What colour is/are your horse/s?

Are either of his parents grey? He looks buckskin to me, but greying out. Either that or a buckskin with a wild bay base as his legs are not that dark.

No idea on his parents wagtail, Tis a mystery!

He is around 9/10 and has done the same colour change since I've owned him (brought as a 4 yr old).

Love this stuff so interesting, thanks for replying 😊
 
We have a liver chestnut, chestnut with flaxen mane & tail, dapple grey, grey, flea-bitten grey and a dark bay.

My liver chestnut.
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The chestnut with a flaxen mane & tail (please excuse her round belly, this is 4 years ago, she is much thinner now!).
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The dapple grey.
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The grey.
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The flea-bitten grey.
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And finally, our 36 y/o dark bay (she is 31 in the photo).
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No idea on his parents wagtail, Tis a mystery!

He is around 9/10 and has done the same colour change since I've owned him (brought as a 4 yr old).

Love this stuff so interesting, thanks for replying ��

Looks a bit on the varnish appy side to me. But I don't even know what colour my cob is! :D
 
Mines a Bay Roan, he goes fully grey in the spring to early summer and throughout the summer he's a beautiful light bay with grey specks through and a lighter bum. In the winter (when he's unclipped) he looks dark bay with dark grey patches on his bum.

As his name is Red, people usually picture him as a chestnut. But he's actually passported (incorrectly) as Red Roan, which I think is where his name is from.

Ax
 
Anyone want to hazard a guess at what colour my boy is?

He is passported as dun but does not has dorsel stripe etc

This is his winter coat, sort of a cream looking dun? Dark brown points on his legs


In spring he goes a strange colour with a brown type of roan over his body....


He then looses the brown going into summer and his dark points go a sort of iron grey...



He also has a very spotty nose!

I remember you from TO. The first time I ever saw a picture, I assumed he was greying out but have since thought, for a long time that he has varnish with a buckskin base- although Lp can play some tricks with the base colour, my educated guess would still be buckskin based. :)

He has signs of Lp and if nothing else, his tail shows no sign of grey (usually the head and tail are the first to start greying) so I'm sticking to my thoughts. :)
 
Can't remember if we settled on seal brown, dark bay or smokey black. I just call him dark chocolate colour! He has red highlights in mane and tail, coffee coloured ear linings, body colour of 70% dark chocolate, one silver leg and his muzzle and other legs are black not brown.
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Faded to this last summer
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Can't remember if we settled on seal brown, dark bay or smokey black. I just call him dark chocolate colour! He has red highlights in mane and tail, coffee coloured ear linings, body colour of 70% dark chocolate, one silver leg and his muzzle and other legs are black not brown.
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Faded to this last summer
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He's gorgeous. I think that he is either smoky black or 'fading' black. There are two types of black horses; fading and non fading black.
 
Agree with the Tank, this horse is liver chestnut. Your 'liver chestnut' is a dark rich chestnut, but not liver chestnut. They are all lovely though.

She does look liver chestnut in the photo doesn't she - but she has got darker with age, hence why we call her dark bay now (I ought to of used a more recent photo ;) ) Yes, she does like a dark rich chestnut in that photo, but she somehow always looks like that when her summer coat is coming through, and then gets darker, in the late autumn before she's clipped she's often mistaken as a bay.

Aren't horses strange! :D
 
She does look liver chestnut in the photo doesn't she - but she has got darker with age, hence why we call her dark bay now (I ought to of used a more recent photo ;) ) Yes, she does like a dark rich chestnut in that photo, but she somehow always looks like that when her summer coat is coming through, and then gets darker, in the late autumn before she's clipped she's often mistaken as a bay.

Aren't horses strange! :D

Bays always have black manes and tails and lower legs are black too (except for white markings of course). Your chestnut that you refer to as liver is actually a dark chestnut. Chestnuts can be as dark as some bays. Liver chestnuts are dark but do not have a red hue like other dark chestnuts. They can range from a walnut colour to almost black. There are also what are known as 'false liver chestnuts'. These are horses that have a mix of dark hairs caused by the sooty gene.
 
Bays always have black manes and tails and lower legs are black too (except for white markings of course). Your chestnut that you refer to as liver is actually a dark chestnut. Chestnuts can be as dark as some bays. Liver chestnuts are dark but do not have a red hue like other dark chestnuts. They can range from a walnut colour to almost black. There are also what are known as 'false liver chestnuts'. These are horses that have a mix of dark hairs caused by the sooty gene.

Ah, I see, thank you. I always thought that bays could have highlights in their manes & tails.
 
I find this thread utterly fascinating - it's a total education in itself!

I have a query which I hope someone might be able to answer...Exmoor ponies are only permitted to be a limited colours eg brown, bay, dun and that's pretty much it! My question is, for those Exmoor ponies registered as bay due to black manes/tails, legs...can they truly be bay if they have a mealy coloured muzzle?
 
Mahogany bay tobiano
Seal brown but flecked all over with a low density of white hairs. From a metre away you will not see the white ones at all, you can only see them when you get close up.
 
They are bay even though they have the pale edges - black + agouti makes them bay and the pangare is a modifier like tobiano or sabino - it doesn't change the genotype.

Yes, bay horses with pangare are still called bay, just as Haflingers with pangare are still classed as chestnut.

Thank you for the explanation :D
 
There is no difference genetically between a black horse that fades and one that stays black, but copper deficiency does cause fading, so that could explain why some blacks fade badly.

I agree that they are both genetically identical in respect of the E+ gene but there are modifying and intensifying genes at work as well. Jet black (non fading) is recessive to fading black due to the intensifying gene being affected by the fading gene (Jeanette Gower - Horse Colour explained). Of course this is a relatively old book and so may be wrong. I haven't looked into it other than read this book.
 
Do the colour experts agree with my wild bay assumption on my boy? Pics on page 22 of this thread, I can't get photobucket to upload them again, would love to know what you think.
 
Have you got a photo without the rug - possibly, my mare is similar & has some fawn shading on her legs too.
 
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