What colour is a horse when...

[Flame_]

They have an all white coat, like a grey, but coloured patches on the skin underneath the hair, like a piebald?

Are they a grey, a coloured or something else?

Anyone know?

 

[Kat]

A coloured that has greyed out I guess.

 

[Kub]

I have a coloured that has patches like this. His shoulders look completely white until he gets wet, at which point you can see that he has big black spots underneath the white, tis quite interesting hehe. So I'd probably say coloured because well, they are. Do the coloured spots show if clipped?

 

[unicorndreams]

Grey is a genetic 'overlay' to a base colour coat as far as I recall. So the horse starts out as a bay, chestnut, piebald etc but the 'grey' gene overrides this gradually replacing the coloured hairs with grey ones.
Compared to a roan which is a dilution gene where the horse retains its base colour.
Horse Colour Explained by Jeanette Gower is an excellent easy to read and interesting book for further explanation.

 

[Flame_]

A coloured that has greyed out I guess.

Ah, thanks. I should have worked that one out myself really, lol.

 

[jodie3]

Isn't it called something like 'historic coloured'?

I had a grey (white) cob and when he was wet or finely clipped you could see darker patches on his skin and in fact on his passport he was recorded as being blue and white.

I can't explain the science behind it but basically the grey gene is stronger and eventually greys out the coloured parts!

I know with something like an Appaloosa you can have the most striking spotted youngster but if it has grey genes it will eventually turn completely grey.