How long do horses take to 'grey' out?

[kit279]

Just curious as went to see an iron grey filly today and was interested to know how long it takes for horses to fully grey out?

 

[mulledwhine]

I think it varies, ponys passport say black/grey as they were not sure if he would grey out , still black at 14, I have a friend who's 8 year old is still iron grey, and another who's iron grey greyed out at 5!!!!

How long is a piece if string ??

 

[SatansLittleHelper]

I wondered this too as my boy is iron grey, got him at 3, he is now 5 and still the same colour

 

[Meowy Catkin]

MW - I would suspect that your boy is a black sabino rather than a grey.

You are quite right though, it does depend on the horse and it pretty much varies from 2 to 20 years for them to go 'white'.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

There's no rhyme nor reason as to when they grey out. I have an 8yo shetland who is a beautiful rocking horse dappled grey, a 10yo tb who only has a few dark dapples on his gullet, legs, mane and tail and a 13yo tb who is more dapple than white.

 

[Spiritedly]

My grey is 3, I've had him 2 years and he's still pretty much the same iron grey he was when he arrived.

 

[mulledwhine]

Faracat - thanks for that , I thought the black grey on his birth passport meant they were not sure what he would do, in terms of greying out , what does tobiano mean? I have seen it used a lot in all colours

Dum and dumber me

 

[mulledwhine]

** sapiano***

 

[mulledwhine]

Sabino damn it

 

[Meowy Catkin]

It's one of the 'coloured/pinto' genes but it can just cause white leg/face markings with jagged edges and white flecks in the coat.

 

[Foxford]

It completely depends! I have a rose grey who is 7 and people are only just starting to refer to him as grey. Before that it was "what colour is he?!"

My previous horse was dapple grey and was mostly white by the age of 8.

 

[Kenzo]

My lads 9 and he's still not greyed out, he goes lighter in summer then goes dark again in winter, black legs, white main and tail...when it's clean!

Winter

Summer, think this was a few years ago, so he's a bit lighter but not a lot.

 

[Wundahorse]

Ours is absolutely not allowed to grey out,he is a beautiful dapple rocking horse grey and i aim to paint the dapples back if he dares to grey out.

 

[purplerain]

My Shetland was white by the time she was 4

 

[HashRouge]

I think it depends. Mine still had fairly dark dapples when she was 8/9 (not as dark as above though!) and has steadily got lighter every year. She has become more noticeably flea bitten every year as well. She is 20 now and still has some very faint dapples on her hind quarters, but that is more or less it. She still has a dark mane and the top of her tail is also dark, though they're both much lighter than they were.

As a 4 year old:

As a 9 year old:

As a 16/17 year old. The main difference now is that her mane and tail are a bit lighter and the dappling that you can see on her hind quarters/ back legs has more or less faded.

I loved the dark dapples she had when we bought her, but really I prefer her photo in the last picture, as I think a light coloured grey with a darker mane and tail is very attractive.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

As we are doing photos...

Just born

One year old

Two years old.

She's now got chestnut fleabites.

 

[HashRouge]

Two years old.

See there you have a 2 year old that is lighter than my 20 year old, so it really depends on the horse

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Her sire is still dapple grey (they also both only have one copy of grey) so you can't even predict it from how quickly/slowly their parents greyed out.

 

[Ellies_mum2]

Daughter has a grey that was chestnut with 4 white socks when he was born At the age of 4 he is a lovely light grey with dapples appearing on his tummy and on his bum. His passport has him as a chestnut roan but there's very little chestnut left on him now

 

[Lolo]

Al's new pony is 8, and is only really greying out round the edges, but is keeping his dapples. He looks like he's glowing

 

[telerimist]

I purchased my WB mare when she was rising 6 and she was steel grey with white socks/heel and a white star. Now at the age of 12 she is fully flea bitten grey.

 

[lucy007]

Not iron grey, but my new 3 year old was passported as a yearling as chestnut and white......
....... and this is the colour of his markings now.

 

[WelshD]

My two and a half year old pony is greying out before my very eyes. I can only imagine he will be White by the time he is four

 

[Tnavas]

Depends so much on the individual horse - one of mine was really dark dapples for years and then one spring shed his winter coat and he'd really faded so the dapples were gone and all that was left were the odd dark line.

One of my foals had a grey sire and this was her as a foal

This is her at five

 

[Tiffany]

My ID mare was dappled steel grey when I bought her 6. Over the years she lost her dapples and now at 17 she's almost white and a little flea bitten in summer as you can see in my photo to the left.