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Colors and Definitions
By Tracy Scheinkman:
PhD candidate in the Genetics
Interdisciplinary Program at the University of Arizona
The Solid Colors:
Black
| Near Black | Seal
Brown | Bay | Chestnut
The Dilutions: Dun | Champagne
| Silver Dapple | Silver
Dapple Bay | Buckskin | Palomino
| Cream
Patterns of White: Grey | Roan | Rabicano
| Frosty | White
Appaloosas (plain
blanket, blanket with spots, leopard, unpatterned leopard, reverse
spots, snowflake, flecked, varnish roan)
Pintos and Paints
(patterns: Tobiano, Frame Overo, Sabino, Splash)
Note:
The color of a horse registered with the IRC is generally up to
the owner to decide upon. The
IRC will only step in and alter an owner selected color if the color
selected is obviously the wrong one for that horse or if the owner
asks the IRC to decide which color to select for that horse. Please realize that color names have different meanings in
different registries. For
example the color often called “dun” in the Connemara registry is
called “buckskin” here. This
is to keep the color terms as unique and understandable as possible
and as close to known genetically inheritable color traits as
possible. Also be aware
that the color of the horse may change if it is body-clipped.
Many blacks and near blacks look almost like grullas when
clipped, complete with a dorsal stripe.
Many chestnuts look like red duns again complete with dorsal
striping. Greys sometimes
are sometimes hard to determine when in the early stages of greying
and in some cases can even appear roan or dun from a distance.
To determine the true color of a horse it may be necessary for
you to watch the horse through several seasons of coat shedding with
the horse retaining its natural unclipped hair coat.
The IRC is putting into place a system for changing the color
registration for a horse should it be needed however owners are
encouraged to try to be as accurate as possible when they first
register their horse.
Solid Colors
 Black
– This color has black hairs covering the whole horse; no brown, tan
or red hairs can be seen. Some
black horses will sunburn when outdoors for long periods in the sun,
especially during the summer. Such
horses may not appear to be black at all when sunburned but will shed
to black again with the next new coat.
Other black horses do not sunburn at all and are sometimes
called jet black. (This
registry has decided not to define these two versions of black
separately at this time; both are called black here).
Generally a horse that still appears black despite being
body-clipped is a black, if the horse changes color when body-clipped
consider registering it as a near black.
 Near
Black –
Some shades of very dark nearly black horses are hard to classify
either as black or as another color.
These horses are sometimes termed black/bay, seal brown, dark
mahogany bay, or black chestnut yet even so the question remains as to
whether these horses are truly black or another color.
For some of these horses the term ‘near black’ is used
here. These horses are
very dark often looking quite black, but they still may have very
small areas of tan, brown or red hairs usually around the eyes,
muzzle, or flanks that do not seem to come and go with sun burning nor
do they seem go away when the new hair coat comes in.
Yet these areas of non-black hairs are not extensive enough to
warrant calling the horse by a different color name.
Usually a distinction can be made between a near black and a
black by simply body-clipping the horse, if the horse’s color
changes to a dark slate brown almost a grulla (Spanish word pronounced
groo-ya) then the horse is likely to be a near black rather than a
true black. If the horse
still looks black after being body-clipped then the horse should be
registered as black.
 Seal
Brown – A seal brown
horse has a black body coat but also has strongly brown or tan colored
areas on the face, around the eyes and muzzle, and usually also at the
flanks and sometimes between the thighs.
These tan areas do not change with the seasons or with
shedding. Sometimes the
tan around the muzzle stops just short of the edge of the nose itself
resulting in a black rim around the nostrils and lips.
 Bay
– A horse that has a black mane, tail, and usually legs, possibly
also the tips of the ears and the muzzle but the body color is either
red, brown, light red to slightly golden red (not to be confused with
buckskin), dark reddish brown, to dark brown and even approaching
black over the back but still having large areas of red and/or brown
hairs on the body. Within
the color bay are many shades from light to dark and in between.
Some bays have black very high up on the legs, possibly as high
as midway between the knee and elbow, others have black only from the
fetlocks down.
 Chestnut
– A horse that has an overall red body color.
This may be darkened almost to black in black and liver
chestnuts, or lightened to nearly palomino in blond sorrels.
Thus the horse may have a very dark brown to nearly black body
color, a brown body color, a red body color, a light red body color,
or a nearly golden body color (not to be confused with palomino).
The mane and tail are not black but instead are some version of
red or brown, or are lightened to flaxen, blond, or nearly white.
The legs and face are always the same color as the body or a
lighter shade, never darker. Some
breed registries use the term ‘sorrel’ to refer to horses of one
shade while the term chestnut is used to refer to horses of another
shade. Since these terms
are not used consistently from registry to registry here we will use
one term ‘chestnut’ to refer to all shades.
A known genetic rule is that chestnut bred to chestnut will
always produce chestnut. If
the offspring of two chestnuts is some other color then one or the
other horse is not a true chestnut but has been mistaken for one.
The most common cause of this kind of mistake is the color
called silver dapple bay. Please
note that any black hair on the legs or in the mane disqualifies the
horse as a chestnut (see silver dapple and silver dapple bay).
The
previous major categories – especially black, bay, and chestnut –
serve as the background on which all other color genes act.
Dilutions
Are colors that
derive from diluted pigment, often changing the pigment from a deeper
color to a lighter one. Commonly
black when diluted becomes slate, tan, or flaxen while red when
diluted becomes yellow of flaxen.
Both black and red can be diluted to cream.
 Dun
–
The defining feature of the color dun is a strong well-defined dorsal
stripe extending from the base of the mane to the beginning of the
tail. The color of the dorsal stripe is the same as the mane and tail
color. The body color of
the horse is diluted everywhere except the mane, tail, part of the
face, the legs and the dorsal stripe.
(Horses that have been bodyclipped and foals especially those
that are greying will also display a faint dorsal stripe, however this
is not the same as the intense dorsal stripe of duns which is the
result of a true color shade difference, but rather the faint stripes
are the result of a difference in the way pigment is dispersed in
hairs along the spine vs. the rest of the coat.) This color on a bay background (yellow dun) is thought to be
the original color of horses prior to domestication. All true duns have dorsal stripes. Some registries use the term ‘dun’ to refer to horses
that have a yellow body and black mane and tail regardless of whether
it has a dorsal stripe or not. For
example the Connemara registry commonly calls a horse a dun and yet
most of those horses are genetically what we are terming buckskin.
The dun color is a dilution of either black or red on the body
to grayish brown (grulla, pronounced “grew-ya”) or yellow.
The dun dilution is found mostly on the body, by contrast the
points – the legs, mane, tail, and part of the face especially the
nasal bones -- retain much of the original color.
Duns come in many shades ranging from a very dark slate or
olive color (grullas), through yellow and in some cases when combined
with other dilution genes to nearly white (called silver dun).
Yet all of them retain their dorsal stripes and darker color at
the points. Red duns are
typically chestnuts who have had their red body color diluted to a
light apricot or peach. Line-backed
Palominos can result when dun is combined with one Cremello gene on a
chestnut background.
 Champagne
– In some rare horses a dilution exists that dilutes black pigment
to brown and red pigment to yellow.
There is some argument whether these horses are the results of
a dilution of normal pigment or if for example black pigment has been
altered to brown pigment. In
addition to hair color the skin color is changed to a pinkish brown
and the eye color is lightened to amber.
The mane and tail are sometimes darker, sometimes lighter than
the body color. It is a
very rare color and there are a number of shades depending upon the
background the shade is based on.
Champagne is the color that results from this gene on a
black background. It is
an overall light brown horse with pinkish-brown skin and amber eyes.
Amber champagne is what we see when the background is
bay, a yellowish brown body color and darker chocolate brown points.
Gold champagne is sometimes also called ‘pink-skinned
palomino’ and occurs when the background is chestnut but it is not
related to palomino at all except in resemblance as it is a deep rich
gold color but it does not have the Cremello dilution gene.
Gold champagnes are often registered as Palominos.
Ivory champagne is the result of chestnut plus champagne
combined with one Cremello gene.
It is a pale cream color that very closely resembles the color
that results when chestnut is diluted with two Cremello genes (called
cream, Cremello or blue-eyed cream).
However unlike true creams ivory champagne horses have green or
greenish eyes instead of the pale blue eyes of creams.
Silver
dapple – This color
resembles dark palomino but where dark palominos generally have
lighter bellies than backs, a silver dapple is likely to have a fairly
uniform ventral/dorsal color. The color occurs when hairs of a black background are
lightened to tan or flaxen. Black
hairs can still be distinguished intermixed with the tan ones.
Dapples are common but not always present. The mane, tail, and legs are often lightened more than the
body, sometimes to flaxen or even nearly white.
Some horses that are silver dapples are erroneously called
‘liver chestnut’ however they do not reproduce as though they were
chestnuts. Silver dapples
are also sometimes called blue silvers or chocolate silvers.
Silver dapples and silver dapple bays have amber or light brown
eyes. There is an eye
disease that is closely linked to the silver dapple color gene called
Anterior Segment Dysgenesis which results in malformation of some
parts of the eye, however even in severely affected horses most of the
vision remains intact and the horse is not disabled.
Not all silver dapples and silver dapple bays have ASD.
Silver
dapple bay – This color
can resemble chestnut however there are usually some black hairs
remaining in the mane and tail and sometimes substantial black can be
seen on the legs. The
color results when a bay background has the silver dapple gene lighten
most of the black hairs to light tan, flaxen, or almost white.
This color is the source for much confusion and some
registration disqualifications as it is often registered as
‘chestnut’. When a
chestnut is bred to a chestnut the only color that can be produced is
chestnut. However
if one of the ‘chestnuts’ is actually a silver dapple then
breeding with a chestnut can sometimes result in a bay foal.
Some registries don’t recognize the silver dapple color and
yet the gene that causes it does exist within their gene pool.
For example a number of Arabian foals have over many years been
disqualified for registration because of the chestnut rule despite the
fact that the silver dapple gene does exist in the breed.
This color is sometimes called red silver.
Cremello
dilutions – Buckskin,
Palomino, and Cream.
 Buckskin
– A horse with a yellow body and black points (mane, tail, legs, ear
tips, muzzle). Some very
light golden bays are mistaken for dark buckskin, and vice versa, but
careful examination of the pedigree should make it possible to
determine the correct color. For
example purebred Arabians are never buckskin, the Cremello gene does
not exist in that breed, however there are light golden bays.
Bay is the background color on which one Cremello gene acts to
lighten the red in that coat to yellow.
Buckskins range from light to dark, some are dark enough to
almost appear to be seal brown but there will be more light hairs
around the barrel than one would expect with a seal brown.
Usually a buckskin will have at least one parent that is a
cream, a buckskin, or a palomino, rarely the parent carrying the
Cremello gene will be black but that black will trace directly to
cream, buckskin, or palomino rather than have any intermediate bay or
chestnut ancestors inbetween.
 Palomino
– This is the color sometimes referred to as the golden horse of the
west. This color is the
result of a chestnut background plus one Cremello gene which acts to
reduce the red color of the chestnut coat to the yellow of the
Palomino. Palominos can
be dark or light though the ideal is supposed to be a perfect 24-karat
gold color. Sometimes
light chestnuts (also called blond sorrels) can appear to be
palominos. Again a
careful examination of a pedigree can usually distinguish the two
colors. For example
purebred Arabians are never true Palominos, the Cremello gene does not
exist in the breed, however there are light chestnuts that sometimes
are mistaken for palominos. (See
buckskin.) Palominos can
range from light to dark. A
common color that is mistaken for dark palomino is silver dapple.
The two colors can usually be distinguished by looking at the
hairs themselves, palomino is a red hair that has been lightened to
yellow, silver dapple is a black hair that has been lightened to tan.
The very lightest palominos are sometimes termed
‘isabellas’ and can resemble creams.
Look at the eyes to distinguish the color, creams will have
blue eyes, palominos will have brown to light hazel eyes, as will
isabellas.
 Cream
– Also
called Cremello, Perlino, Smokey Cream, and Blue-eyed Cream (BEC).
Cremello,
Perlino, and Smokey Cream are names used by some when it is thought
that the horse's background color is known to be chestnut, bay, and
black respectively. However it is impossible to tell the
underlying background color of the horse as there is no significant
difference in the appearance of the horse because the two Cremello
genes that these horses possess dilute all pigment equally.
Therefore for registry purposes one name is used -- Cream. Creams
have creamy to nearly white hair, a light pinkish-grey skin color
sometimes called ‘pumpkin’, and pale blue eyes.
The color is caused by the horse having two Cremello genes
these dilute both red and black pigment to a light cream color.
This is a form of partial albinism (complete albinism where the
animal lacks any pigment in skin, hair, and eyes does not exist in
horses). It can be
confused with White and Grey. To
distinguish it from White look at the color of the eyes, and skin,
whites have pink skin, not pumpkin, and brown, or hazel eyes not blue.
Greys have dark grey skin, most usually retain some pigmented
hairs along with grey hairs on the legs, or in the mane or tail, and
greys have brown eyes. In
the Connemara breed it is possible that a grey horse could also be a
cream, look to the eye color to distinguish the cream. In paints and pintos it is possible for a horse to have blue
eyes and a white or mostly white color and yet not be a cream, this
would be incredibly rare but could be distinguished by looking at the
pedigree and progeny. A
final color that could be mistaken for cream is ivory champagne.
The difference would be in the eye color; the ivory champagne
would have hazel, amber, or green eyes, not blue.
Ivory champagne is the result of an interaction between a
single Cremello gene and the champagne gene.
Patterns of
White (inclusive of Appaloosas
and Pinto/Paints)
White hairs can be deposited in splotches, spots, patches,
symmetrically or asymmetrically, or as individual hairs.
They commonly occur as white leg and face markings we know as
socks, stockings, blazes, stars, strips, and snips but when they are
more extensive than this they are often named as a separate pattern.
These patterns can occur on any background color including
diluted colors.
 Grey
– Is a pattern of progressive graying similar to premature graying
in humans but occurring much earlier in life in horses.
The horse will usually begin to show some grey hairs as the
foal coat begins to shed. Some
will not show any grey hairs until much later in life, as late as 8
years old. Grey can occur
in a number of patterns and these patterns can change throughout a
horse’s life. The grey
can be steel, iron, or rose grey in color, dappled, fleabitten, or
pure snow white in pattern. The
mane and tail can grey at a different rate of speed than the rest of
the body, in some cases later in some cases earlier.
The legs usually retain some color over the hocks, knees, or
fetlocks. The face and
head usually grey a bit earlier than the rest of the body but not
always. Grey is often
confused with roan, especially in Thoroughbreds where a chestnut going
grey is often called ‘roan’.
The difference is that grey is progressive whereas roan varies
seasonally but over years stays roughly the same.
Also roans do not generally have white extend onto the face,
mane, tail, or lower legs, and never over the ears.
 Roan
– This color is the result of white hairs being intermixed in the
background color on the body at a ratio of roughly 50% white to 50%
colored. Roans can be
blue (black background) roans (pictured), red (bay) roans, strawberry (chestnut)
roans, and all other colors mixed with roan.
Roan hairs can be seen on the body and are often heavier over
the back and rump but do not generally extend onto the face, mane,
tail, or lower legs, and never onto the ears.
Roan can vary seasonally and is usually lightest in the winter
and darkest in the spring, but does not progress from year to year.
The term roan is used in some registries in referring to horses
of Sabino color pattern, this is done commonly in the Dutch breeds and
in Clydesdales. In this
registry those horses should use the term Sabino.
In the thoroughbred registry it is common to call a horse a
roan that is a chestnut or bay turning grey.
In this registry those horses should use the term Grey.
 Rabicano
(white ticking) – A type of roaning in which the white hairs are
confined to the flanks, ribs, and dock of the tail.
It is particularly prominent on the flanks, often appearing to
follow the pattern of growth of the hairs.
Over the ribs the pattern can have a striped appearance.
In some horses only the dock of the tail is affected (skunk
tail) and on such horses the tail may be partly or nearly all white.
Frosty
– A rare type of roaning in which the white hairs tend to follow the
boney prominences of the hips, the spine, and the shoulder.
White hairs will also extend into the mane and tail something
that does not occur with roan and roan-like patterns.
White
– Also called Dominant White. This
pattern is a pink-skinned white horse with brown or hazel eyes.
This pattern is sometimes termed ‘albino’ incorrectly.
True albinos do not exist in horses, the only partial albino
that is known is cream also called Cremello which can be distinguished
from white by the eye color (blue in creams, brown in whites). Whites must have one white parent. They can be confused with grey but greys will have normal
dark grey skin pigmentation whereas whites will have pink skin.
They can also be confused with Sabinos that are all or mostly
white, pedigree and progeny records can help distinguish between them.
Appaloosa
 This is a complex color and the inheritance of it is complex.
There are at least 8 different patterns that are called
appaloosa which are generally symmetrical in distribution on the
horse’s body. These
include plain blanket, blanket with spots (pictured), patterned
leopard, unpatterned leopard, reverse spots, snowflake,
flecked, and varnish roan.
Any one or all of the color patterns may be present on the same
horse. It is common for
appaloosas to have striped hooves, mottled skin, and depigmented/mottled
skin around the eyes, muzzle, and sheath, and white or mottled sclera.
Few spot appaloosas are appaloosas that are light in
color, show one or more of the patterns but instead of having a lot of
flashy spotting these appaloosas show just a few to no spots on a
background of usually weak varnish roaning.
These horses are commonly thought to be 100% appaloosa
producers when bred to non-appaloosas.
Characteristic appaloosas are horses that lack a pattern
but have the striped hooves, mottled skin, and depigmentation/mottling
of the skin around the eyes, muzzle, and sheath that are
characteristic of appaloosas. These
horses are thought to be more likely to produce appaloosas than a
horse that is a non-appaloosa.
Pintos
and Paints
Splashy markings of depigmented areas of skin with white hair
alternating with areas of normally pigmented skin.
Generally non-symmetrical.
There are 4 known genetically distinct patterns.
One, two, three, or all the patterns may be present on the same
horse making it difficult to distinguish which of them is present.
In addition some patterns may be present but may not show
themselves (hypostasis, incomplete penetrance) in the presence of
other patterns.
Tobiano –
This is a pattern of pinto markings that commonly takes the form of
large splashes of white that occur in vertical patches that often will
cross the topline. Usually
the legs are white but the head remains dark except for normal white
markings similar to what might occur in any solid horse.
 Frame
overo – This pattern of pinto markings emanates from the sides
of the horse. Usually the
pattern is seen as an included white spot on the side of the neck or
body. White does not
generally cross the topline; the mane and tail usually remain dark.
The legs are usually dark, the face usually a white bald or
apron face, and the eyes are commonly blue.
A dark mustache commonly occurs on the upper lip.
This pattern is known to cause Lethal White Foal Syndrome.
A Lethal White Foal (a foal that is born white or mostly white
and dies within a few days of birth from a non-functioning color) can
result when two horses both carrying the Frame Overo gene are bred
together. The chance that such a mating will produce a Lethal White
Foal is 1 in 4. However,
many horses that carry the Frame Overo gene do not show the pattern
and appear solid, also some horses that appear to be of other
pinto/paint patterns can carry the Frame Overo gene.
In the American Paint and Pinto registries the term Overo can
refer to any one of three patterns, Frame Overo, Sabino, or Splash.
In this registry we will be using Frame Overo to refer only to
the Frame Overo pattern. Also
in the Paint and Pinto registries the term Tovero is commonly used for
a horse that shows any of the patterns under the heading Overo plus
Tobiano. This registry
will not use Tovero as a term since it is indistinct.
We ask that all patterns thought to be present on the horse be
listed separately. For
example a horse might be listed as a ‘Tobiano, Frame Overo, Sabino’
if those patterns are all thought to occur in this one horse.
The Frame Overo gene can be tested for.
This can help prevent matings between two Frame Overo carrying
horses and therefore help prevent the production of a Lethal White
Foal.
 Sabino –
This pattern is an extension of normal white markings from the legs or
face onto the body. It is
commonly seen as a ventral (belly) white marking.
Commonly markings will appear to extend outward from the belly.
The legs often have high white extending upward in peaks or
points along the front or back of the leg bones; disconnected white
leg runs are common. The
face commonly has a lot of white that can extend under the chin and
jaw. Blue eyes are also
common. Sabinos can be
all or nearly pure white, though they will usually retain a small
patch of pigmented skin. Sabino
foals that are born all or nearly all white can survive and are not
Lethal Whites. Sabino
patches often have ragged or roany edges.
 Splash – The
splash pattern looks like a horse has been dipped in white paint.
There is a distinct line on the body, below that line the horse
is white, above it is dark. The
face is commonly white. Blue
eyes are common. Approximately
90% of horses that have the splash pattern are deaf.
While that may seem at first to be a severe disability (and in
wild horses it would be) in domestic horses it can actually be an
advantage because deaf horses don’t spook at loud noises.
Splash is a comparatively rare pattern.
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