Horse colours on pedigree

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Marigold4

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Bit of a nerdy question here but with little else to do, I was looking back over my horse's pedigree to see if she has enough Arab to compete in part Arab classes and saw that the colours of her family are recorded. So ch is chestnut, presumably, gr is grey but what about the difference between br and b? I though b might be black but Primitive Rising is recorded as b on the pedigree and he is definitely bay. So does anyone know the difference between br and b?
 
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Thank you! Are there just "brown" horses then? I thought they were usually termed some shade of bay or some shade of chestnut and brown was what non-horsey people called them?
 
There is a genetic difference I believe (I’m sure the colour bods will come and confirm/correct)

Often bays have black mane/tail whereas browns have dark brown mane/tail, the browns often have slightly lighter soft points. But I think there is some phenotypic variation there. But distinct from chestnut. Often browns just get called dark bay or black
 
DP is is brown on his passport while his mother is recorded as dunkelbraun. He looks almost black at times and is more like her in colour than his father who is also brown. Maybe it’s hard to tell what colour they are going to be when still in a foal coat and braun is the catch all.
 
This is the classic look of a (seal) brown horse. They do go darker and lighter through the year, but the classic signs are the paler brown fur under the eyes, on the muzzle and up from underneath the horse onto the flanks.

Brown-Horse-Picture.jpg


An arab showing the colour. Do note that he has been shaved and greased on his head so the brown muzzle fur has been removed.

c1730616270e59728322848144f0b82b.jpg


The dark winter coat on this horse really shows off the muzzle and under eye colour.

694bab35efcdd6f00504d62401c10753.jpg
 
Meowy Catkin said:
This is the classic look of a (seal) brown horse. They do go darker and lighter through the year, but the classic signs are the paler brown fur under the eyes, on the muzzle and up from underneath the horse onto the flanks.

Brown-Horse-Picture.jpg


An arab showing the colour. Do note that he has been shaved and greased on his head so the brown muzzle fur has been removed.

c1730616270e59728322848144f0b82b.jpg


The dark winter coat on this horse really shows off the muzzle and under eye colour.

694bab35efcdd6f00504d62401c10753.jpg
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That Arab is gorgeous I love that colour
 
Marigold4 said:
Bit of a nerdy question here but with little else to do, I was looking back over my horse's pedigree to see if she has enough Arab to compete in part Arab classes and saw that the colours of her family are recorded. So ch is chestnut, presumably, gr is grey but what about the difference between br and b? I though b might be black but Primitive Rising is recorded as b on the pedigree and he is definitely bay. So does anyone know the difference between br and b?
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If you look on the Arab horse society site it will tell you the part bred Arab percentage of each class so you can see which you can compete in, I think some classes are a minimum of 32% I think I may be wrong though so have a check.
 
Traditionally people use the term brown rather than bay to mean the colouring in the pictures MC posted up thread. Like most passport colours it's really just a descriptive term rather than aligning neatly with a defined set of colour genetics.
 
Lindylouanne said:
DP is is brown on his passport while his mother is recorded as dunkelbraun. He looks almost black at times and is more like her in colour than his father who is also brown. Maybe it’s hard to tell what colour they are going to be when still in a foal coat and braun

I thinkQUOTE]
Lindylouanne said:
DP is is brown on his passport while his mother is recorded as dunkelbraun. He looks almost black at times and is more like her in colour than his father who is also brown. Maybe it’s hard to tell what colour they are going to be when still in a foal coat and braun is the catch all.
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Lindylouanne said:
DP is is brown on his passport while his mother is recorded as dunkelbraun. He looks almost black at times and is more like her in colour than his father who is also brown. Maybe it’s hard to tell what colour they are going to be when still in a foal coat and braun is the catch all.
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I think you have cracked it. They put br brown down when registering the foal as they are not quite sure which exact type off brown it will be at maturity. What colour is dunkelbraun? It's a great word!
 
Pinkvboots said:
If you look on the Arab horse society site it will tell you the part bred Arab percentage of each class so you can see which you can compete in, I think some classes are a minimum of 32% I think I may be wrong though so have a check.
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Oh rats. Then I don't have enough. She has Inschallah on one side and Oredin on the other but only 4 generations back :(
 
I wouldn’t call yours dark brown marigold.
She would either be bay or brown, I’d be of the opinion bay.

This is a horse I own that is debatable whether black or dark brown. We called him black for ease, but I think it’s very possible he was brown0D499E44-0EC3-4A88-B805-62248E8BD9FA.jpeg
 
Marigold4 said:
Oh rats. Then I don't have enough. She has Inschallah on one side and Oredin on the other but only 4 generations back :(
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I would definitely check as I could be wrong and they would only apply to ahs affiliated shows, you could do part bred classes at other shows as there is no minimum percentage.
 
Marigold4 said:
Bit of a nerdy question here but with little else to do, I was looking back over my horse's pedigree to see if she has enough Arab to compete in part Arab classes and saw that the colours of her family are recorded. So ch is chestnut, presumably, gr is grey but what about the difference between br and b? I though b might be black but Primitive Rising is recorded as b on the pedigree and he is definitely bay. So does anyone know the difference between br and b?
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My guess is that br is brown and b is bay.

Black presumably would be bl, but there would be very few black arabs.
Marigold4 said:
Thank you! Are there just "brown" horses then? I thought they were usually termed some shade of bay or some shade of chestnut and brown was what non-horsey people called them?
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Brown is a very real colour. In fact, a lot of so-called dark bays are browns. A lot of so-called blacks are also browns.

Brown can be beautiful. It's a pity is sounds so ordinary.
 
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