Beginner's Guide to Identifying Horse Colors

[Rowan]

Hey guys, I had a little time on my hands today, and I thought I would type up some of the questions that I ask myself whenever I'm trying to figure out how to identify a horse's color description or write out their genotype in their notes. This is mostly just a thing I do myself, but maybe it will help someone somewhere

Sometimes determining a horse's color is a bit like being a detective. What color were his parents? Are there any recessive genes hiding in there? Is this dun or roan? Smoky brown or mealy brown? I'm hoping that by sharing the telltale "clues" in a quick-reference kind of way, I can help out at least one person who might be new to horse genetics and coat colors.

I realize there are some other color guides posted, (I really use them all the time, especially when I start getting weeeird combos of dilutions XD) but I aimed to just cover the very basics in a "layman's terms" kind of way. Like I said, this is just my own mental process because I really struggled with getting my dilutions straight in the beginning. (Also, if this isn't posted in the right section, feel free to delete it or move it! I wasn't sure if it should go in "Guides and How to" or "What Color is my Horse?")

Anyway, here we go! Starting from the top:
Writing the Genotype: (If you want to!)
I like using genotype strings because then I have a detailed idea of what genes my horses might pass onto their young. It especially helps when breeding for recessive genes like Pearl or Tiger Eye, where you need two copies of the gene for it to even show up (helps me keep track of any sneaky carriers in my herd). I you are interested in writing your own, there are a few different ways to write genotypes. Most of the time, I start every genotype string with stating the horse's base colors (Eumelanin and Agouti), after that, it's open to whatever you wish to include. I typically only list the genes that the horse carries. If I'm not sure if the horse is heterozygous (Aa, CRcr, etc) or homozygous (AA, CRCR, etc.) for a trait, I just put a "_" or just write the single letter only.
For example:
A buckskin with tiger eyes = E_, A_, CRcr, TT
A dun bay with a white mane = E_, A_, D_, Z_
A sooty chestnut horse with a flaxen mane and green tiger eyes = ee, aa, STY_, F_, TT
A black horse = Ee, aa
A perlino horse = E_, aa, CRCR
A dun palomino who seems to have ALL dun foals = ee, aa, CRcr, DD (homozygous for Dun, all of it's offspring will have at least one copy of Dun.)

And now, figuring out the colors!

Base Colors
E (Eumelanin)
"Is your horse capable of producing the color black in his coat?"
"Yes, my horse is black or has black legs." = Ee or EE
"No, my horse is completely red/chestnut." = ee

A (Agouti)
"If your horse is capable of producing black (E_), is he entirely black, or does he just have black legs?"
"My horse has black all the way up his legs, and is a dark brown color." = ATAT or ATat
"My horse has black up to his knees and hocks (Bay)." = AA or Aa
"My horse has a little bit of black around his fetlocks." = A+A+ or A+a+

Dilutions
D (Dun)
"Does your horse have a stripe of dark color down his back?"
"Does he have a visible stripe down his neck or shoulder?"
"Yes, I see those on my horse." = DD or Dd
"No, I don't see any dorsal striping." = dd (No dun, maybe roan?)

CR (Cream)
"Is your horse lighter or gold in color, but has no dun stripes or speckled nose?"
"Yes, his nose is black and his eyes are brown?" = CRcr
"I'm not sure, he's brown, but has light color around his nose and belly." = CRcr (Or he could be mealy, it's hard to tell. Were his parents mealy? Or do they carry cream?)
"Yes, his nose is pink and his eyes are blue/gray?" = CRCR
"No, he's not really gold or mealy." = crcr (No cream.)

CH (Champagne)
"Does your horse have pink skin and speckles on his nose and around his eyes?"
"Yes, they are easy to see." = CHCH or CHch
"No, there are no freckles. = chch (No champagne.)
"Yes, if I zoom into his face, I see very faint freckles." = CR + CH
(He could have two copies of cream (CRCR) and a copy of champagne (CHch) or one copy of cream (CRcr) and a copy of champagne (CH). Both cause pale freckles. You will have to use a guide to compare coat colors, or look at his parent's genes to determine how many copies of cream he has.

PRL (Pearl)
"Is your horse lighter in color, but doesn’t quite look like a cream carrier described above? "
"Yes, my horse has pink skin and looks similar to a double cream carrier, but his eyes aren't blue!" = PRLPRL
"Yes, he looks like a double cream carrier, but his coat color still seems different from cremello/perlino/etc." = CRcr + PRLprl
"My horse looks kinda like a cream, but neither of his parents carry cream. What the heck?" = PRLPRL (His parents are carriers of one single PRL gene each, which isn't visible. Surprise!"

Neato Manes
Z (Silver)
"Does your horse have a white mane, even though the rest of his body is dark?"
"Yes, he is dappled grey with a very white mane." = ZZ or Zz
"Yes, he is bay or brown with a white mane." = ZZ or Zz
"Yes, he is chestnut with a white mane." = zz (Cannot exist. Most likely a flaxen chestnut.)
"Yes, he is gold with a white mane." = zz (All palominos have bright white manes, so this is not an indicator of silver.)

F (Flaxen)
"Does your chestnut horse have a lighter mane than the rest of his body?"
"Yes, it's a very light cream color." = FF or Ff
"Yes, it has light colored fringe." = FF or Ff
"Nope." = ff (No flaxen.)

Other Quirks
RN (Roan)
"Is your horse's body lighter than his head? Does he look dun, but has no dorsal stripe? Does he appear covered in white hairs?"
"Yes, he looks dun but has no dorsal stripe." = RNRN or RNrn
"Yes, his body is lighter than his head and legs, but he has a dark line running down his back." = DD or Dd (This is dun. Not roan.)
"No, he has none of these traits." = rnrn (No roan.)

M (Mealy)
"Does your horse have cream colored hairs around his belly, face & eyes, and possibly down the front of his hocks?"
"Yes, he is chestnut, bay, or black, and has cream colored hairs like you described above." = MM or Mm
"Yes, he is brown, and has light colored hairs on his belly." = MM/Mm or CRcr! These two can be hard to tell apart. Look at the parentage, were they mealy instead of cream? You will have to investigate.
"No, he's just black/bay/chestnut/etc." = mm (No mealy.)

STY (Sooty)
"Does your horse look "burnt" on top? Like someone sprinkled charcoal along his back?"
"Yes, it looks like he's darker on top!" = STYSTY or STYsty
"Sorta, just his shoulder is darker?" = STYSTY or STYsty
"Nah, he looks evenly colored." = stysty (No sooty.)

T (Tiger Eye)
"Does your horse have bright green eyes?"
"Yeah! They are emerald green!" = TT
"Yes, they are golden and my horse is champagne." = Most likely Tt
"No, but one of his parents has bright green eyes (and is not champagne)!" = Tt
"No, he has brown or blue eyes, and neither of his parents have green eyes." = Most likely tt (No Tiger Eye.)
"Yes, but neither of his parents appear to have green eyes? I'm confused." = TT (His parents are both carriers (Tt) and you got lucky. )

Like I said, this is a really simplified walkthrough, and won't help too much in the case of multiple dilutions, but it might be a good start for some. ^__^;
Thanks for reading! (And also, feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong. I'm still learning too!)

[nyraeia]

Neat, thanks for the great guide! I think it would be very helpful if you could put in pictures to illustrate the different characteristics you're talking about.

[Rowan]

Sure! That's a good plan, it may be something I add down the road. :3

[HorseLady72]

Hi! This is a lovely guide and I learned from you.
Great job!!!
One thing. Hind knees? Really? Teach these people
the correct terms, they don't mind.
Hocks!!!
Pictures would be wonderful.
Thank you!!!

[Rowan]

Bahaha, I just realized that I did indeed type "hind knees". Pffffft, I must have been half-awake when I wrote that. The holiday season does strange things to a person sometimes. rofl

I'll go ahead and fix that.

[cleo&nova]

My Name is Rowan to!

[RoweHouseRoyals]

Oh, awesome! Rowan isn't my real name, just the name of one of my characters that I draw a lot P:
But I've always thought it was a really cool and pretty name though.

[BananaDragon]

Would a horse with white on the face and neck/shoulders be considered Mealy?

[Mollverine]

Thank for your Guide!

As English is not my first language and newbie with horse colors indentifying, it's still hard for me to learn from you. How can know more detail?

Best Regards!

[Noranda]

Just want to point out the E gene is called the Extension gene, not Eumelanin