Horse coat colors depend on the amount of natural colouring in its skin, or pigment.
A specialized vocabulary has evolved to describe them.
Color is one of the first things that is noticed about a horse.
Often, a horse is first described by its coat color rather than by breed or by sex.
While most horses remain the same color throughout life, a few, over the course of several years, will develop a different coat color from that with which they were born.
Most white markings are present at birth, and the underlying skin color of a horse does not change, absent disease.
Most horses and ponies have dark skin.
Glossary of Horse Colours
Bay horse
Rich brown coat with black mane, tail and legs.
Bay’s can vary in colour. A bright bay is lighter in colour to a bay, with more yellow in the coat.
Dun horse
Horses dun in colour are a biscuit shade with black mane and tail.
Chestnut Arab horse
Ginger or copper in colour with darker or lighter mane and tail.
Strawberry roan horse
The horse is chestnut in colour with white hair growing through it.
Blue roan
The horse is black in colour with white hair growing through it.
Skewbald
The colour is brown and white patches.
Piebald horse
Black and white patches
Spotted horse
White spots on a dark coat or dark spots on a white coat.
Grey horse
The colour varies from almost entirely white or almost black interspersed with white hairs.
Black horse
The horse is black all over including the mane and tail.
Dapple-grey
Have black and white hairs that form pennies or rings called dapples.
Flea-bitten grey
Horses coats are light grey in colour with flecks that are usually brown.
Liver chestnut Arab horse
The colour is dark chestnut like the colour of raw liver.
