So Many Horse Colors To Choose From, Do You Know All Of Them?

Everyone Has Their Favorite Horse Colors. What Are Your Favorites?

Leopard Spot Appaloosa

There are so many different horse colors, it’s hard to keep up with all of them. Even a certain color can have many different variations. Take gray for example, you would think a gray horse, is a gray horse, right? Wrong. Gray horses can be many different variations, such as salt and pepper gray, dapple gray, fleabitten gray or rose gray.

Horses exhibit a vast array of coat colors and markings. Color is often the first thing that is noticed about a horse. It can also be a major factor when buying a horse. Color, to some, is even more important than the types of horses they buy (mares, geldings, stallions).

All horses start out basically as red or black. However, if at least one gene is present as the dominant gene, this creates the wide range of colors that horses possess.

I have tried to list as many possible horse colors that I could think of. I hope these examples will give you a little more insight on the many different colors of horses.

Let’s start with the gray colored horses. A gray horse has black skin and white or dark and white mixed hairs. A gray horse is distinguished from a white horse by the color of it’s skin. A truly gray horse will have dark skin, noticeable on the muzzle, flanks and other areas with little or no hair. As I stated earlier, there are many different variations of a gray horse which include: Dapple Gray Horse

Salt and Pepper Gray is a horse that has white and dark hairs evenly mixed over most of his body.
Dapple Gray is a dark colored horse with lighter rings of gray hairs, called dapples scattered over his body.
Rose Gray is a gray horse with a reddish tinge to its hair.
Fleabitten Gray is an otherwise white haired horse that has red hairs intermixed throughout his coat.

In Bay horses, color ranges from light reddish-brown to a very dark brown with black mane, tail and lower legs. The common horse color variations in a bay horse include:

Dark Bay has very dark or brown hair.
Blood Bays have bright red hair.
Light Bays are lighter than a blood bay, however the hairs are more red that gold.

Chestnut horses have a reddish body color with no black. Mane and tail are the same color or a lighter shade than the body. These include:

Liver Chestnut has a very dark brown coat.
Sorrell horse have a reddish-tan to red coat. These are the most common.

The Buckskin horse color is a dilution or fading of the coat color to a yellow, cream or gold, while keeping the black mane, tail and lower legs.

Believe it or not, White is the rarest horse color. A truly white horse will possess white hair and pink skin. The vast majority of white horses are actually gray horses with a fully white hair coat, but have dark skin.

The Appaloosa can come in many different horse colors. Some of which include bay, chestnut palomino, black, buckskin, dun and grulla. Appaloosa’s can be distinguished by their spotted markings. In these spotted horses, their markings overlay the base color, unlike the dapples seen in the gray horse. There are several different pattern variations in the appaloosa which include:

Leopard - when the white patterning is extreme and has base colored spots covering most of it’s body.
Blanket - white over the hip and can extend from the tail to the neck. The spots inside the blanket are the same as the base coat.
Snowflake - is a pattern with white spots and flecks on a dark body.
Varnish Roan - Usually has a dark colored head and legs with some spots over a lighter colored body.
Frost - Very similar to the varnish horse color, but the white hairs are usually limited to the loins, neck and back.

The Dun horse is a yellowish or tan coat with markings sometimes called “dun factors”. These consist of a darker mane and tail, a stripe along the back and sometimes the faint horizontal zebra stripes on the upper legs. Some of the variations of duns are:

Grulla or Blue Dun is a black horse that has the dun gene. The coat is a solid mousy gray or silver with black or dark gray dun factors.
Bay Dun is yellow or tan with black mane and tail.
Red Duns have a chestnut coat. Coat is usually tan or pale yellow with a red mane and tail with the classic dun stripes.
Buckskin Duns have a coat of pale gold with black mane, tail, legs and dun markings.

Palomino horses are golden, yellow or a tan shade with flaxen mane and tail. Palomino horses can range in color from extremely light to deep chocolate, but always have flaxen mane and tail.

Pinto horse and Paints are sometimes thought to be the same breed, however this is not true. Paint horses are actually pinto horses that have Quarter horse and/or Thoroughbred bloodlines. These are two separate breeds of horses.

The Pinto and Paint are however, multi-colored horses with large patches of brown, white, and/or black and white. Some of the different variations are:

Piebald - a black and white spotting pattern.
Skewbald - a spotting pattern of white and any other color besides black. It can also be a spotting pattern of white and two other colors which may include black.

Overo - This pattern consist of sharp, irregular markings. Usually more white than dark, and the face is usually white, often with blue eyes. The lower legs are normally dark.
Tobiano - Spotting pattern that has rounded markings with white legs and white across the back and the dock of the tail. They are usually more white than dark. The face is dark with markings of a regular horse such as a star, strip or blaze.
Tovero - is a mix of Tobiano and Overo coloration, such as blue eyes and a dark head.
Sabino - This horse color is sometimes confused with a roan or rabicano. It is a slight spotted pattern with white high up on legs, belly spots or white markings on face that extend past the eye.

The Roan horse color is a pattern that has white hairs evenly inter-mixed within the horses body color. A roan’s head is either solid colored or much darker than their body. The legs will also be darker. Variations of a roan are:

Red roan - a chestnut base color with the typical roaning pattern. The mane and tail are the same color as the body. These are sometimes called a Strawberry roan also.

Bay roan - has the base color of the bay with a roaning pattern. The mane and tail are black.

Blue roan - is a black horse with the roaning pattern.

Rabicano - is a roan like effect. It creates a splotchy roaning pattern on only parts of the body, usually the inside of the flanks, legs and tail head. Also the legs nor head will be darker than the rest of the body.

Silver dapple is caused by a dilution gene that only acts upon black hair pigment. It lightens the black hair to a chocolate brown and changes the mane and tail to silver. Silver Dapple Horses

Facial Markings.

Markings on horses are usually white areas on an otherwise dark base color. Most horses have some type of marking. They are present a birth and do not change. They may appear to change slightly as the horse grows or sheds his winter coat, but it is usually just the difference in the hair length. Some of the most common facial markings are:

Blaze - is a wide white stripe down the middle of the face.
Strip or stripe - is a narrow white mark down the middle of the face.
Star - a white marking either above or between the eyes.
Bald Face - A very wide marking extending to or past the eyes.
Snip - a white marking on the muzzle, between the nostrils.

Leg Markings.

Leg markings are just as diverse as facial markings. They are usually described by the highest point of the leg that is covered by white. Some of the most common leg markings include:

Sock - is a white mark that extends over the fetlock but not higher than the knee or hock.
Stocking - a marking that extends at least to the knee or hock and sometimes higher.
Pastern - a marking that extends above the top of the hoof, but remains below the fetlock.
Coronet - white marking that is just about the hoof, usually no more that 1 inch above the hoof.
High white - is often referred to as a stocking that extends well above the knee or hock.

As you can see the different breeds exhibit a rather large variety of horse colors. Some horse breeds carry their own distinctive colors. Registries have even been set up for horses of color, such as the Paint Horse Association.

Just remember when choosing a horse, horse color is not the only factor to consider. Beauty is only skin deep. You could end up with the most beautiful horse in the world, and still not be able to handle him.

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