hmmm what colour?

[jowyles]

http://storage.msn.com/x1pbglk-vqL4Buk-v80L1Kgva9-ZhuEF3Vc_C7Sj3EOH6qA1bfzhOdaFS_sjmhCpdXphYFqkKR31FfHK5UFLqaHl2n6QQ0kPKGg4lHyk_zhRA-83qUsDY_QeISQ1VZ8J9qwAg_i-l_1WpCjBgCYQVcARA

What colour would you say he is, he has brown black and white hairs in his mane and tail and always has. His mum was a haflinger and dad a black shire. In summer he goes abit lighter than this.

[kirstie]

I would say bay this is my horse and they are a simalar colour she is a light bay

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d171/ksill/Ambainthefield.jpg

[Just.Jump]

Actually, no. Your horse is *basically* a bay horse, but the color in itself isn't a basic one. The faded hairs which almost make a frame of the lower half and around the muzzle is noted as pangare, or more commonly mealy. In your horses example, he would be called mealy on bay.

Halflingers are notorious for this coloring- it's known as a modifier, not a dilution.

[jowyles]

Thanks i knew he wasnt just a normal bay and he has those lighter hairs! Makes him more special lol

[chev]

Panagre crops up in the vast majority of Haffies, but also natives like the Exmoor, where it's also very widespread.

The actual effect on a horse's appearance out grazing is really clever. The colouring works to help camouflage horses in a really subtle way. It basically lightens the areas that would naturally be in shadow - the underparts. The sooty gene, which adds black or dark hair to the upper parts of the horse does the same job in a different way. The result is that to a predator the horse loses some of it's 3-D appearance - they 'flatten' into their background because their colour evens out. So the panagre gene (and the sooty gene), like dun markings, actually serve to protect the horse from being seen; which is probably why it's common in wild horses and so-called 'primitive' breeds.

[jowyles]

Thats a great evolutionary thing, he also has a white on his chin, from reading other threads does that mean he is sabino? (not sure thats the right one) I did read somewhere that shires had that gene.

[chev]

He does have sabino markers; the white chin, lip spot and ragged socks for a start. Any little white splodges on his belly? It looks like he might have a little one on his stifle but I can't be sure. That would be sabino at work too. It is very very common in Shires (and Clydesdales too). :)

[danielle:>]

Picture doesn't work for me :(

[RachelBraz]

Would he be classed as a wild bay as well? Read it in Dr Sponenberg's 'Equine Color Genetics' book... I think it's something to do with the points being different?
RachelB

[jowyles]

Whats the description for wild bay? Not really heard of it before.

[chev]

Wild type bay is a form of agouti in which the black pigment on the lower legs is restricted more than on 'normal' bay horses, so it's mixed with red pigment as well. The legs look less black than on normal bays. It is also linked to the fawn colouring seen on some bays' legs, flanks, bellies and other soft parts - so he does look in that pic as if he could well be wild type bay. It's more difficult to judge because he has those white legs - whihc hides the black points to an extent anyway! But if you look at the colour below the knee on his fronts, you can see how it's a sort of faded, reddish black - that's quite typical of wild type bay.

[Styric]

Here's some pics of wild type bay :

http://styric.no-ip.org/images/practiceride/pictures/IMGP0390.JPG
http://styric.no-ip.org/images/victoria/pictures/IMGP0137.JPG

His points don't have nearly as much black as most bays, even his ears have brown and are tipped in black.