horse Colors
Horse colors in pictures
Here is a list of horse colors with their various possible genetic combinations listed. Click on the individual color to get more detail about it and to see pictures of a wider variety of horses of that color.
Here is a list of horse colors with their various possible genetic combinations listed. Click on the individual color to get more detail about it and to see pictures of a wider variety of horses of that color.
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Chestnut/Sorrel - a red body color. May be bright red, almost orange, or dark red, tending towards brown. The mane and tail could be red, like the body, pure white or a mix of red and white.
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Black - A black body color with points (mane, tail and legs) also black. (There are two kinds of black horses - jet black and the kind that can, with excessive sunlight or with shaving look dark brown in places).
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White - Technically speaking, there is no such thing as a white horse. White is not an official horse color in and of itself. That said, we have all seen horses which are white. These horses are either actually "Gray" horses or they are some form of the Cream Gene colors or, very occasionally, some more unusual special color gene.
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Gray (white) - Most horses that we think of as white are technically classified as gray. Gray horses are born one of the other colors and gradually turn white over the course of their lives. This may take only a few years or it may take decades. Each horse is different. Thus, a horse may appear black or bay at one year of age but be pure white by the time it is ten years of age. In between, it will be a mix of these colors - often creating a stunning gray with patches of darker or lighter hair on mane, tail or legs. Some of these horses stay an in-between gray most of their lives. You can tell the difference between a gray horse gone white and one of the sudo-albino horses (cremello or perlino, for instance) because gray horses have dark skin underneath the white, where-as the sudo-albino colors have pink skin underneath. This dark or pink skin is usually identifiable around the mussel and eyes.
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Dun - Often indistinguishable from bay or buckskin, a tan or light brown body color with black mane, tail and legs. There is usually a dark dorsal stripe down the back and often light zebra-like dapples on the legs (hense the names "striped back dun and zebra striped dun.)
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Palomino - A golden or cream body color with white mane and tail. The body can be any shade of gold or cream, and the mane and tail, while usually white, may also be flaxen.
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Buckskin - A tan or golden body color with black mane, tail and legs. The body can be any shade of light brown or gold, and very occasionally is dark enough to be mistaken for bay.
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Black Buckskin - An off-black body color with matching mane, tail and legs. Often mistaken for a very dark brown. May not look buckskin at all, because the body color is so minutely diluted as to still look black or dark brown and the mane and tale may be the same color.
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Perlino - An all-over white color (often tinted with yellow or orange) with pink skin and (usually) blue eyes. Can be hard to tell appart from a Cremello, but may be slightly more yellow tinged or have a more flaxen tinted mane and tail than a Cremello.
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Chocolate (also called Silver Dapple or Taffey) - A brown body color with white mane and tail. Often has darker dapples in the body.
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Champagne - A light, almost rose colored body with matching mane, tail and legs. Very similar to a Cremello or a Perlino.
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Paint - Any of the above colors with big splashes of white placed randomly over body, mane, tail and legs.
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Roan - Any of the above colors with flecks of white spread over the whole horse, often somewhat unevenly. This color can be indistinguishable from a medium form of gray, but, unlike gray, these horses are born with the white flecking and it doesn't significantly change throughout their lives.
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Did we miss any? Are there other colors we should have listed here? Email us and let us know!