What color is this horse?

[TheGoldenGirlz]

Yep. I’d say he is a sun-bleached red road. Him being 18yrs old really helps explain why he is a lighter shade

 

[Zinjifrah]

I still don't see any sorrel there. Palomino can cover a very broad spectrum of shades - everything from chocolate to an Isabella, like my mustang. She tends to look pretty yellow in the mane - and everywhere else - when she's dirty, as well.

I do agree with the potential for some paint genes.

 

[paintedChix]

This post is a "book" and is very heavy in pics ... I apologize if I've stolen the thread, but really wanted to show some things.

Well, I don't know about the appaloosa part... With at least 7 accepted patterns, and a whole slew of pattern mixes (doesn't even begin to include all the "white" and "paint" genes now recognized), he certainly could be an appaloosa mix, imo. Most walking horse breeds also accept Sabino (paint) markings, so that COULD be in the mix as well. And I don't know all the names of all the gaits in gaited horse breeds. I did do some research on it many years ago, but then left it behind and truly don't remember all of what I studied. A lot of my notes of that time were on one of our first computers and were lost, too, when it crashed.

Blew me over - he looks a lot like a "big" LITTLE mare I got that was said to have "gaited horse breeding"... She was a black sabino overo. ... er.... Sabino (no overo these days according to equine geneticists). And our "little" mare was a quite stout 13.3 hh - that had an awesome 2x her size kinda walk, some weird trot, a decent jog and a roughern'heck kinda lope that you really had to learn to sit... Didn't help, she'd had a tie-up injury that fused two vertebra in her neck, making her head permanently tipped slightly to the right. She is an 1981 "model" - so is 15y old in the 1st photo about 1 month after we purchased her and 24 yrs old in the 2nd & 3rd pics. I am somewhere between 210 & 230 #s (I think, that may be generous on the lighter side) in the pic with her and I still rode her and she was a pleasure to enjoy just tooling around on trails at a walk...sightseeing, breathing in nature, etc.



Don't know what crosses she had in her - but her 2 foals by our shetland stallion's sire would both singlefoot (a type of walk in gaited horse breeds) and 1 paced as well. Of the 5 that were sired by our Shetland stallion, only one had a true trot all of the time, and he developed into a whale of a little 3 day event horse (but his little rider had to WORK at getting an "acceptable" flat footed walk for dressage). The others did several gaited variations of walk, singlefoot, rack and pace - depending on the day and the speed asked for. They all matured between 13-13.3 hh (sired by an 11.1 hh Shetland).

As to color - here are several pics of a red roan sabino Shetland mare that we owned for several years. She passed in February 2017 (at 22 yrs) due to complications after a rough go/recovery from a foxtail infestation in purchased coastal hay here in NC. In the years that we owned this mare, she was never stalled nor blanketed. She is in her natural state in every photo. Photos taken at different times of the day. All taken with either a digital camera or a phone camera. Yep, I like taking pics on farrier day.




What I have found over the years is that horse colors VARY! There are new colors being found and tested for almost daily, it seems. The best way to know the color of that gelding would be to have him color tested for base colors (I don't think there is a known RELIABLE roan test, but I haven't followed the color sites much in the past year and a 1/2 - 2017 was a rough year for LP Painted Ponys). I believe him to be red based. He could have some appaloosa genes. At one time, stallions of "sabino" type markings were being used in both APHA (Paint) and APHC (Appaloosa) horse breeds (stock type based on Quarter Horse). I do not know about gaited horses - but there are quite a number of different gaited horse breeds and they are not all built the same, nor do they move the same nor do they have the same acceptable color patterns. Sabino markings are accepted in a lot of them. Tobiano is accepted in a couple. Frame, I believe, is not accepted in any. There is a TRUE strain of purebred Appaloosa's that do singlefoot - there are aficionados of that strain out there.

There are the genetic colors (base color & patterns) and there are the outside/environmental factors (age, condition, current feed program & how it's utilized, weather/time of the year)... Even drugs & an equine's system "acceptance" can change coat colors (boy have I been surprised by some color changes - especially after severe colic episodes where drugs are used to battle septic conditions and life is on the threshold)...

Good for you on looking into taking on an older horse!! I've loved some of our oldsters - I started our pony breeding program with several older broodmares that no-one else wanted to take the time to take care of. It was a great start for us and many stayed with us even when breeding days were over. Others went on to different homes as treasured children/beginner mounts - and lived into their 30s (I lost track of Sioux's last owners & last saw her the year she was 32).

 

[ShrekDawg]

He hasn't been measured but based on the two I ride, I'd say hes about around 14 hh

t

Wow so he is pretty small then! I think I need at least 15 hands, maybe 15.2, or 16hh as I'm lamost 6 feet tall lol

 

[Bunnylady]

I still don't see any sorrel there. Palomino can cover a very broad spectrum of shades - everything from chocolate to an Isabella, like my mustang.

Look at his ears - they are very clearly red, not golden. If you enlarge the pictures of him, you can't miss the fact that his body color is a mixture of red and white hairs. Red can vary; some horses are light red, without being duns or champagnes or any other type of dilution. Palomino is produced by a dilution gene. "Chocolate Palominos" are not genetically Palominos at all, but usually Silvers. I own a Sooty Palomino, which does have some rather brownish areas on her body, but it is brown, not red, and (typical of Sooty) she has black in her mane and tail (which this gelding shows no sign of). I also own a sorrel sabino roan with a strawberry blond mane and tail. Even though she hasn't as many white hairs as this gelding, some people confuse her with a Palomino, but it isn't hard to tell the difference when you really look.

 

[paintedChix]

and we currently own several shades of "chocolate" (silver black - 11) and "funny palominos" (2 - homozygous for silver)and 1 "buttermilk" buckskin (silver buckskin) and "flax chestnuts" (3 - silver bay).

and some color genes seem to be slightly different in pony vs horse breeds. I had K-la, a red roan who also had sabino pattern. We also have several "incomplete roans" as well - in which the darker portion of the bodies have "ticking" or "roaning" in certain areas - even if they do not have testable sabino genetics.

 

[paintedChix]

t

Wow so he is pretty small then! I think I need at least 15 hands, maybe 15.2, or 16hh as I'm lamost 6 feet tall lol

A shorter horse with a larger frame and rounder barrel will take up that longer inseam in your legs... You do not necessarily have to ride a tall horse. A 13.2 hh Hafflinger type pony will carry you as easily as a 15.2 hh TB type that is long & lean...(narrower around the barrel).

I have had "round" 13.2 hh Arabs take up my leg better than a 15.2 hh QH, TB or Walker - that was much "narrower". I've also had a couple of Arabs I thought I would "break"... I am 5'6" with a 32" inseam. Currently I can't sit some of the rounder horses/ponies I've ridden in the past. Hips say "NO" (not enuf flex and will lock). The last time I rode, I was riding my daughter's 13.2 hh Arab mare in 2012.

 

[ShrekDawg]

A shorter horse with a larger frame and rounder barrel will take up that longer inseam in your legs... You do not necessarily have to ride a tall horse. A 13.2 hh Hafflinger type pony will carry you as easily as a 15.2 hh TB type that is long & lean...(narrower around the barrel).

I have had "round" 13.2 hh Arabs take up my leg better than a 15.2 hh QH, TB or Walker - that was much "narrower". I've also had a couple of Arabs I thought I would "break"... I am 5'6" with a 32" inseam. Currently I can't sit some of the rounder horses/ponies I've ridden in the past. Hips say "NO" (not enuf flex and will lock). The last time I rode, I was riding my daughter's 13.2 hh Arab mare in 2012.

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Huh, I never thought of a thicker built horse! Thanks for the tip!

 

[NineChickens]

He really doesn't like like a red roan to me. It's probably because I'm still new with horse colors. Based on Google image, though, he matches the palomino roan more.

 

[danischi24]

As a few people have said, he is a red sabino. Likely with gaited horse ancestry.