Steel grey - colour experts / vets advice please

blitznbobs

blitznbobs

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Hi

I've just seen a steel grey horse for sale that I quite fancy. Now normally I won't look at greys but this guy (although definitely grey) is so near to black that one of my usual reasons for not wanting a grey is moot. Ie the keeping clean thing.

I have 2 questions tho

1) will he go white as he ages ( he's 3 atm)

2) is he just as likely to get melanoma as a lighter grey?

Thanx

Blitz
 
I was avoiding greys for the same reason (having had one, he loved to sit in poo the night before a show but his melanomas never caused him a problem). I keep window shopping and putting horses into my virtual stable on Horsequest (sad I know). There a three in there at the mo, one fabulous unbroken bay - pipe dream no way do I have the expertise. The other two are both grey, seeing as I'm drawn to connies I think I'd better break the grey embargo and just accept the way things are.
 
Well I didn't want a grey or a mare, now have a grey conny mare!
She doesn't do dirty - is a bit if a princess about mud, despite living out 24/7. On the odd occasion she gets dirty she brushes up brilliantly.
Melanomas are not a definate with a grey, have a 25 yr old grey gelding that has none (so far)
 
w1bbler said:
Melanomas are not a definate with a grey, have a 25 yr old grey gelding that has none (so far)
Click to expand...

You are quite correct. I have a LOT of greys including my stallion who is 22, a mare who is also 22, a gelding who is 20, and another 6 mares between 11 and 20 - NONE have melanomas (or at least any external ones.) I've had a umber of mares come to my stud for covering over the past 10 years who were grey - and most over 10. ONE had melanomas.
 
It's impossible to say how quickly he will go pale my friends was almost white at seven mine has paled but his still a strong grey at the same age.
My first grey lived into her twenties with no lumps and bumps.
 
My gelding was steel grey when I got him as a 5 year old, really dark like you describe and now at 17 he's a light dapple, so it was nice that he kept the dapples longer than normal than turning white!

With melanomas, and speaking as someone who has only ever had greys, only one of mine had a problem with them as she got older. It's a chance you take, but I think for it to be a serious problem then you would be unlucky.
 
LOL - I Was never having a grey either, but do now. She is by a black stallion out of a grey mare and at two, is almost black. Question for those of you that have older greys - do you think keeping them covered helps prevent melanomas especially during the summer?
 
My mare was almost black when I brought her as a 2year old, she's now 4 and is starting to go very dappled and almost grey roan.
 
ALL horses carrying the grey gene get progressively lighter as they age and nearly all will be white or thereabouts by their teens at the latest.

As for melanoma? Well, some people say all greys will get it and some people say most and some people say some. I suspect the answer is closer to all than some personally due to the nature of the grey gene but that is just a hunch and not fact.

Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there and I reckon if your routinely PMd older greys you would find them in most. But just a hunch, as I say
 
w1bbler said:
Melanomas are not a definate with a grey, have a 25 yr old grey gelding that has none (so far)
Click to expand...

My old grey girl was 35 when she went and she didn't have any (externally, anyway- something had been growing in her intestines for years that decided one day to block everything up, and that was that. Could have been a lipoma or a melanoma. Anyway, 35 was a pretty decent age, and she still took off with me out on hacks :))
 
I wouldn't let either of those reasons put u off having a grey.
I always said I wouldn't have a grey but now have 2, both are not very hard to keep clean (I had a bay before). I definitely thought it would be harder.
All horses can get all sorts of injuries and ailments. I know of 1 horse that has melanomas although they don't affect him at all
 
We looked at horses all over the country for a year with a strict no grey policy, after 3 failed vettings on brown animals our lovely farrier told me about a nice young horse that would suit, only problem was that he was steel grey. I went to look at him and fell in love, he passed the vet and was my horse of a lifetime, as he got older I decided to another but fed up of all the washing etc I got a brown one. Said brown one was a total nightmare. I sold him after 5 years of struggling, went on the horse hunt again. And guess what I have now?! A grey Connemara, he is amazing and not only is he grey (well white with ginger flea bites and a few dapples) he is clean boy. Insurance won't cover them over 12 years old for melanomas but it has not worried me. Murphy had them, they gave him no bother and Nickel has one under his tail in a place that wouldn't cause any harm. I am now a die hard grey Connemara fan (although would like a dun at some point).
 
My lad is the easiest colour to keep clean, I mean really is it any different to any other colour to keep clean? not really, you either have dirty horse or you don't, there's always a way to keep them clean if needs be.

Yes they go lighter in time and it's actually quite nice to see them change over the years, a horse with an array of colours!

As for melanomas, we had an old grey mare that was riddled with them in her dock aButon her bottom but also had others ..older ones without any, so you could say the same for any other problem/issue that could rear its ugly head in the future for any horse of any colour.

If the horse ticks every other important box then being a lovely steel grey is only a bonus I'd say!
:)
 
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