all know newborn colour is the easiest to see by and they usually don't have black points until later on too.
 
I had an x racing mare I bought from her breeder on her passport was bay she was definitely chestnut when I bought her at 2 and half.
I bred from her to a bright bay stallion When her son was born he looked almost chestnut when I passported him at a couple of months old the canny vet felt he was going to go bay as his mane and tail were not chestnut ( no way black though) By 2 he was bright bay with black legs good job I went with the vets instincts as he could have been chestnut in his passport.
 
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Littlebear said:
Is the owner the breeder?
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I don't have a clue its just a random advert that I happened to see on H&H. I'm not in the market to buy at the moment but like to have a mooch sometimes :)

I was just surprised when I saw the photos of what is obviously a very chestnut horse and the words bay on the passport. Just to clarify in case they are reading this post I wasn't suggesting the vendor was being dishonest in any way, like I say maybe they uploaded a photo of the wrong passport.
 
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Nice hunter, impressive pictures, reasonable price...
Could be a genuine error with the passport - as others have said with foals it is not always obvious how they will turn out.
Could be an error with the photo - they may have more than one horse similar and they have snapped the wrong passport
Or it could be dodgy as heck!
 
At rising 14 mine is jet black in winter, dark brown at coat change and bay in summer. Listed as brown/dark bay on passport.
 
This guy is a bay roan on his passport.
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This might explain why
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Both parents were grey so they should really have registered him as grey but they obviously went with the way he looked back then. I know it's more dramatic with a grey but horses of other colours will change slightly from their foal coats too.
 
If you count skewbald as 'any other colour (not black) and white' then I can sort of see how someone who didn't know anything about it might have got to that.
 
Many years ago when passports first came in I had two adult horses marked as "bay" - she was a piebald, and "chestnut" - she was black. No brown points, nothing, just black. I don't think they're always super precise, nor is it actually that important as we have microchipping now.
 
QuantockHills said:
my horse is listed as chestnut on his passport but is now iron grey... sometimes it's hard to tell what colour they will end up when you apply for the passport...
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Yes this ^^ hence why i wondered if the owner was the breeder as they would be able to show pics of the coat change from birth. My current youngster was chestnut for a long while and is now a proper bay. I have only ever had one youngster that didn't change colour as they grew up.
 
ester said:
He does have plenty of bay indicators as a foal but you can also see how people could get it wrong if they didn't know what they are.
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Indeed he did, but you'd be amazed how many people thought his pale legs would stay pale. In my experience, foals with pale legs grow up with dark legs and vice versa.

He's quite an orange sort of bay too which doesn't help!
 
There's someone on the colour genetics page yesterday, bay dun roan foal. The only thing from the photos you might question is the dun.

AQHA have sent it's registration back as Gold Champagne..
 
windand rain said:
YCBM how is your spotty bred he reminds me of my mare
She was knabstrupperx apaloosa
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He's out of a Swedish trotting mare by an unregistered appaloosa who the breeder just thought was a nice local horse!

I passed Kitten's family today, they have been moved to a field near the road and Muffin was very excited by them all on the top of the hill! They're a class lot of Highlands, arent they?

.
 
Moral of the story is that you can't trust what colour is stated on a passport :).

In a way it's understandable. I have horsey friends who can ride anything, nerves of steal etc etc... know a good horse and all that, but they wouldn't have a clue about colour to the extent it's needed for ID purposes. It's just not something that interests them.

I love the colour of your grown-up, Crazymare. And what a delightful little thing as a newborn.
 
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Yes the Heald Town ponies are beautiful and can really move. Kitten is a fluff ball hasnt acclimatised to being a soft coastal pony at all
 
My (grey) Arab mare is down as roan on her AHS certificate, presumably because she was greying out at the time the vet did the ID page (was done when she was 10 months). Seems obvious to me that a chestnut roan 10 month old with 1 grey parent and 1 chestnut is going grey, but there you go. That's the ID page she has in her passport too (she's 26, so passports weren't around when she was born) but her colour is down as grey on the description page as she was 8 by the time she got a passport. So on two consecutive pages of her passport, she is described as different colours!
 
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