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As any experienced horse artist would notice, many users list the coat color(s) of their horse character incorrectly. For example, "brown" is not a valid coat classification -- with just brown there is bay, chestnut, silver dapple, are some examples.

Thus, to help educate "new" horse artists I have created this tutorial. Under each image and name of the coat color/pattern you will find a description. All of my research has been done here and here, as well as off-site books.




To begin we're going to explore the basic coat colors. The simple, solid color patterns.

Colors and Their Names

Judging a Horse's Color:
When judging what color a horse is, it's most effective to do so in the colder months when the horse's winter coat is prominent. This is due to "sun bleaching," which dulls the horse's coat color after prolonged exposure to sunlight. For example, some black horses will appear "seal brown" or "brown" in the summer, and black in the winter and fall months. However, this is not entirely accurate. Some horses even change colors in the colder months, appearing lighter or darker than they do in the summertime.



Black
While horses can be black, "true" black occurs when there are no white (also known as "roaning") hairs within the black. The horse can have white markings, but if there is a mixture of white and black hairs it is not true black. However, having white hairs doesn't make the horse a roan color, either. (Refer to roan later in the listing.) It is not uncommon for a black horse to, in the summer time, become "sun-bleach black." This is when the sun "bleaches" the fur, making it a warm brown color.



Agouti
"Bay" occurs when the horse has black points (the legs, mane, tail, muzzle, and ear tips), and the rest of the body being "brown." There are different variations of bay, such as: dark bay, bright bay, light bay, blood (mahogany) bay, and dapple bay. There is also "wild bay," in which the leg markings are primitive and usually don't pass the fetlock joints. Dark bay horses are often confused with "black," but this is not the case. Note that bays always have black points!

There are variants of bay, as shown above. "Wild Bay" simple refers to bay points (legs) that go no higher than the fetlock joint ("ankle"). Otherwise there are shades: dark bay, blood/mahogany bay, brown (not shown).

"Wild" bay is displayed as "A+."
Seal brown is displayed as "At"
In order for a horse to be any sort of bay (or seal brown), it must have at lease one black (Ee, EE, or eE) gene.

Gray
Some horses with the gray gene will "gray out," meaning that as they age their coat gradually gets lighter and lighter. This is common in dapple grays, when they are born black and then turn "white" with age. The variations of gray include: fleabitten (brown or black "freckles" all over the body), light, steel, dapple, and rose. Light gray is often mistaken for "white," but it can be differentiated by the skin color (dark skin = gray, not white; look at the horse's muzzle and genital area). Dapple gray is a gray color with dark "ringlets" all over their body, and "often have dark points." Steel gray are a dark gray silvery color. "Many steel gray horses lighten and turn into a dapple gray or a light gray with age. " Rose gray is a gray color with a red tint to the hairs; it is not dark (steel) or light gray, and often doesn't have dapples.



Chestnut/Sorrel ~ "Red"
Chestnut and sorrel, often called "red," is reddish colored hairs all over the body. American Quarter Horses are often Chestnut. These color horses have no dark points and can have white markings (such as stockings). The variations of Chesnut are: red, light, flaxen, liver. "Red" chestnuts are the most showy, having a "red glow" about their fur. Light chestnut has more of a brown tint. Flaxen is any chestnut colored horse with an off-white (often cream) colored mane and tail. Liver chestnut horses often look dark bay, but have no black points. Liver chestnut is the darkest color of the chestnuts. The mane and tail is the same color as the rest of the body, or very close to.



Palomino
Palomino is often called the "yellow" or "blond" horse. The palomino's coat color is often described as "golden," though it can vary from off-white yellow to a deep, gorgeous gold color. Palomino's, in unison with their golden coats, also have "white" (very light cream) manes and tails.

Dun
"Dun horses have a sandy/yellow to reddish/brown coat. Their legs are usually darker than their body and sometimes have faint "zebra" stripes on them. Dun horses always have a "dorsal" stripe, which is a dark stripe down the middle of their back." Types of dun include bay, red. Bay dun is NOT buckskin and can be differentiated by the dorsal strip extending from the withers down to the dock of the tail. Red dun is a chestnut/sorrel colored horse with the dorsal stripe, with the legs darker than the rest of the body.



Buckskin
"Buckskin horses are a light-to-dark sandy yellow or tan color with all black points." Spirit from the movie "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" was NOT a buckskin stallion due to the dorsal stripe, which buckskin horses lack. This color ranges from a sandy yellow to tan.

Perlino & Cremello
Often described as "Albino," this is incorrect. These horses have two cream genes, also called "dilute," which gives them their off-white pigment.
"Cremellos and Perlinos are "double diluted" which means they have two copies of the creme gene instead of one like a Palomino or Buckskin. In other words a Palomino is a "chestnut" with one creme gene and a Cremello is a "chestnut" with two creme genes. A Buckskin is a "bay" with one creme gene and a Perlino is a "bay" with two creme genes.
Cremellos and Perlinos have pink skin and blue eyes. Their hair coats are not white but are of a light creme color. Some can be so light they appear to be white but if you compare them to a true white horse you will see that they are actually creme.
Cremellos will have white manes and tails while Perlinos will have darker points, as a Buckskin would, but on a Perlino the points are orangish. To learn more about them you can visit the website of the Cremello & Perlino Educational "

Roan
A roan horse is any colored horse with an even distribution of white hairs all over the body. These are not "spots," but actual white hairs mixed in with the base color of the hairs. The types of roans inclue: Red, bay, palomino, red dun, blue roan (which is a black horse with roaned hair, making it look "blue"). Roan can occur with any coat color. The only parts of the body that aren't roaned are the legs and the head, which helps determine the base color of the animal. The same applies to the mane and tail, though it isn't unheard of for those to have white hairs mixed in, as well.

Champagne
Champagne is a rare, but dominant, dilution gene. Foals have at least 1 champagne parent and are born with bright pink skin and bright blue eyes. Unlike other horses, their eyes (if they change color) change slowly and takes a lot of time. They are often light blue or hazel when the eyes are completely changed. The variations of Champagne include gold, amber, sable, and "classic." Gold champagne is not to be confused for palomino, though it looks like a palomino, and can be differentiated by the mottled (speckled dark and pink) skin.



Gold: Chestnut/sorrel and champagne.



Amber: Bay and champagne.



Sable: Seal brown and champagne.



Classic: solid black and champagne.

Grullo/Grulla
Grullo (grew-yo) and grulla (grew-ya) are both acceptable terms of the name. It's often described as "blue dun," and "[...] variations of the color often refered to as slate grulla, silver grulla, olive grulla, black dun or wolf dun." A way to make sure that the horse is a grulla would be primitive markings -- such as leg barring ("zebra stripes"), the dorsal stripe, shoulder stripe, and/or face masking. Often these horses will have darker points, but are not bay.




More on the way!

Creating Realistic Offspring

If you understand the basic "genetic codes" of horses and Punnett Squares, you can create a realistic foal out of two characters, just by knowing their genotype.

Homozygous: Having identical alleles of any one gene. Such as "EE." This means that the parent throws all babies of this color. (Such as a homozygous roan stallion will make all roan babies.)
Heterozygous: Having different alleles for any gene set. Such as "Ee." This means that the baby can also be another color.

Black is displayed with an "e." If both E's are lower-case, the black gene is non-existent.
EE/Ee = Dominant
eE = Recessive (can still produce black-coated offspring)
ee = non-carrier

Agouti is the "red factor," and displayed with an A. In order to have a bay, one black allele must be present. Otherwise, you have an Agouti-carrying chestnut!
AA/Aa = Dominant
aA = Recessive
aa = Non-carrier

Gray is the gene that makes horses "gray out," or lighten, with age. Offspring are often born dark (black or almost black) and then change colors up to stark white with age.
GG/Gg = Dominant
gG = Recessive,
gg = Non-carrier

Chestnut/Sorrel has neither the black nor the agouti genes, but they can carry the genes in a recessive manner. With the flaxen gene, it must be lowercase.

Palomino is not a breed, but a cream dilute. When the creme gene is added to sorrel, you get a palomino! If the horse has two creme genes, it's called a "Perlino."

Dun can occur with any base color (it has primitive markings such as leg barring, dorsal stripe, etc). This is another dilute gene!

Buckskin is yet another dilute, and is the product of a Bay bred with any horse carrying a creme gene.
Genotype example: Ee AA Crcr

To get to know the possibilities of the foal your character(s) may produce, be sure to double-check with the Equine Color Calculator. It will show the percentage possibilities of the foal(s) your horses may produce.

Wow, this is very interesting! I think this is very helpful. Thanks for the information. LOL I feel smart now XD

I'm not even done yet, Moki! Lol

Oh, you aren't? My bad o_o Sorry! Still, very educational :3

Very good job Kirada! This is a very accurate guide and I think it will help new horse artisits a lot. I can see you put a lot of time into it. Just one thing, even though you are correct that buckskins do not have primative markings, there is one exception. The kiger mustang breed carries a dun gene throughout the breed, causing buckskins to have the dorsal stripe and coloring around the ears. Since Spirit had darker points than most duns, I believe he is a buckskin. Still, this is very good work and very informative.

Wow! This is a very helpful and informative topic Kirada! Thank you so much for creating this topic! ;3

Sierra- Thanks for the link! That will be helpful as well...

The tutorial is far from finished. There are various ways (outside of veterinary testing, which obviously no one will have done for fictional characters) of calculating the outcome of a breeding (the foal's genetics). I use the very same website, but the artist has to be aware of the genetics required to get the coats of the parents in order to calculate the foal(s).

And in order to do that, one would need a basic understanding on equine genetics; which is what this tutorial will be when I get more time to complete it.