Post by Megan<< on Mar 29, 2008 17:29:23 GMT -5
Fur Colors
Bay: The body coloring is brown with a black mane and tail, occasional white socks or stockings, and white markings on the face. Bay horses will often have black points, which are black markings on the muzzle, tips of the ears, mane, tail and lower part of the legs. There are different kinds of bay, described as a bright bay, dark bay, light bay, and mahogany bay; these colors are determined by the amount of lighter brown or darker brown hairs in the coat.
Chestnut: The body coloring is a reddish brown with no black points. The mane and tail are either lighter(flaxen) or darker shades of the body color. There may be white markings on the legs or face. There are different kinds of chestnut, such as bright chestnut, red chestnut, and liver chestnut. The different kinds are determined by the reddish-gold shades of the hair; the liver chestnut has a dark, liver-colored coat.
Black: The coat must be definite black color with no trace of brown hair. The mane and tail must be black, but they may have white markings on the legs or face.
Brown: The body mixture is of black and brown hair, with a dark brown mane and tail.
Grey: Their skin pigment is dark and the coat contains black and white hairs. Grey horses are generally born dark and lighter with age. There are different kinds of grey, light grey, which appears 'white;' flea-bitten, which is when a white coat contains dark specks like freckles, iron, which is a very dark grey coat; dappled, which had dark rings on a grey coat.
Roan: White hairs are mixed evenly into the main coat coloring, and the mane and tail may also contain some white hairs. There are different shades of roan, such as strawberry roan and red roan, in which white hairs are mixed into either a chestnut or bay coat; blue roan which is black, or a black-and-brown body mixed with grey which gives the coat a blue tinge; grey roan and bay roan.
Palomino: The coat is gold, and should be the color of a new cent piece, the mane and tail are whiter, and the horses cane have white markings on the legs below the knee, or the hock, or on the face.
Skewbald: The coat is covered with large irregular patches of white with any other color except black. The skin pigment will be oink under the white patches, and dark under the dark patches. The mane and tail are invariably two-colored, and the mane continues the coloring displayed on the neck- if part of the neck is white and part brown, then the mane will correspond accordingly.
Piebald: Similar to skewbald, except the coat has patches of black and white.
Dun: The skin is dark, but the coat is a beige, or biscuit color, they have black points, a dark dorsal stripe, and have dark wither stripes and zebra stripes on the legs. Duns range in shades, and a creamy-yellow coat is called a yellow dun.
Cream: The skin pigment is pale, the coat coloring a pale-cream color, with the mane and tail a pale cream also. Sometimes it is possible to distinguish white leg markings and face markings.
Appaloosa: There are five recognized color patters for the Appaloosa, but not all spotted horses are actually Appaloosas. The coat configurations are; blanket, which has white hair over the hips, which may or may not have dark spots; marble, when the coat is red-or blue roan, with dark coloring at the edges of the body and white, frost pattern in middle, leopard, a white coat coloring with dark spots; snowflake, with dominant spotting over the hips and frost, which is white speckling on a dark coal. All Appaloosas have mottled skin on the nose and genitalia, and tend to have chite sclera round the eyes. Often the hooves have a vertical dark stripes on them.