What Color Is A Horse?

What color is a horse? The words for a horse'spink skin, which is more rare than grey horses.
coat color have very specific meanings.Dun horses have a sandy yellow to reddish brown
A bay horse has a body coat that is a shade ofcoat. Their legs are usually darker than their body
brown with black legs, mane, and tail. Within theand they sometimes have faint zebra stripes on
bay group, there are blood bays which is a moretheir legs. Dun horses always have a dark stripe
dark reddish shade of brown and bright baysdown the middle of their back along their back
which can look a golden brown. There are alsobone, known as a dorsal stripe.
black bays, which might appear to most people asSometimes the dorsal stripe continues down the
a black horse. Truly black horses are a more rarehorse's tail and through the mane. Many dun
color.colored horses also have face masking, which
Most horses that you might think look black aremakes the horse's nose and sometimes the rest
black bays, which is a very dark brown. You willof the face a darker color than the horse's body.
see lighter colored hair between the hind legs andA buckskin horse has a sandy yellow or tan color
tummy area and around the muzzle. This makeswith black legs, mane, and tails. Buckskins are
them black bays instead of black horses. Peoplesimilar looking to duns, except that buckskins do
also call this seal brown.not have a dorsal stripe or other primitive
A chestnut horse has a coat that is a shade ofmarkings that are seen in duns.
red, while the legs, mane, and tail may be lighterPalomino horses have gold-colored coat with a
or darker than the body, or the same color, butwhite or light cream colored mane and tail. A
never black. A chestnut horse can be any shadepalomino coat can range from a light off-white
of red, reddish-brown, or orangey-red. A veryshade to a deep shade of gold.
dark brownish red with no black on the legs,Roan horses have white hairs mixed with a body
mane, or tail is known as liver chestnut. It is acolor to produce blue roan, which is roan mixed
more rare color. Sorrel is another word for a lightwith black, red roan, which is roan and bay, and
chestnut color.strawberry or rose roan, which roan and chestnut.
Grey horses have black skin with white or grayThere are other white body markings and spots
hair. A grey horse might look white, but if its skinthat can affect the horse color to be a Paint or
is dark, it is a grey. Grey horses are born a darkan Appaloosa, which also have breed registries
color, such as black or brown, and their coatjust for them. (We'll save those topics for
grows lighter as they grow older. There are lightanother article.)
grey, dapple grey, flea-bitten grey, and steel greySo next time you see a brown or black horse,
variations in coloring. A white horse must havelook carefully - What color is the horse?