a field guide for artists and aspiring horsefolk

what color was George Washington's white horse?

Probably not white. White is a rare thing in horses, and albino isn't a thing at all. Most "white" horses are grey (starting a normal horse color and adding more white hairs as they age, like humans). Some are double dilutes like cremello (2 cream genes, 1 cream gene creates palomino). Some greys aren't grey either, they're grulla (black dun) or roan.

Welcome to the confusing world of horse color and the genes that make it so.

​Let's try to simplify...

Horses basically come in red and black. Then a whole shipload of genes modify those genes, moves them around to different parts of the body, or eliminates them with white patterns like pinto, leopard complex, grey and roan. 

As far as science can tell, most primitive horses were dun, like Przewalski's horse (dun is bay, with the dun gene, bay is red and black with the agouti gene shoving the black to the points). Dun horses appear on ancient cave paintings... and so do leopard complex horses like present day Appaloosas, Knabstruppers, Norikers and others. Pinto seems to be something that happened to a wide variety of domestic animals, though it makes pretty good camo if you try to observe wild ponies on Assateague island.

So here's an ever expanding collection of my photos and art of various horse colors. Some are horses I've had or met, some are my models or art.
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SOME TERMS:

• points: lower legs, mane, tail, often the same color
• dilute: some genes "dilute" the basic color, lightening it, the way you'd lighten watercolor by adding more water. One copy of these genes dilutes a little, two (a double dilute) often results in a white" horse.
• brown and white are not a thing: "brown" is usually dark dark bay or deep dark chestnut. The color often called "seal brown" is also caused by the agouti gene (that causes bay) and is probably just a version of bay, though science is a little foggy on whether it really is any different from bay. So basically, some horsemen call a near-black horse with "mealy" areas (lighter muzzle, flanks, underneath) a "seal brown", some horsemen call anything that's the color of chocolate "brown", but to avoid confusion we'll just skip it and throw it into the bay zone. "White" is usually an aged grey or a minimally marked pinto or leopard, or a double dilute like cremello or smoky cream. Real white does exist but is rare: it is called "dominant white" and has pink skin. Grey horses have the usual horsey black skin. Horses do NOT come in albino.
• foals: often change color as they shed their first coat, and grow up... even eye color can change. Marguerite Henry famously picked out a nice palomino pinto Chincoteague foal who arrived at her house in the winter looking like a ball of white fuzz... "Where is my map and plough???" (the markings in the pinto pattern). Misty finally shed out in the spring to reveal her true colors.
• seasonal: horse colors shift sometimes with the seasons. I have two medium bays who sunbleach to light red in the winter (the long hair wears, breaks and bleaches easier), shed out near black, then do the final shed to deep red/browns with black shading. My mare's mustang mother shed pure black each spring, then sunbleached to burnt toast in a month. Same in the fall. She was either a fading black or a smoky black (with one cream gene). Palominos and buckskins often become near white in the winter, then shed out golden.
• color shift with age: greys begin a normal horse color (though occasionally one will be born grey or near white) then add more white hairs as they age... usually becoming "white" by the time they are ten. Some leopard complex horses (like Appaloosas) get more white hairs as they age (more roaning). Most non-grey horses will get some grey around the head as they get really old.
• genetic alphabet soup: a single horse can have multiple color genes. I knew a mare who appeared whtie but combiined leopard/grey/pinto genes (she's farther down the page). Silver bay is red and black and agouti and silver... so you get a red horse with silver points. You can combine buckskin and dun to get a dunskin, throw in a silver gene and you get a gold horse with a silver mane that's NOT a palomino. Two cream genes on a black horse make it white. Or a cream and a pearl. Or throw silver and dun at black and get a pewter horse with a pale silver mane and tail! 
• you can't always tell by looking: Phenotype (looks) and genotype (DNA) are different. Sometimes you have to do a DNA test to determine what a horse's real color is. Gold amber and palomino look alike, except for the skin and eye color. Buckskin and dun look alike: except for duns having striping. Maybe. Is it flaxen chestnut? Or silver black (cough Surfer Dude cough looking at you). 

THE COLORS (organized by the base color, and then under that, the color modified by dilutions and white patterns)

• black
  • ​fading black: sunburns easily to burnt toast, but no red tones like a dark bay
  • non-fading black: blackity black
  • smoky black: contains one cream gene, looks like black but "off" sunburns to fabulous toasted grulla-like colors
  • smoky cream: 2 cream genes, looks like a white horse, pink skin, blue eyes
  • grulla: black with dun gene, pewter body, dark points
  • classic champagne: dark smoky sand body, chocolate points, freckled skin, honey or amber eyes
  • silver: aka taffy, silver dapple, chocolate. Lightens black pigment. On a black horse creates a pewter body (or chocolate) with silver points (or blond). Sometimes dappled, especially in small ponies.
  • blue roan: roan on black, white hairs throughout body, points dark, does not lighten as horse ages
  • grey: begins black and acquires more white hairs as horse ages
• chestnut: any of the red/brown shades from pale red to dark chocolate, sorrel is an alternative name for it, "liver chestnut" is dark chocolate but still is that "red" gene.
  • palomino: one cream gene: golden with blond to white mane and tail, body can be very pale blond, but skin is always black. eyes dark
  • cremello: 2 cream genes, looks pale blond, pink skin, blue eyes
  • red dun: chestnut with dun gene: warm gold, red-brown points, claybank is a lighter version
  • gold champagne: looks like palomino, but with freckled skin, pale eyes (honey, amber, etc)
  • strawberry roan: chestnut with white hairs throughout body (looks PINK), points chestnut or flaxen, does not lighten with age like a grey
  • flaxen chestnut: various red-brown shades, has blond mane/tail, sometimes lower legs
  • countershaded flaxen chestnut: lower legs and underside is pale, like a deer
  • grey: begins chestnut and acquires more white hairs as horse ages, sometimes called "rose grey"
  • mushroom: a "new" color science is still figuring out, it appears in mainly ponies, looks a bit like silver, but affects red pigment, turning the horse a "mushroom" color
  • pearl: similar to cream, but turns whole body (including skin) to uniform apricot color. a double dilute of pearl (or combined with cream) creates a pale horse like a cremello. The double pearl usually has dark eyes.
• bay: reds and browns with black points, agouti gene makes it happen, look for the black tipped ears, "wild bay" has less black on legs with more red/blond showing
  • buckskin: bay + cream gene: golden with black points
  • buttermilk buckskin: bay + cream gene acting on lightest/reddest bay coat makes a pale buckskin with black points
  • perlino: bay + 2 cream genes, looks like pale beach sand with sunrise-on-sand points, pink skin, blue eyes
  • dun: bay + dun gene, golden with dark points, has dorsal stripe, lateral stripe on shoulders, zebra stripes on knees and hocks,  primitive horse color
  • amber champagne: golden sand brown points, looks like pale buckskin, lighter than classic champagne, freckled skin, pale eyes (honey, amber, etc)
  • grey: begins bay and acquires more white hairs as horse ages
  • red roan: bay with white hairs throughout body, points black, does not lighten, pinkish
  • silver bay: bay with the silver gene: bay body (red-brown) but silver points (silver only affects the black pigment in the points).

  Modifiers and Dilutions:

• Cream: this gene dilutes red. Chestnut becomes palomino. Bay becomes buckskin. Two cream genes make a "double dilute" (cremello, perlino, smoky cream) which is near white.
• Silver: this gene dilutes black. Often found in ponies and Rocky Mountain horses, it creates a pewter look with silver points (sometimes with dapples), or a deep chocolate with flaxen points that resembles a dark flaxen chestnut. Called silver dapple, taffy, or chocolate depending where you are and what breed you've got. 
• Pearl: is a recessive dilution gene: one copy does nothing, two (or combined with cream gene) lightens red coats to a pale, uniform apricot color that includes body, mane and tail and creates pale skin. A cream/pearl combo is a pseudo-double dilute. They will often have pale skin and blue or green eyes. Unlike the double cream dilute and the Pearl-cream pseudo dilute the double Pearl dilute typically has dark tan eyes. It is difficult if not impossible to tell a double cream dilute from a Pearl-cream pseudo dilute without genetic testing. (thanx wiki)
• Mushroom: Mushroom is a recessive dilution gene that affects red pigment in horses. On a chestnut base coat the horse is born a pale beige with sometimes a greyish or pinkish tint and often keeps that color when it becomes an adult, but some turn darker when an adult.
• Sooty: or smutty, sooty looking shading thrown over another base color, like you toasted the horse or stood it too close to a campfire, often seen in bays, chestnuts, buckskins and palominos.
• Brindle and chimeras: while common in dogs and cattle brindle is a rarity in horses. And then it's not something than can be bred for, because it's usually caused by chimerism: the horse has two sets of DNA of two different shades, which form a striped pattern. Dunbar's Gold is a famous brindle stallion. One of his sets of DNA is actually female. Stetson's Mr Blue is a Paint stallion who is also a chimera, but in his case, it manifests as a fabulous calico pattern of black, red and white.

White patterns:

• leopard complex: a widely varied collection of pattern with marbling, roaning, egg shaped spots, white blankets with or without spots. It is a primitive horse color and can be found in various horse breeds around the world. The American Appaloosa and the European Knabstrupper are well known. It can be on any color base. Appaloosa and horse color sites have lots of info on this one.
• pinto: pinto is a color pattern, Paint is a breed of (usually but not always) pinto colored horse originating from American Quarter Horse lines. Pinto can be based on any color including greys, leopards and double dilutes. I knew a horse who appeared white but was actually Appaloosa/pinto/grey. There are a bunch of different patterns like tobiano, overo, sabino and splash. Pinto and Paint horse pages can go into more detail on those. My favorite pintos are the Assateague/Chincoteague ponies, who are either tobiano or splash.
  • ​skewbald and piebald are European terms for color/white and black/white, easier to describe by saying the base color plus pinto: as in "bay pinto" or "buckskin pinto"...
• grey: can be based on any color. Foals are often born a regular horse color, then acquire more white hairs as they age until they are white or near-white. They may or may not go through a dappled phase, and end up in a "fleabitten" or freckled phase.
• roan: can be based on any color, white hairs are spread over the body, the points remain the normal horse color. Red-based colors end up looking pink. Black roans are actually called "blue roan".
• white markings: blazes, strips, stars and snips on faces... stockings and socks on feet. Can be over any color or other pattern.

Hybrids: 

• when crossing equines, you sometimes end up with oddball colors and patterns. Mules (male donkey x female horse) and hinnies (male horse x female donkey) are donkey/horse, zorse or zebra mules are zebra/horse, zonkey is donkey/zebra (usually with striped stockings)
• donkey spotting patterns are different from horse pinto patterns, so the cross is fabulously odd
• leopard mules, same story
• zebra/horse crosses often have the zebra stripes overlaid on the horse color. Zebra stripes don't show up in the white markings because those contain NO COLOR!
• zebra/Appaloosa crosses would have the stripes show up in the color portion of the leopard pattern.

Brindle is the result of two sets of DNA: chimerism.

a gallery of colors

Snow: what color is that white horse?

Some horses are a combination of color genetics. I met Snow at a farm I worked on, and thought of her at first as a "white" horse. Clearly she had some Appaloosa (leopard complex) blood due to the freckeld skin, the white sclera around the eye, and the striped hooves. She appeared to have greyed out (so she had a grey gene too) because she had the little "fleabitten" freckles in her coat. On closer inspection I saw some areas had zero color, not even the skin (you can see this easily when a horse is wet). She was also a pinto!

Golli, Svaha, Saraf, Lor: what color is that brown horse?

"Brown" is either bay, black (faded), or dark chestnut. Golliath (Golli) is a darkish bay mustang who, most of the year, looks dark bay. In winter he can bleach to a definite red, with yellow tones. In spring, as he shifts from winter to summer coats, there is a stage where he is black, with "mealy" or countershading around muzzle, flanks, chest, and inside the legs. Svaha is a medium bay who gets some of the black shading as she sheds, but not as much. She sunbleaches more in winter, including her mane, so she just basically looks red. All over. Many of the Chincoteague ponies, who spend all year in the wild, sunbleach spectacularly so you can barely tell what real color they are. Lor was Svaha's mother, a mustang from Oregon who came to me blackity black, then sunbleached to burnt toast (with NO red tones, only yellow, so she is not bay). She was probably fading black or smoky black (one cream gene). Saraf was blood bay, a clear very red bay... but he had wild bay characteristics too: less black on the legs.

seeing spots: pintos

Pinto is a white pattern thrown over a normal horse color (any color, including, grey, leopard, roan, or dilutes). Paint is a breed (and individuals may appear with zero white spots). A horse is usually considered a pinto if there is white above the knees and hocks. There are several distinct pinto patterns: tobiano, overo (which is saying not-Tobiano): frame, splash, sabino, as well as tovero (a combo of the obvious), and dominant white. None of them are the same as pinto or piebald patterns in donkeys, dogs, cats, cows or other animals. (yes, we can tell if you've faked your pattern out of your head). A "medicine hat" is a mostly white pinto with color on the top of the head and ears (as if wearing a hat), sometimes with a little color on the flank, or a chest shield. Tobiano tends to be large maplike patches while overo tends to be splashy as if paint was thrown at the horse. Actual "splash" looks like you dipped the horse in white paint. Cat tracks (ink spots, paw prints, freckles) appear in the white patches of tobianos sometimes. Some pintos have roaning in parts of the color patches. The edges of patches are often "blurry" due to white hair overlapping dark, or dark overlapping white. Usually under the color is dark skin, under the white is pink skin: a pinto is pinto even without hair!

Here's a few favorites, including a lot of Assateague ponies.

seeing spots: leopard complex (Appaloosa etc.)

It's called leopard "complex" because it's a whole set of genes creating intricate patterns of roaning and white over a normal horse color. The pattern can change (usually getting more roaning and spots) over time. It's believed to be one of the original primitive horse colors... great camouflage! In America we are most familiar with the Appaloosa, but many other breeds around the world carry these genes. Patterns include: blanket/snowcap, spots, blanket with spots, leopard, few-spot-leopard, snowflake, varnish-roan/marble, mottled, roan-blanket/frost, roan blanket with spots.

I painted the rearing Breyer classic, and the grazing black yearling with the roan blanket. The vintage Running Stallion in the lake herd is listed as a "red roan" but looks more like an Appaloosa leopard pattern with small spots. The small dark dun foal is a Breyer classic who was supposed to be dark dun... and when taken off the shelf had grown spots in a perfect snowflake pattern. He was the only one whom the mold spores found and they washed off. The Appaloosa saltwater cowboy was photographed on Chincoteague Island at Pony Penning.