| What color is a horse? The words for a horse's | | | | pink 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 of | | | | coat. Their legs are usually darker than their body |
| brown with black legs, mane, and tail. Within the | | | | and they sometimes have faint zebra stripes on |
| bay group, there are blood bays which is a more | | | | their legs. Dun horses always have a dark stripe |
| dark reddish shade of brown and bright bays | | | | down the middle of their back along their back |
| which can look a golden brown. There are also | | | | bone, known as a dorsal stripe. |
| black bays, which might appear to most people as | | | | Sometimes the dorsal stripe continues down the |
| a black horse. Truly black horses are a more rare | | | | horse's tail and through the mane. Many dun |
| color. | | | | colored horses also have face masking, which |
| Most horses that you might think look black are | | | | makes the horse's nose and sometimes the rest |
| black bays, which is a very dark brown. You will | | | | of the face a darker color than the horse's body. |
| see lighter colored hair between the hind legs and | | | | A buckskin horse has a sandy yellow or tan color |
| tummy area and around the muzzle. This makes | | | | with black legs, mane, and tails. Buckskins are |
| them black bays instead of black horses. People | | | | similar 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 of | | | | markings that are seen in duns. |
| red, while the legs, mane, and tail may be lighter | | | | Palomino horses have gold-colored coat with a |
| or darker than the body, or the same color, but | | | | white or light cream colored mane and tail. A |
| never black. A chestnut horse can be any shade | | | | palomino coat can range from a light off-white |
| of red, reddish-brown, or orangey-red. A very | | | | shade 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 a | | | | color to produce blue roan, which is roan mixed |
| more rare color. Sorrel is another word for a light | | | | with 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 gray | | | | There are other white body markings and spots |
| hair. A grey horse might look white, but if its skin | | | | that can affect the horse color to be a Paint or |
| is dark, it is a grey. Grey horses are born a dark | | | | an Appaloosa, which also have breed registries |
| color, such as black or brown, and their coat | | | | just for them. (We'll save those topics for |
| grows lighter as they grow older. There are light | | | | another article.) |
| grey, dapple grey, flea-bitten grey, and steel grey | | | | So next time you see a brown or black horse, |
| variations in coloring. A white horse must have | | | | look carefully - What color is the horse? |