Can a chestnut turn into a roan or a grey?

[tasha]

Kally has always had white hairs in her coat, mainly over her rump. But with this coat change, she is getting more and more of them! It has spread over her topline and down her sides, to the point where Im wondering if she fancies a change!

Bearing in mind that she is 17 - what's going on?? Will she grey out completely? At what point can I call her a roan (and would she be chestnut or strawberry or are they the same??)?

Ill see if I can add pics when I get home - Im at uni at the moment.

[Shiny McShine]

If she were grey or roan you would have known about it long before now. Roans are born with the colouring, and it stays with them (though changing seasonally) all their life. Greys are born solid but usually show signs of greying as young foals, and get progressively lighter in colour.

A lot of horses "roan out" as they get older, it's not genetic greying or roaning, but the same thing as happens to the hair of most old people as well, the colour starts to fade out. At 17 years of age, I would say this is most likely what is begining to happen.

[chev]

A roan is roan from birth, although an awful lot of them are actually born solid and don't show the roan until they shed their foal coat, or as yearlings. But it is a very obvious and very static pattern; roans can change (sometimes dramatically) with the seasons, but the change is always the same. They're often a lot darker in winter for example; but they'll be like that every winter, and every summer although they're much lighter it's the same every year. They don't get gradually more roan as they get older.

Greys will show signs of greying by six months, and certainly by four or five will be obviously grey. Older horses do sometimes get very grey, but they're not actually greys.

Tally has a lot of roaning (term used to describe white hair mixed in with solid body colour - different from a roan horse) on her flanks, and she's about Kally's age (a year or two younger). Oddly enough she's getting more white hair too.

You'll never be able to call her a roan though - she's not. She's chestnut with some roaning.

[tasha]

Oh no...my baby's getting old :eek: :D

I'll jut call her a granny then! :p Seriously though, thanks for the info!

[shandy84]

Sorry to hijack.

Bramble has a chestnut coat with a big white blaze and a white stocking. She now has some whit hairs that are in faily big patches and she is getting more of them as she gets older, she has a dusting of them in her forelock, quite a lot of flaxen in the tail and mainly on her bottom a few patches and then a bit of dusting? Nothing has rubbed her or is too tight? What do you think as she's three I wouldn't have thought it was an age thing :rolleyes:

[morgan4eva]

:cool:
yer, i fink so cauz wen we moved we bought a ouse frm a lady that ownz orses nd she ad a chestnut and az it got older it becam a grey! i coldnt belive it!:D :eek: :0

[morgan4eva]

:cool:
yer, i fink so cauz wen we moved we bought a ouse frm a lady that ownz orses nd she ad a chestnut and az it got older it becam a grey! i coldnt belive it!:D :eek: :o

[tasha]

morgan4eva - please dont type in text speak - I havent a clue what you are saying and there are people on this board whose first language isnt English who will be having an even harder time.

[Shiny McShine]

I didn't mean to put it quite like that! :o

A lot of Thoroughbreds do have white ticking in their coat from a young age, particularly around the flank area, and these horses are often more likely to grey out as they get older.

[chev]

Shandy - coupled with the big blaze and stocking it's more than likely a sabino marker. Sabino causes sometimes quite extensive roaning, which can get more obvious as the horse matures. White markings won't alter, but where there is roaning, it's fairly common for them to get more and more white hair mixed in. They won't ever get so much they'd be mistaken for grey though.

[shandy84]

Would she be classed as coloured if she continues to whiten up? She has a very dark chestnut winter coat so it's allowing us to see it all :)

[chev]

No. Some sabinos are classed as coloured, but they're what's called loud sabinos, where the white extends onto the body in splashes and patches. Roaning doesn't count, and she won't develop white patches; just the roaning.

To be registered as a coloured, the pony must have at least one definite white patch above the level of the elbow and stifle. The skin under the white is pink.

[shandy84]

I'm glad to hear that had fears of having to change her registration :)