Fade to Gray
November 21, 2008
Gray is a common horse color that’s tricky to pin down.
At age 2, All American Futurity winner AB What A Runner, owned by Dennie and Kris Hill of Blackfoot, Idaho, was a steel gray.
By Andrea Caudill
If your dream horse is a handsome dark gray and you want him to stay that way forever, he’d best be on a poster on your wall. The gray color is confusing and frustrating, because while a horse’s coat may be dark and dappled when young, it progressively turns white as he ages.
Gray horses are actually horses of any color that also carry the gray modifier. This means that a gray horse’s base color can be anything on the equine color spectrum. But because the gray modifier is dominant, it will eventually cover the original color.
This is why a gray foal is born dark, showing its base color, which can be anything from black to red. It will begin to gray out as it ages, due to gradual depigmentation of the hair coat. An aged gray is pure white, with dark (black) skin underneath. Because gray is a dominant modifier, one or both parents must be gray for the foal to become a gray.
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The way a horse grays out is as individual as the horse. The first indicator that a foal will turn gray is usually gray hairs around the eyes or muzzle and gray hairs in the coat. This can be confused with a roan when being registered, so the parents’ genetics should be checked to determine the color.
A horse that is red-based and starts to gray has a rosy color and is called a rose gray, while a dark-based horse is usually called a steel gray. One with a pattern of “dots” of light and dark gray are referred to as dapple grays, and one that is white with flecks of color is called a fleabitten gray. Occasionally, the fleabites of color will be situated together to form a patch, which is called a blood mark (often this happens on the shoulder, thus the term “bloody shoulder”).
Gray Horse Color Facts
- To be registered as a gray, a foal must have at least one gray parent.
- Gray is a dominant gene. If a horse is gray, it has a 50 percent chance of passing the trait to its offspring.
- Grays can be born any color. The gray will cover all other colors as the horse ages.
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11 Comments on “Fade to Gray”
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November 23rd, 2008 at 2:43 am
for registration must be one parent be gray ,but if a grandparent or gr grandparend is gray on both sides the offspring can also been gray it happend tho my mare ,both the stallion (tb)and mare(tb) bay or brown baby gray,watt if thad happend to a quarter is the baby than a none registerd baby
December 11th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Just curious if you actually saw both parents (not just pictures)… some gray horses take a long time to loose their color…
January 27th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
i had the mare for 12 years in till her dead with 27 years she never turn gray and yes also the stalion was dark brown untill his dead from old age ,there baby wend gray on early age ,beleve me its posible,
January 31st, 2009 at 8:19 pm
no, I have raised horses of color for years and without a gray parent you have no gray babies. where did you learn to spell? or maybe you’re ten years old?
May 14th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
well if parents are both any color but gray and their parents were gray then it can happen on a rare chance. weve had this happen many times
May 18th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
This is interesting. My understanding is that gray is a dominant gene. So it would be possible to have 2 gray parents, each with a gray gene and another color gene, to have foals that only picked up the non-gray gene and therefore not be gray. Hmmm, but without a gray gene, their offspring wouldn’t be gray? Does that make sense? My gray is fleabitten, and I swear he’s changing color to a darker color. That’s how I got to this site, I was researching fleabitten grays and the bloody shoulder.
January 31st, 2010 at 1:05 pm
I need to no if there is a way to tell with a foal if it will be grey.The mother is grey the father black.He is two weeks old,brown black mane and tail. Are there any marking I should look for. Hes a Thoroughbred.Thank you.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Dear Alan,
Most gray horses will show some signs very early, but those signs may be very minimal. Watch for scattered white hair in the forehead, down the bridge of the nose or around the eyes. These white hairs will increase as the weeks or months pass. Sometimes young horses in the early stages of turning gray will develop gray “dapples” or grayish spots. Since your foal is only two weeks old it may be a while before you notice anything, but some signs are usually visible when they shed the foal hair. If your new colt does turn gray you will be amazed at the constant changes!
May 24th, 2010 at 6:56 am
[...] is possible for a gray horse to carry the creme dilution. Most likely, the gray sire of your mare was a palomino or buckskin [...]
September 20th, 2010 at 3:02 am
[...] palomino foal is turning gray. His dam started as a palomino and turned gray, and his sire was a gray. Will this palomino [...]
February 9th, 2012 at 10:08 am
I have a very confusing question about grays. I have a dapple gray mare, who is now lightening to where I almost can not see the dapples. When I got her she was already gray, so I do not know what color she was before graying. She was bred to a cremello stallion and foaled a beautiful, unique buckskin baby. So, I am guessing she was a bay before? The baby is very light in his rear end, with a darker neck, face, legs, etc. He has black patches over his eyes, a dorsal stripe, striping on his legs and shoulder. His eyes were very dark at birth, now turning blue. I was told since his legs were dark at birth, he will definately turn gray. Since his rear end and body are so light, will he get darker to turn a dark gray or will he just go to white? I have pics if anyone would like to see them.