Learn How Horses Get Their Colors
August 28, 2008
Can you name all 17 horse colors?
Legends say that a red horse is fiery, a dun is tough, and a white-legged horse is bad-footed. However, the wisest horsemen also say there is no such thing as a good horse that’s a bad color.
There are 17 recognized American Quarter Horse colors: chestnut, sorrel, black, brown, gray, bay, palomino, buckskin, cremello, perlino, white, dun, red dun, grullo, red roan, bay roan and blue roan. All of them are derivatives of two base colors. Simply put, any color of horse you can think of is either black-based or red-based. All other colors – bay, gray or roan – are just modifications of these two basics.
Download your FREE AQHA Coat Color Genetics report, explaining each of the 17 Quarter Horse colors.
The Base-ics
All horse colors are caused by two pigments. One is responsible for black, and the other for the reds, ranging from yellow to dark red. White hair results from an absence of pigment. A horse with pink skin lacks pigment and gets the pink color from blood vessels under the surface of the skin.
The first rule in identifying a horse’s color is to ignore the white markings. They are different than base colors, like icing on a cake. Of the two base colors, black is a dominant color and red is recessive. This means that a black horse will appear black whether it has two copies of the black gene (homozygous) or one black and one red gene (heterozygous). A horse will only appear red if it has two copies of the red gene.
A black-based horse is any animal that exhibits black on the points (ears, mane, tail and legs). A red horse won’t have any black on the points, even if the mane and tail appear dark or black.
Black-based colors are black, bay, buckskin, grulla, dun, blue and bay roan, perlino and brown.
Sorrel and chestnut are red, as are palomino, cremello, red roan and red dun.
Some black horses can become sun-faded and appear to have a brown tint to their coat, but genetically are black. It can be hard to differentiate between brown and black horses. Brown horses can appear so dark as to be nearly black but are given away by brown or tan hairs, usually around the muzzle and groin area of the horse.
Genetically the same color, sorrel and chestnut are used to define different shades of the recessive red gene. A chestnut horse’s coat has a brown tint, with the most extreme color being an almost dark brown “liver” color. Sorrels, on the other hand, appear more red or copper colored. This color can have variations, such as a flaxen mane (sometimes confused with palomino) or a dark mane and tail, which is caused by a higher concentration of pigment.
Learn more with AQHA’s detailed Color Color Genetics report. This full-color chart offers examples of each of the 17 recognized coat colors. Share this incredible FREE resource with your friends!
Comments
43 Comments on “Learn How Horses Get Their Colors”
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September 3rd, 2008 at 1:34 am
So if you breed a bay to a bay – (black genes – both dominant) both exhibiting the black gene (black points) how do you get a sorrel foal?
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:48 am
both horses are heterozygous?
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:21 am
“So if you breed a bay to a bay – (black genes – both dominant) both exhibiting the black gene (black points) how do you get a sorrel foal?”
A bay has one black allele and one chestnut/red allele, plus at least one agouti allele. The foal will either get two copies of black, 1 copy of black and 1 copy of red, or two copies of red. The last foal will be chestnut/sorrel, and the first foal will be black. The middle foal (1 black allele and 1 red allele) will be black if the agouti gene isn’t present, or bay if it is.
In short, bay to bay will give you a 25% chance of red/chestnut/sorrel.
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I have a buckskin mare I would like to breed. After considering conformation and temperament, I would like to breed for a buckskin foal. What combination would give me the best chance?
September 3rd, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Suzy,
Find a super nice bay stud with possibly a buckskin parent. Make sure his parents are what you like too as I strongly believe in the first set of grandparents. We have a buttermilk buckskin stud. We bred her to our bay mare, sired by a golden buckskin. The foal was a black/gold colored buckskin. You know the super gold with black lacing/dapples all over him. Gorgeous and was sold in utero. Only one out there on the show circuit like him.
Good luck,
Carol
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I have a red roan mare in foal to a brown stallion. The Stallion’s sire is brown and his dam is chestnut. I’m not sure about the mare’s sire and dam. What possible colors could the resulting foal be? I also bred the same stallion to a gray mare…what could the color of that foal be? Is there any way to predict white markings? Thanks!
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Great article but you failed to mention Grey where does this fit in ?
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I think greys fall under the black……. I think 90% sure
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:59 pm
OH..OH… heres one… I use to own a yellow? dun gelding. His paperd just considered him a dun at the time (birthed in 1973 lines back to QuestionMark ) Anyway.. he LOOKED like a palamino (white mane/tail) with a dominant dorsal stripe along with leg bars and shoulder bars. where does this coloring come from? I dont have the papers on him to verify the parents colors; We sold him many years ago…..
September 5th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I know you get tired of all these color questions but I have a mare that’s dam was red roan appish with out the blanket colored and her sire was bay is there any possibility I could get a palomino or buckskin out of her??? or really dark bay???? thanks.
September 6th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Can you have a Reg. Paint and have it Registered as a Quarterhorse also?
September 7th, 2008 at 8:39 am
I tried to download your free color chart and it said there was an error. I would really like to recieve the chart.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:17 am
I bred a black mare to a red dun stallion. The foal was born looking like a grullo, but shed out and looks black unless you get him in bright light. He has the dorsal stripe, shoulder and leg stripes of a dun and there are red hairs on his muzzle and scattered throughout his coat. What color do I register him as?The closest color I can find is dusky or dilute black but that’s not an option with the AQHA.
September 10th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Tami, A black is a base coat color and the dun factor is a seperate gene, so you can have a black horse with the dun markings. Hence the markings in the sun. When a black foal is born it is born with a “grulla” coloring to them, you have to wait for them to shed their first coat. Also to make matters worse, or better, you could have either a Jet black or just a black. Jet black will not fade in the sun a black will. He will be registered as a black with the dun markings, but for AQHA to acknowledge the markings you will need to have some really, really good pics of the dun markings.
September 10th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Tim, unless you have a paint with two quarter parents…no but if it has two quarter and is a cropout yes…now you have to do a little groundwork. The original owner (if you are not) has to submit a stallion breeding report, if they will. and then you need to check, depending on the age of your foal, what it will cost for registration. Also you will need the parentage verification. if you have any further questions you can email me directly. There are a lot of “double-registered horses out there…
September 10th, 2008 at 11:21 am
greys are a seperate gene than a “base color” either black or chestnut/sorrel so the percentages of colors that would produce a grey is undetermined. The way to get a grey is to breed a grey to a grey. USUALLY breeding a grey to a solid will produce a grey…but I had a grey mare bred to a sorrel and white and produced a black and white paint…twice…following year same thing.
September 20th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Not true.. Breeding and grey to a grey isn’t necessarily going to give you a grey. I have a 5 month old colt who is born out of a dark grey stallion and a light grey mare. When I went Easter morning to check on my mare, I had a a little bay colt, who has then decided to change colors. Babies that are turning grey will form a dark circle of black or grey hair around their eyes, which he did. He proceeded to change and for a while I thought I was going to get a dark grey, but he had since then continued to change his coloring to almost a buckskin/dark grullo color. His grandsire is considered a palomino though he has a dark grey/black dapple that could be described as a buckskin dappling (which is his sire’s color (CB Command)) but has similar color as the 5 month old colt but not quite as dark and if his mane and tail didn’t grow out the color of being a dark silver he probably would have been registered as a buckskin.
October 31st, 2008 at 8:42 am
Renee, I own a horse with the exact coloring you mentioned. Palomino with distinct dun markings. After doing a little research it was determined that a palomino can have the dun factor as well, just like other colors such as bay or sorrel. Some people refer to them as dunalinos.
November 1st, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I had a bay mare that was bred to Tim McQuay’s stud Dun it with a Twist. The foal was a pale shade of cream with chocolate socks above the knee and dorsal stripe and zebra stripes on the legs….also chocolate mane and tail. The vet when she was a long yeaRLING SAID THAT SHE WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HORSE THAT HE HAD EVER SEEN….THE VERY METALIC SHEEN WAS ALSO EVIDENT…..KATHY
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:38 pm
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT COLORS YOUR GOING TO GET WHEN BREEDING TO HORSES TOGETHER GO TO
http://www.animalgenetics.com GO TO THE COLOR CALCULATOR IT HAS ALL YOUR ANSWERS THRU DNA TESTS ON WHAT COLORS YOU CAN GET. HAVE FUN WITH IT!
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:40 pm
SORRY ITS http://www.aninalgenetics.us.com
November 4th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
The web address is http://www.animalgenetics.us
February 26th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Color Genetics can be tricky and there really is no exact science to it in the long run, only base ideas. The horses that are coming up as Palominos with Dun markings are most likely Claybank Duns. Greys/Grays (depending on your area of the world for spelling) doesn’t always produce a grey, we owned a recessive grey, she had a lot of red coloring in her main and tail and before I owned her, her first two foals were sorrels sired by a recessive Palomino stallion. We bred her to my bay stud this year, due in the summer some time, liable for a chestnut or a deep bay. And my most interesting colored horse is my currect 3 y/o, her body coat is a red road, but her main and tail are black and white and her legs have black socks, shes out of a bay mare with bay lineage and by a blue roan stud with blue roan and bay lineage, go figure where she came out of…
April 23rd, 2009 at 6:26 pm
we have a red dun stallion that sires LOTS of buckskins/duns with the pretty golden color and black points, if the mare has any black in her at all it is a buckskin, the sorrels are red duns, the chestnuts are the hardest to break the coloring though. He has also produced a palomino out of a dark bay, and a grullo out of a bay. So the color charts are a guess at best I think, as we should not be getting the colors that we do. Maybe the Oregon weather is at play!
June 1st, 2009 at 3:36 pm
I have a dapple grey mare and I want to breed her with a fleabitten grey stud and I want to have a guess of what the outcome would be.
I was also have another dapple grey mare and want to know what the foal would be with a palomino sabino stud.
September 1st, 2009 at 1:05 am
I have a chestnut mare with a bit of white in her, and the stallion is a greyish, blackish, whitish, brownish color, what kinda foal would I get?
Thanks for your help!
September 21st, 2009 at 8:45 am
[...] eyeballing the yearling out in the pasture, who’s oblivious to the dreams pinned to his chestnut coat. Already, I’m wishing that it was time to start him, too. There’s a lot of years [...]
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:54 am
nice hose information .
November 10th, 2009 at 8:36 am
horses are so cute it’s good to know how they get their coats, colors and breeds.
January 12th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
[...] site address, which had more information and also listed a few other horses. Among them was a cute flaxen-maned sorrel gelding who was doing light ranch work and trail riding. “Val” sounded promising enough [...]
January 29th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
If I have a Palomino mare and i was to breed her to a black and white overo paint. What are my color options for the foal. The stud is Homozygous. Also If I bred a Palomino to a Cremello what would my color options be? Thank You!
January 29th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Dear Lindsey,
You indicated the black and white overo stallion was homozygous, but you did not clarify if that is homozygous for the black gene. Assuming that is what you meant breeding him to your palomino mare could result in a buckskin, bay, black, smoky black or possibly brown. Breeding your palomino mare to a palomino will result in 50% palomino. 25% sorrel and 24% cremello. Breeding the palomino to a cremello will get either palomino or cremello.
I hope this helps.
February 5th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
I had bred two beautiful paints together last April. Both are Arab-Paint/Pinto crosses. Both tobiano pattern. Stud was a dark or mahogany bay and mare was a grey color. Is there a chance it could be a black? Or what do you think it could be? If a paint/pinto at all.
April 21st, 2010 at 8:28 am
i just breed my dapple grey but also has a lot of freckles on her to a chesnut stallion. what are my possible colors i might get? what do i have to breed her to to get a palomino?
April 21st, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Hello Amanda,
Thank you for your e-mail and to answer your question, when breeding your gray mare to your chestnut stallion the possible colors would depend on what is in the pedigree of the gray. One thing to remember is we would need to know the color of the gray before turning gray. Without that information the sorrel/chestnut will pass on only the red gene. Thus I could tell you the foals would be sorrel/chestnut or gray.
To answer your second question, a palomino is genetically a sorrel/chestnut with one crème dilution gene. If you have a solid colored horse (not palomino or buckskin) you will need to breed to a palomino/buckskin.
To better assist you with your individual situation you are welcome to call the office so I can discuss this with you. Just ask for me or a color expert. Thanks for your questions!
Lisa Covey
Equine Color Specialist
806-378-4550
May 23rd, 2010 at 7:42 pm
We just had a new foal. It is out of our Dun mare and our Palomino Stallion. It appears to be black…is this possible or will it change to a Gullo with age? The colt has some grey on his legs. Thank you
May 25th, 2010 at 7:48 am
Hello Suzette,
Thank you for your e-mail and to answer your question on the color of your foal, and from what you have described it sounds like this foal will be black. I would give the foal some time to shed and if you are still unsure feel free to contact us.
Lisa Covey
Equine Color Specialist
806-378-4550
May 26th, 2010 at 7:43 am
If I breed a Grulla stallion with a Chestnut mare what color am I likely to get??
May 26th, 2010 at 9:12 am
Hello Brittany,
Thank you for your e-mail and to answer your question your coat color possibilities are grullo, dun, red dun, black, bay or chestnut. When the foal is born, and you are not sure about its color keep in mind you can leave the color blank on the application and submit photos. We will be happy to help by reviewing your photographs.
Lisa Covey
Equine Color Specialist
806-378-4550
June 24th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Hi, I have a flea bitten QH mare that I would like to breed to a blue roan (varnish) Appy stud . . . I am wondering what color I may possible get! Her last foal was a sorrel (no clue what color the stud was). I know grey can mask anything but what are my possibilities?
July 1st, 2010 at 8:55 am
Hello Natasha,
Thank your for your e-mail however we are not able to answer your question in detail because we do not know the color genetics of the gray mare, and we do not know enough about the genetics of Appaloosa horses. I can tell you that 50% of the offspring of a gray horse will turn gray.
Lisa Covey
Equine Color Specialist
806-378-4550
July 26th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
I bred my sorrel QH mare to Starbuck Sidekick (grey stallion)QH. I’m not sure what color the stallion was before he turned grey. My mare dam was grey, she produced 2 sorrels and 4 grey offsprings. My filly was born last year a sorrel with silver grey on her legs. Within 2 weeks, she shed out a chocolate brown\sorrel color and lost the silver hair on her legs. She is now a yearling, she is sorrel color with chocolate brown under coat. The mare is sorrel, more like a copper penny with flaxen mane and tail. My filly is starting to have a few white hairs around her flanks and on her body but no white hairs around her face or eyes. Do you think she will turn grey or could she just be a sorrel with white roaning? I forgot to mention the mare also has white around flanks and sides too. Is there anything else that will let me know what color she might be, I registered her as a grey, but may need to change her papers.
July 28th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Hello Heather,
Thank you for your e-mail and to answer your question from what you have described I would register this sorrel. I would watch for increasing amounts of white hair in the face and down the bridge of the nose,and the back of the ears for early signs of gray.
Lisa Covey
Equine Color Specialist
806-378-4550