Color
Certain colors predominate in certain breeds, but color usually varies even within a breed. The name that is used to describe a horse's color takes into account the color of its mane and tail as well as of its coat.
The most common solid (or nearly solid) colors are:
Black coat, mane, and tail.
Black coat with brown areas around the muzzle and the eyes, and the insides of the legs.
Brown shades, usually red-toned; black mane, tail, and lower legs.
Brown shades, often yellow-toned; mane and tail the same color as the coat or lighter.
Cream to dark gold; flaxen mane and tail; usually with white markings on face and lower legs.
Pure white from birth (unlike a gray, which turns white with age); pink skin and blue or brown eyes. White horses are often called albinos. (They are not, however, true albinos—that is, albinos in the biological sense—because their eyes do not lack pigmentation.)
The most common mixed colors and color patterns are:
Black skin, with black hair at birth; white hair gradually displacing the black as the horse ages. A dapple gray has just enough white hair to look marbled.
Grayish yellow; black mane and tail, and usually a black stripe down the back; often with other black markings.
Uniform mixture of white and colored hairs. A strawberry roan has a mixture of white and chestnut hairs; a blue roan, white and black.
White with irregular areas of color. If these areas are black, the horse is called piebald; if they are any other color, the horse is skewbald.
Mottled black and white skin; white hair dotted with dark spots over part or all of the body. This color pattern is characteristic of the Appaloosa breed and of the Pony of the Americas.
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