Fun Trivia » Animals » Horses » Horse Colours

This colour pattern is one of the most commonly seen horse coats. Bays can be light brown, like very milky coffee, or darker, like chocolate. They can also have a reddish brown coat, and these are known as blood bays.
Difficulty: Hard.

 

Chestnut, Cremello, Brown

The wild bay is an interesting color, which has minimal black points. The black on the legs may only come up to the fetlocks. When the black reaches the cannon bone, the black and red begin to mix, resulting in a fading that's not seen in a regular bay. The wild bay is a rare horse color, but it is found in "regular" horses, not just mustangs. A wild bay can also have white markings, just like any other color.

http://www.ultimatehorsesite.com/colors/bay.html
http://www.equinecolor.com/bay.html Difficulty: Hard.

 

It's only found in mustangs., Instead of black points, it has dark brown points., It has no white markings at all.

Perlinos have rust colored points. The black is diluted to a rust color instead of a cream color. Difficulty: Hard.

 

white, cream, black

The cremello has similar coloring, except it has a lighter mane and tail without an orangish cast. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Cremello, Palomino, Dun

Bays can come in many shades, from a rich brown, to a red (sometimes called a blood bay), to an almost black-brown (sometimes called a black bay.) A bay can also be dappled, like a dapple gray.

A bay horse has all black points, which are the mane/tail, the legs, the ears and the muzzle. Difficulty: Average.

Buckskins are golden horses with black manes, tails and legs. Unlike duns, they do not have primitive markings such as dorsal stripes or zebra striping on the legs. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Dun, Buttermilk, Palomino

The genotype is the genetic makeup (which genes a horse has, and in which forms) and controls the phenotype. Difficulty: Hard.

 

phenotype, chromosomes, blood

A cremello is a type of chestnut, just like the Palomino. The cremello has a white mane/tail, while the other like color, the perlino, has an orangish and darker mane/tail. Difficulty: Average.

 

Palomino, Chestnut, White

Roan horses are horses with white hairs flecked into their main coat colour. Red roans, or chestnut roans, sometimes look almost pink from the combination of red and white. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Blue roan, Grullo, Bay

The gene for roan is located on the R locus. T is tobiano spotting, E is for base coat color, and G is grey. Difficulty: Hard.

 

T locus, E locus, G locus

Paint horses can come in many different types, including tobiano, overo, tovero, and skewbald. Each type of paint has different styles of marking, much like the different types of Appaloosa's markings. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Sabino, Overo, Tobiano

A dun that has a black mane/tail often gets mixed up with the buckskin, but the difference is that the dun has a dorsal stripe while the buckskin does not. A dun can also have zebra stripes on its legs, much like the grullo. They can come in many different shades, including a red dun, a bay dun and a "regular" dun, in which the legs are a darker color than the body of the horse. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Chestnut, Buckskin, Bay

A seal brown is a brown horse (usually dark brown) with lighter, or mealy, areas. The muzzle may be a light brown, and there may be light brown on the legs where they join the body. A brown horse may have a black or brown coat, with lighter soft parts (muzzle, flank, belly, around eye, girth, inner thigh).

"Some browns have a brown body with 'mealy' (yellowish) or red soft points, and this is usually called 'brown'. Others are very dark or black, with lighter areas, and these are called seal brown. It is also called 'copper-nosed brown' or 'black and tan' in some areas. Some people group brown in with bay, but it should be considered a separate color."

http://www.ultimatehorsesite.com/colors/sealbrown.html
Difficulty: Hard.

 

Liver Chestnut, Wild Bay, Sorrel

That makes 64 in total! Difficulty: Hard.

 

23, 46, 64

There are many types of chestnut, including a red chestnut, light chestnut, liver chestnut and the flaxen chestnut.

A chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail is sometimes called a sorrel. Difficulty: Hard.

It's one of the more unusual shades of horses. The grullo (sometimes spelled grulla) horse may also have shoulder stripes and zebra stripes on the legs. Some other primitive markings that the grullo may have are a face mask, cobwebbing or mottling.

For future reference: both "grullo" & "grulla" spellings are correct.

In the AQHA registrary, only 1040 out of 143373 horses were registered as a grullo in 2001. http://www.aqha.com/association/registration/rulebook/registration.pdf

Difficulty: Hard.

 

blue roan, buckskin, gray

The E's cause the horse to have a black base, while the A's restrict the black hair to the points. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Grey, Black, Chestnut

There are many different types of facial markings, including snip, stripe, blaze, star and bald. Difficulty: Easy.

 

Stripe, Blaze, Star

Some people mistake a gray horse for a white one, but you can tell the difference by looking at the skin. The skin of a gray horse will be black, while the skin of a white horse will be pink.

There are several varieties of gray, including fleabitten, dappled, light, steel and rose gray. A rose gray is an unusual color in which the medium-gray hair is tinted with red.

One breed of horse that almost always turns gray with age is the Lipizzan. Difficulty: Hard.

Brindle horses are very rare. They have thin black stripes over a normal base coat. You can see this often in dogs, especially breeds like pit bulls and boxers. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Zebraism, Doberman stripes, Appaloosa

A horse that is RnRn is homozygous for the roan gene, and it will probably die in utero since roan is frequently lethal in its homozygous dominant form. It also had to come from two roan parents, which would be a very risky pairing that most breeders probably would never attempt. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Homozygous, Probably dead, The foal of two roan parents

This is one of the markings that I see more than any of the others. Some blazes can come in different shapes, including a sickle shape. Difficulty: Very Easy.

 

Star, Snip, Lip

The difference between a dun and a buckskin is that the buckskin doesn't have a dorsal stripe. Buckskins do not have any primitive markings that the dun and grullo have.

"Since 1987 the AQHA has classified a horse with a dorsal stripe as a dun and a horse without the dorsal stripe as a buckskin."

The dun & the buckskin are genetically different colors-not just surface colors!


Difficulty: Hard.

 

Dun, Chestnut, Gray

Palominos are some of the most gorgeous and recognizable horse colours. Even many non-horse people could tell you that Roy Roger's famous horse, Trigger, was a palomino. Difficulty: Average.

 

Golden yellow body with black mane and tail, Solid black, Brown with white patches

Although this trait has been called the sooty gene, it is a polygenic trait. Difficulty: Hard.

 

They have white or lighter hairs mixed into their coats., They have grey hairs mixed into their coats., They have red or brown hairs mixed into their coats.

The genes on the Z locus determine whether or not a horse is silver dapple. This gene is rare in most breeds, but very common in Shetlands, Minis, and Icelandic ponies. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Tobiano, Splash White, Flaxen mane and tail

This facial marking is most common on paints, sometimes giving them blue eyes where the white would be located. Difficulty: Easy.

 

Blaze, Star, Snip

The roan color also comes in blue roan and strawberry roan. The blue roan is with black and white instead of red and white, while the strawberry roan is with a chestnut coloring and white. Aside from those three colors, the roan can come in almost any horse color, including buckskin and palomino. Difficulty: Easy.

 

Chestnut, Bay, Sorrel

Paints are sometimes described as "piebald" or "skewbald". Piebalds are black and white, while skewbalds are any colour other than black and white. Fun fact: bald is an old word for white; this is why bald eagles are called bald, even when their heads are covered! Difficulty: Hard.

 

Brown and white, White with a black mane and tail, Dark brown

Ermine markings are most commonly seen on leg markings just above the hoof. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Grey mark on a black marking., Black mark on a grey marking., White mark on a black marking.

Cobwebbing occurs on the face, usually between the eyes. They are dark lines that resemble a cobweb, and are sometimes called chicken's feet.

http://www.ultimatehorsesite.com/colors/dunfactors.html
http://www.equusite.com/articles/basics/colors/colorsGrullo.shtml Difficulty: Hard.

 

The legs, The hindquarters, The shoulders

They totally or partially mask the presence of other coat colors. Difficulty: Hard.

 

lethal genes, pinto patterns, dilution genes

The leopard appaloosa is most widely known for circus work. (Remember the spotted horse that cantered around the ring? Chances are it was an appaloosa.) Difficulty: Average.

 

Fleabitten, Fairydust, Blanket

The spotted coat is mostly known through the Appaloosa, but it is also seen on several other breeds, including the Knapstrub, Pony of America, Palouse pony, and Noriker (also known as the Noric and Pinzgauer.)

There are several different variations of the spotted color, including leopard which is large dark spots over the entire white body. Snowflake is white spots over a dark coat, a blanket is a white blanket with dark spots on it with the body of a horse being a solid color. Marble is small dark marks over a coat of any color. Frost is just the opposite; small white marks over a dark base color. Difficulty: Easy.

 

Thoroughbred, Welsh Pony, Quarter Horse

Grulla (pronounced grew-ya) horse are a type of dun horse, but instead of having a yellow body colour, they have a grey one. They have other features common in duns, such as a dorsal stripe, and zebra striping on the legs and withers. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Apricot, Buckskin, Mouseon

The foal will often be carried to full term and appear normal, although mainly white and with blue eyes. The foal cannot survive and will be euthanized as soon as the condition is identified. Both parents need to be carriers of the mutated gene for the foal to inherit the fault, and DNA testing can prevent this happening. Difficulty: Hard.

 

heart, liver, tail

The appaloosa is a breed and a coat color. The coat pattern is located in many breeds, including the Knapstrub and Pony of America.

Difficulty: Hard.

 

Snowflake, Fleabitten, Leopard

Like the Appaloosa, the Palomino is a color variation as well as a breed. A Palomino can be many shades of gold, from a light, almost white shade, to a deep gold. Difficulty: Hard.

This type of coloration trait is found in breeds like the Fjord. They are also called light pointed horses. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Genotype, Dilution gene, Polygenic

While most people believe that the Friesian can only come in black, there are several cases of the Friesian coming in chestnut, including the stallion Fire Magic, and the mare Obizuth. The Friesian also used to come in silver dapple and gray. If the sire and dams of both red (chestnut) Friesians were bred again, there is a 25% possibility that they could produce more chestnut foals. "When two heterozygous black horses are bred, there is a 25% chance of getting a chestnut. Therefore both Fire Magic's sire and dam must have been heterozygous blacks, and if bred again, could produce another red friesian."

http://www.ultimatehorsesite.com/colors/chestnut.html
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/4075/obizuth.html
http://www.worldofdancinghorses.com/horses.html

Difficulty: Hard.

 

Thoroughbred, Appaloosa, Rocky Mountain Horse