Roaning with age?

[Dizzle]

My mare is almost 12, her sire was a strawberry roan (I've no idea about her dam) but my mare is listed as bay on her passport. She looks bay, she looked bay when I bought her but every summer she gets more and more white in her coat. To be honest she still looks bay but with a few small patches of very light roaning.

Is it possible for her to be a roan but for it not to show, isn't 12 a little old to start roaning out and a little young for going grey?

It's patches on her body and not places where could have been damaged by pressure.



I quite fancy the idea of her being a strawberry roan by the time she's an OAP!

 

[scheherazade]

Not particularly relevant but I love this phrase and shall now apply it to myself. I am not going grey, i am 'roaning'
Thanks OP for cheering me up

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

Well my boy this when I bought him 14yrs ago he was about 12 here

Now he looks like this at 24

He gets greyer every year

 

[Meowy Catkin]

OP, do you have any photos that you can post? Roan is one of the colours that many people (including those who fill out passports) get confused about.

There are several things that cause white flecks in the coat and the true Roan gene (sometimes called a 'dark headed' roan to distinguish it from Grey, which often causes white flecks around the eyes/on the head in the early stages of the greying out process) is only one of them.

For information's sake, a 'strawberry roan' is a chestnut horse with the true Roan gene. Bay plus the Roan gene is a 'Bay Roan' even if the body is very pink in colour.

Chestnut/strawberry roan

Bay roan

Black/blue roan

 

[Fransurrey]

Grey hairs will appear with age on any hairy mammal, as the melanocytes are subjected to oxidative stress with age and begin to die off. Lack of pigment on the hair follicle gives rise to a white (grey) hair, unless you have a mutation such as the Mitf gene which causes premature whiting, as in grey horses.

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

My boy is classed as rabicano

 

[Dizzle]

I'm roaning too! Black Beastie I can't believe the change!

This is a close up of some of the patches in question:

This is her face, she has a lighter muzzle and eye as you can see:

She has black legs with light highlights too:

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

Op do you have a pic of the top of her tail? And under her mane

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Due to the lack of strong black pigment on her legs, she could be a Wild Bay (it's slightly different genetically from a normal bay) and it looks like she has sabino too (blaze and white flecks in the coat).

 

[Peregrine Falcon]

Ooh, Gerrilli's brand? Is she a Portmore pony? Who's her sire? Warren Play Away? Has she got a green passport?

(Sorry in NF anorack mode again!)

 

[scewal]

My skew bald who also has a few black bits also has roaming too in her brown patches. However she has always had them hence her name pepper.

 

[Dizzle]

Ooh, Gerrilli's brand? Is she a Portmore pony? Who's her sire? Warren Play Away? Has she got a green passport?

(Sorry in NF anorack mode again!)

Yes, green passport! She's Lucky Lane Bay Leaf, by Furzey Lodge Benjamin out of Fir Free Crystal, forest born and bred until she was 6!

This is her sire, so you can see why I think she may be roaning.

 

[Dizzle]

Op do you have a pic of the top of her tail? And under her mane

I will take some this afternoon, but pretty sure they're both black although she does have grey hairs in her mane (don't we all).

 

[Dizzle]

Due to the lack of strong black pigment on her legs, she could be a Wild Bay (it's slightly different genetically from a normal bay) and it looks like she has sabino too (blaze and white flecks in the coat).

Never heard of a wild bay! Is it possible that she will continue to get more and more white as she gets older? Every summer the patches get bigger, but when I had a roan as a child he got darker in summer and his body was almost white in winter (stable stains, grrr).

 

[Meowy Catkin]

What I have found with sabino is that the flecks and white patches are hard to see in the winter coat, but show up clearly in the summer coat. I have read reports of some horses having more flecks than they used to, but it's not like Grey or Varnish Roan where the horse goes white or very white respectively.

Her sire is a true Roan (a very nice example too) but his being Roan is not related to your mares flecks as she isn't Roan herself. The pertinent thing is his white star.

 

[huskydamage]

My girls' summer coat has come through with these patches- these spots will probably go perfect white as that's what usually happens. Normally she only has a couple though! ..... where's the anti-greying shampoo for horses?

 

[Meowy Catkin]

You do also get 'birdcatcher spots' which is a strong possibility when white spots appear on a coat. BC spots can fade away again.

 

[huskydamage]

You do also get 'birdcatcher spots' which is a strong possibility when white spots appear on a coat. BC spots can fade away again.

I did a post about it a while ago and the general consensus was Birdcatchers. I don't know much about them though, but I'm wondering if it is to do with age as well as she never had them until 20 odd. She seems to be getting more and more as time goes on... I am wondering if she is going to end up spotty?!

 

[Meowy Catkin]

I think that getting more and more is typical of BC spots. They are an oddity, but very striking to look at.

 

[Peregrine Falcon]

Nice breeding Dizzle. Benjamin is what I call a proper forest pony, sadly no longer with us. I bred a pony by a bay stallion out of a bay roan mare (in my avatar). She too has roaning through her coat, particularly her flanks.

Roanie has produced 3 bays, 2 chestnut roans and I bay roan.

 

[YorksG]

I have a registered Appy, who was solid coloured when we bought her, she has 'roaned out' over time, these pictures are about eight years apart.

Her and the youngster look like photographic negatives of each other

 

[Meowy Catkin]

That's a very nice example of a Varnish Roan YG.

 

[YorksG]

Thank you The older girl is fully registered from loud spotted parents, the younger girl is on the part-bred register, her mum was a solid coloured Welsh D, Dad a leopard spotted registered appy.