Tha coat of early horses was probably a certain color to give camouflage in the wild and allow the horse to blend into its background and hide from predators. A sand colored coat still provides Przewalski's horse with good camouflage in its desert home. Most of the colors we see today have beec developed be humans through selective breeding. Some colors are dominant to others; a foal will be the dominant color if only one of its parents is that color. Other colors are recessive; only if both parents are that color is the foal likely to be, too. The order of dominance of the main colors to each other is gray, bay, brown, then black. Chestnut is recessive.
Bay horses come in a veriaty of reddish-brown hues, and are distinguished by black points, (mane, tail, legs, ears, knees, hock, or any combination thereof). If there are white marings on the legs, there will usually be black markings above the markings. Light bay horses may seem to resemble chestnuts in some cases, but the distinguishing difference will be the presence of black points.
A grey horse's coat color is a mixture of white and.dark hairs growing out of dark skin. Rarely is an arabian foal born as a distincly recognizable grey. They are usually born chestnut or bay, and within weeks will begin showing signs of grey aroung the eyes, flank, and below the elbow. Occasionally, grey splotches will develop on the body, croup, or thigh before they are visible around the eyes. The rule of genetics followed by the Registry, is that a foal will not turn grey unless at least one parent is grey. During the greying process, a horse may show varying shades of grey. Some may appear steel grey, a mixture of black and white hairs. Others may be rose grey, a mixture of chestnut and white hairs, or bay grey a mixture of bay and white hairs. Dappleing is common. As grey horses age, there coat colors lighten, sometimes appearing to be white. Oftentimes, an older horse will grow tufts of reddish-brown hair. This is called flea-bitten. All of these combinations are registered "grey".
The entire coat, enclueding the muzzle, flanks and legs must be black with the exception of white markings. If any doubt arises between black and dark bay, black can be determined by noting the fine black hair on the muzzle.
Chestnuts are a copper color, varying in shades of light golden-red to a dark brown, know as "liver-chestnut". Occasionally a chestnut will have a "flaxen", or blond, mane and tail. Sometimes, the mane and tail will be a mixture of blond or chestnut hairs or brown and chestnut hairs. Quite often the mane and tail will be the same color as the body coat. Chestnut foals often have light blond baby hair on their legs. This hair should not be confused with true white markings. If you aren't sure, wet down the hair and look for pink skin. The rule of genetics followed by the Registry is that the mating of two chestnuts always results as a chestnut foal.
It may be difficult to tell the difference between a rose grey and a roan at first. Roans show their permanent coat color after shedding their foal coat. Unlike greys, they do not dapple nor do they progressively lighten in color. most roans will have a dark head, while grey foals will first turn light on the head.
