*Poll* What color is this horse?

[OneHappyDuckie]

Wow!

I wonder what the genetics are behind those. They’re so pretty!

 

[Alagirl]

Very cool looking!
I searched and I think hos name is Cs Arrogant PlayBoy
View attachment 3245317

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=144561543841065

BWAHAHAHAHAHA
I am stoopid.
I am trying to click on the names to follow the pedigree back!

 

[Painted Calls]

Interesting.
I was more looking at his odd coloring. I thought they had photoshopped a giraffe color on him

Oh yep - he's actually marked like that.

 

[RiverOtter]

There is a LOT of confusion as to what a gray is on this thread.

 

[casportpony]

BWAHAHAHAHAHA
I am stoopid.
I am trying to click on the names to follow the pedigree back!

Sorry about that:
https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/cs+arrogant+playboy

 

[EmmaRainboe]

There is a LOT of confusion as to what a gray is on this thread.

Is a gray not a horse with the graying gene?

Tell us oh wise one, what is a gray?

Where is this confusion you speak of?

 

[OneHappyDuckie]

There is a LOT of confusion as to what a gray is on this thread.

Please, elaborate!

 

[Alagirl]

Sorry about that:
https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/cs+arrogant+playboy

thank you. I could have done that myself. I just had a case of brain flatulence, clicking on the image
(there is way too much Impressive blood hiding up there though)

 

[Alagirl]

Is a gray not a horse with the graying gene?

Tell us oh wise one, what is a gray?

Where is this confusion you speak of?

I guess the color as it appears to the eye vs the graying gene that eventually turns the base color white.

 

[RiverOtter]

Is a gray not a horse with the graying gene?

Tell us oh wise one, what is a gray?

Where is this confusion you speak of?

Well, the first bit of confusion is that this horse could possibly be one. In no universe does a gray retain a dark head while the rest of it lightens. In fact, one of the ways you know a newborn foal will be gray is because of the "spectacles" - white hairs around the eyes.
Foal pics (Rohan, Silver Rain, Gandalf), before;

After; Same horses (Rohan, Silver Rain, Gandalf) 1-7 years later



Second point, Sunbleaching. On page 2, what the poster describes is not sunbleaching, but gray. Sunbleaching, obviously, has NO cumulative effect over the horses life. The sun must bleach each, individual hair as it grows, and starts all over again when it is shed. If you think your horse is sunbleached, throw a blanket over it for a month. The horse will get darker, because the new hairs won't be bleached. This will never, ever, make a horse turn gray or white, the effect is brown/yellowish. You can imitate sunbleaching with lemon juice, we all have - or were - the friend who tried it in HS.

Third, the appaloosa gene. You never want to breed an appy (or a paint) to a gray, because they will, in fact, TOTALLY gray out over time and lose their markings entirely. They'll go through a couple of years of looking pretty awful with it, too. The spots gray out at the same rate as the head, legs and rest of the horse. If an Appy loses more base color but their spots stay bright, that is a modifier of the LP gene and not graying. Gray Appys lose their spots.

Last, roan. Look at the gray pics again. As said above, NONE of them have darker heads, and no gray ever will. They may, like the dapple pony mare, have lighter heads, but never darker. A dark head tells you that this is absolutely, unequivocally, a roan. A roan may have darker "fleabites" or birdcatcher spots that might make you think appy, but it doesn't mean that it is, such variations are common to the roan coloring. What does tell you the horse in question has some Appaloosa in him is the white sclera and mottled skin. The only issue with roans is the base color, since roan can throw white over anything, and it can already be hard to tell, just from the head, whether a horse is a sunbleached black, a seal brown or a dark bay. One or two sheds will clear it up, as roans get darker half the year and lighter the other half. Most roans have lighter fluffy winter coats and darker summer ones, but I've seen the opposite as well. This seasonal change can be extreme, but no matter how extreme, it does not indicate graying, unless the head is fading out as well, which will be seen in the first year.