Content

• Steps
• Tips
• Warnings
• What do you need

Have you ever seen a horse or pony being ridden and wondered why a rider chose a horse of that color? Have you ever seen a horse that looked beautiful, but you didn't know how to determine its color? The colors of the horses are usually easy, but some of them are rather difficult to name. Here's an easy way to find out what color a horse is.

Steps

1. 1 Learn basic terminology.
   • Extremities: This refers to the ears, lower legs, mane and tail.
   • Mane: Long hair that grows along the ridge on the horse's neck, from the point between the ears to the base of the withers.
   • Ponytail: Long hair growing from the tailbone.
   • White marks on the feet: These are located in the leg area and include the line of the hooves (very close to the hooves), a white heel (very close to the heel, but close to the base of the tail), toe (located just above the headstock), half-sleeves (located between the grandmother and the knee), stocking (touching or over the knee), false stocking (stocking, one part of which is above the knee and the other under it), ermine spots (random dark spots near the hooves inside the white markings), and the grandmother (applies only to the grandmother).
   • Marks on the face: These are located on the head and forehead and are of different types:
     • Star (small mark on the forehead)
     • Flap (small mark on the face)
     • Brand (Wide white stripe at the bottom in front of the muzzle)
     • Stripe (Very thin white stripe at the bottom in front of the muzzle)
     • Part of the muzzle without fur / white muzzle (Very wide mark that includes areas around the horse's eyes)
   • Eye Color: To help name different colors, although not often, use these definitions: eye wall, blue eye, turquoise eye, glass eye, white sclera. Horses can have blue, brown, green, hazel, golden, and red eyes.
   • Other important features of a horse's color include: spots, specks, coat and undercoat.
2. 2 Explore other features. Each subcategory has mixes and variations. Here are some of the colors and features.
   • Bay: Body of various shades of brown with black dots. There are many types of bay color: light bay (brown with a light shade), blood bay (brown that has a very deep red tone), bay with a mahogany hue (where brown has a dark purple hue, usually smoky and more brown), standard chestnut (where brown is "even" without a red tint), golden chestnut (where the base coat becomes yellowish) and primitive, or "wild" bay (faint black markings, and the horse is usually more pale shade).
   • Auburn or Sorrel: A chestnut or sorrel horse without any black hair. The chestnut horse is a dark red horse. A very dark shade of chestnut is called brown. Sorrel are more brightly colored, with a lighter coat color. Their mane / tail should be the same color as their torso. For any color with a straw mane and tail, put “straw” in front of the color name. Sorrel often with a straw tint.
   • Brown: They are reddish brown, dark chestnut in color, and they appear to have black in their color - but not. Individual hairs are just dark red. These horses may also have a straw or light brown mane and tail.
   • Black: no other color than black; all limbs and hair are black (except for white markings). The mane and tail are black. There are several types of black: pitch black or black black that never fades - black, bright in the sun - and smoky black, where the horse looks black from a distance, but a brown tint is noticeable up close.
   • Gray or White / Gray: These horses may appear white, but they are not. Their skin is dark and they have dark pigmentation around the eyes, ears, and nose. They are born with a different color, which gradually fades with age.
   • Dapple Gray: These horses are gray but dappled. Apples are small light or dark spots. Usually gray in apples is gray with light spots; However, it is gray with dark spots. Apple spots can be very light and very dark.
   • Steel Gray: The horse is dark gray in color, usually with slightly darker dots. They don't have apples.
   • Gray "buckwheat", "fleas": It looks like it sounds - imagine a horse that has been bitten by fleas. It looks like it has small black, brown, or red spots the size of a few pinheads.The mane and tail are gray or white, and there will often be variations of these colors in shades.
   • Pink-gray: a chestnut horse that has turned gray. They have a purple, red or brown tint throughout the graying process. They can be in apples. Their manes are darker than the color of their torso.
   • Greyish brown: Greyish browns come in a variety of colors, such as red (greyish brown and chestnut / sorrel), karak (a black horse with a greyish brown tint, black dots and fading from gray to dark brown in body), chestnut (chestnut horses with a grayish tinge), and muscular (greyish brown on a brown horse; very dark tan color). Duns have a mask on the muzzle (dark muzzle), a dorsal stripe, markings on the legs (zebra stripes on the legs), dark spots, and a dark mane / tail. They should not be confused with buckskin-colored horses, which are only one color.
3. 3 Buckskin color: Buckskin horses are very similar to greyish brown, but they do not have markings on the legs or stripes on the back. Their base color is yellow (dark golden to yellow) and black legs / black dots that look like chestnut. Their mane and tail are black. They can be in apples.
   • Pied: They should be less than 20% black. Piebald ones tend to have a lighter mane / tail color than their bodies, but may have the same shade; their shades range from creamy to almost chocolatey. They are often confused with champagne-colored horses.
   • Isabella: Comes in a variety of colors and pigments. Many people think that Isabella are albinos, but in reality they are not. Isabella are cream, white-cream, and champagne colors. White-cream - this is lightened chestnut, cream - lightened chestnut, and smoky - lightened black. The lightening gene is the dominant gene, and for cream, cream-white or smoky, there must be two cream genes present in the parent. If only one is present, a chestnut will be cream with a white mane and tail, a dark pigmented horse such as a bay will be cream with a black mane and tail. The white and cream blue eyes. The Champagne gene and another lightening gene that affects the horse's base color produces a lighter color. This is a dominant gene, so one or two genes have the same effect, and a horse must have champagne parents in order for it to have the same shade. The champagne gene lightens the red pigment to yellow, and the black pigment to a chocolate grayish color, which is sometimes mistaken for mousey. They have freckled skin and green / light brown / golden eyes.
   • Albino: These horses are actually from a recessive gene. Many people consider them to be lightened. They are classified as dominant white at registration. Albinos are usually born with pink or red pigmented eyes and pink, unpigmented skin. They often look the same as white and cream, however, they have different genetics, and research shows that albinism comes from a recessive gene, compared to cream and white and cream, which are the dominant genes.
   • Roan: Roan is a solid color with white dots all over the coat. They come in different colors: red-roan - chestnut in color with white blotches, appearing pink. Blue-roans are black with white patches that give a blue tint. Bay roans are bay with white spots that give a red tint. Their manes and tails are consistent with their base color, but may be straw-colored in red roans. American roans and other roans may have "frost" (very light color at the top of the mane / tail).
   • Brown: This is the primary color, and brown horse really is brown... The exact genetics of brown horses are not well understood. They are not the same as chestnut or black.The only thing that is defined is dark brown as a type of brown where the base color is very dark and they have dull patches and the belly / croup / muzzle / eye area is much lighter.
   • American Piebald: The American piebald is known for its abnormal structure, which is an altered white gene. They come in different variations, such as piebald (black and white, with large white spots scattered), dark piebald (the same, piebald, except for the main color, not black at all), in apples (white spots scattered, and cross the topline, there is white feet), piebald overos (large, round, scattered spots that never cross the topline and tend to have a bald face and strong legs), piebald tovero (apple overs), overo frame (overs, but white spots never cross the topline), splash (the horse's underside and legs are white as if dipped in white paint) and sabino (where the edges of the markings exhibit roan characteristics). They can have any base color.
   • Painted: Painted is actually a colored breed. They are mostly quarter skewbald horses. They also come in all types as American piebald ones. Their spots are large and do not go from side to side. To identify a horse as a dyed or American piebald, the spots on the legs must be past their hocks and knees, unless the underlying color is prominent.
   • Appaloosa or Spotted: There is no uniform pattern of spots for Appaloosa. Appaloosa come in a wide variety of colors, but basic structures include: flakes, bedspread, multiple spots, rich spotted, leopard, glossy roan, and white saddlecloth. They have white sclera and always striped hooves, and their genitals and muzzle are spotted.
4. 4 Learn this list well! The next time you see a horse, pinpoint the markings that will give you a clue of what color it is, and check this list.

Tips

• Also, when a horse sheds and the coat grows back, it may be a different shade or color, and as they get older, their coat may become lighter.
• In winter, their winter coat is playful, which makes their coat often look musky and gray.
• In summer, the sun will often bleach the color of the coat and it will look lighter, although some horses may have a thicker coat and it will actually turn darker.

Warnings

• People can judge horses and their colors in a very peculiar way ...
• Sometimes it is better to buy a horse, choosing by temperament, and NOT by color, otherwise, the horse may behave badly ... and after all, no one wants this!
• The horse can turn gray due to old age, as well as due to nutrition, grooming, and if it has been injured.

What do you need

• Notepad and pen to jot down colors and descriptions.