Horse Colors
Horses come in a wide variety of colors like, brown, bay and dapple. Below is a list and short description of horse colors. They are classified by point-color or the colors on their manes, tails, legs, and ear rims.
Black-Point Colors
Bay - Probably the most common and best liked horse color. A bay horse has a brown-colored (ranging anywhere from chocolate to sand-brown)coat and a dark brown mane with black strands or an all-black mane. They usually have dark eyes, too. Variations - Mahogany bay, Cherry bay, Blood bay, Golden bay, Sandy or Light bay, Sooty Bay and plain old Standard bay.
Brown - A brown horse is brown or black with lighter shades in certain parts such as the muzzle, girth and quarters. Though, in some registries, brown is considered a shade of bay, most people separate the two similar colors.Variations - Seal brown and Mealy brown.
Black - A solid black body, mane and tail characterize a black horse. Some black horses have coats that fade when they are left in sunlight for a while. These horses are not refered to as jet black(or raven black). A horse is not a true black if they have lighter brown spots or shades in certain areas.Variations - Jet/Raven black and Original black.
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Buckskin - Buckskin is a diluteor toned down version of bay. The body color can range from cream to an orangish shade. Often, buckskins are confused with duns, but today the term "buckskin" is usually reserved for tan or yellowish-colored horses with black points. Buckskins, however like duns they are, lack the dun's primitive markings (stripe over withers, bars on the hocks, etc.).Variations - Dusty buckskin, Golden buckskin, Sooty (or smutty) buskskin, Silvery buckskin and Yellow buckskin.
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Grulla - A dun dilution of black or seal brown color that results in a slate-gray or mouse shade. They mostly have black or dark-brown heads and dark eyes.Variations - none
Dun - A dun horses coloring is very similar to that of a abuckskin, but with various markings. They also tend to be more tan then buckskins with their yellowish tone. Linebacked duns have a dark stripe on their back and sometimes over their shoulders.Variations - Coyote dun, Dusty dun, Golden dun, Zebra dun, Peanut-butter dun and Silver dun.
Non-Black-Point Colors
Champagne - Champagne is a term for a dilution that causes red hair to go gold and black hair to become chocolate-colored. So, technically, a champagne horse may have the black factor in them, but the dilution causes them to look brown!Variations - Amber champagne (genetically bay), Champagne (genetically black) and Gold champagne (genetically chestnut).
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Chestnut/Sorrel - A chestnut or sorrel horse has a reddish or copper body with a tail that can be the same color, flaxen or almost black. They usually have dark eyes. Chestnuts are mostly named for their coat color regardless of the mane and tail. One exception is flaxen chestnut, a chestnut body with a blond mane and tail. There is no dilution gene in a chestnut or sorrel horse.Variations - Dark or Liver chestnut, Flaxen chestnut, Light chestnut and Red chestnut (generally called sorrel although that is more of a western term).
Cream or Cremello - A cremello horse is chestnut/sorrel and has recieved a double dilution gene. In other words, the horse has gotten one dilution gene from each of its parents therfore the color is reduced to a cream or nearly white color. They have pink skin that sometimes casts a pink shade over them and blue eyes.Variations - Perlino (sometimes reffered to as the companion to albino, with blue eyes and more pigment) and Smoky cream/Smoky perlino.
Palomino - Palomino is the result of chestnut with a cream dilution factor. They have a rich-gold to clearer yellow coat with a flaxen (yellow-blond) or whitish mane and tail. Also, look for dark eyes. Variations -Golden palomino, Isabelo and Sooty (or smutty) palomino.
Silver Dapple - Silver dapple is a gene that acts on black pigment (like points). It will leave red body pigment alone, but will lighten manes/tails leaving them to look the color of a palomino's mane/tail, sometimes with a bit of red coloring. It is hard to find a Silver dapple horse in most of North America, except in the Rocky Mountain Horse or some pony breeds.Variations - Silver dapple-bay and Silver dapple-black.
Red dun - A dilute version of black or gold hair that results in a color like chestnut/sorrel along with their primitive markings. They, however, lack the black points of a buckskin, grulla or zebra dun horse.Variations - Apricot dun, Claybank dun and Sooty red dun.
Brindle - A brindle horse is very rare, so if you have seen one consisder yourself lucky. This coat color is extremely unique and little is know about the genetic factors that influence this odd striping. Brindle coloring consists of watery or runny looking stripes (sometimes just partial) over the body. When reffering to horses, the name comes from the color seen in dogs or cattle. Brindle has occured in many different breeds such as Arabian, Russian, Thoroughbred, Tennessee Walker and some types of donkeys and mules. At a time, people just thought that brindle was a shade of dun. It is now thought to be different from dun, genetically. Brindle horses' coats can be mixed with other colors like gray or dun. For more infomation on brindle coloring click on the picture below.Variations - unknown (please contact me if you know of any)
Thanx to Jamie for this picture of her miniature horse, Pepper.
My information on horse colors comes from an article called "A Question of Color" that is in the February, March, and April issues of Horse & Rider magazine and from a site mentioned in the magazine - www.doubledilute.com. If you want more info on the subject check out www.horsecolor.com or click here, here or here.
