Help me settle a (friendly!) argument re horse colour

[Greylegs]

I have an acquaintance who tells me that all TB race horses are registered as grey at birth and have their colour changed to a “true” colour at some later date. I have never heard of this. Is he right? ( ... fully prepared to hand over the fiver i bet him .... ).

 

[Ranyhyn]

Following with interest

 

[AandK]

I'd say its rubbish. I have an exracer and his passport has Chestnut on it, you can see Chestnut Colt under the sticker that has Gelding on it.

 

[little_critter]

My TB (bred to race but never did) was registered as bay, there was no name at all on her passport so I would assume that was her original passport, not an updated one.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Greys have to have at least one grey parent, so registering ALL youngsters as grey, even if they have no grey parent is dumb. People who breed get very good at seeing which foals (with one or two grey parents) will grey out and which won't.

 

[Greylegs]

Greys have to have at least one grey parent, so registering ALL youngsters as grey, even if they have no grey parent is dumb. People who breed get very good at seeing which foals (with one or two grey parents) will grey out and which won't.

Thanks for this. The horse in question - a chestnut TB - is out of a grey dam.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

As the grey dam has had a non grey foal, she will only have one copy of the grey gene, so a 50 % chance of passing it on to her foal.

Signs that a foal will grey out include grey/white hairs around the eyes and also their leg fur is a stronger colour compared to a foal of the same colour that won't grey out. On bay foals (for example) a non grey can have silvery lower legs, but the bay + grey will have black lower legs.

My chestnut + grey was born with lots of white hairs around her eyes.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

You can see that she's going to grey out.

 

[Leandy]

Pretty sure that isn't true but then I don't breed racehorses. It seems to me more likely that the reverse would be more likely to be true. Perhaps your friend has it the wrong way round? Many grey horses are not originally registered as such because they are not born grey and only turn grey at a later date which is often after they are passported and registered.

 

[Cortez]

Complete nonsense. Collect your fiver now.

 

[teddypops]

When I was a vet receptionist I used to fill in all the papers for the Tb foals after being given the info from the vets and no, they are not all registered as grey

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Utter nonsense! Some gett put down as chestnut/bay/black may go grey if they aren't sure. But no they don't all get registered as grey.

And that's before you get to American registrations ...

GrayMo is registered as Rose Gray/Roan...

ETA - A lot of old school racing people don't like/want a grey because they dont think they are as good as their darker counterparts

 

[Greylegs]

Thanks for the opinions. Apparently my acquaintance got this information from Wetherbys. He, therefore, stands by his opinion and is currently with holding my fiver. Should I seek legal advice on the matter do you think?

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Email Wetherby's yourself. They will tell you he is talking nonsense.

 

[LadyGascoyne]

Does this help?

https://www.weatherbys.co.uk/Weatherbys/media/PDFs/Identification-of-Horses-Booklet.pdf

 

[Velcrobum]

I have an ex-racehorse whose passport lists him as Bay he was passported at 2months old. Your friend is talking utter bollox.