I dislike greys, but I have one. I buy the horse, not the color. I’ve actually had several greys over the years…I do feel sorry for them on cold show mornings (and me too, I do my own bathing). I’ve bought them during the lovely dapple phase, and loved the horse before the not so lovely flea bitten stage. What I find so funny is how well my guy stands out if a group of dark-bay/black dressage horses!
He looks like a dark, super contrasty dappled grey!!!
[QUOTE=JB;6029651]
For those of you who really love the dark dappled stage, but don’t really like it as they continue to fade, you just need this horse
http://amazinggracefarm.com/austin%20page.htm[/QUOTE]
I agree about this boy! Here’s the photo, where he really looks like a super flashy dark dappled grey with CRAZY star-like dapples 
(he is technically a black silver dapple + tobiano though)
LOL, yep! But perpetually dappled - literally! LOL 
I can’t think someone would not like her
I know she will become white but I don’t mind. I love looking at pictures and compare from one year to another.
I also loke to look at her sire. I can see the colors she will be from year to year.
I actually went out trying to breed a gray horse when I went for the Silver Colt, my future endurance toy. Mustang mare (chestnut), my heart horse. I wanted an Arabian stallion for her, as that mixes well with pretty much anything that might be in the stew, and an Arab-Mustang sounded like a good endurance prospect. I wanted an older stallion, as I wanted one who had proven he STAMPED his offspring (the better to dominate any lesser points of the Mustang stew). Wanted one who would improve her conformational weaknesses. I realized full well that breeding her was rolling the dice, and I was going to do it once only (as she was my heart horse) and with intentions of keeping the foal for life even if a Fugly little thing. This wasn’t a sales prospect. This was just for me.
But when I had my list of senior Arab stallions who looked promising within driving distance (would do LC with her), it was color that was the final decider among them. I went out stallion inspecting on my own without the mare. Visited the farm of the eventual stud, and he was the spitting image of my favorite school horse when I was a kid. Fleabit gray.
I will never forget that school horse, also an Arab. Won my first blue on him one day after extensive shoulder surgery for excision of a tumor. This had been thought to be just a superficial growth, but nope, it was pear-shaped, went DEEPLY into muscle, and the doc had a time getting clear around it. He did safely, which was good, because it did turn out to be malignant, but to this day, I have a 4-inch diameter starburst scar on my shoulder. So this procedure wound up many times more than I had expected, but I refused to cancel the show, like any horse-crazy kid, LOL. Dozens of stitches, hurt like blazes. Could not raise my left arm at all to mount. Trainer and Mom had to both help me get up from the wrong side, and the whole while, that blessed horse stood like a statue. He KNEW something was off that day. He was hardly push-button, and I was one of the few who had him as favorite, but that day, I had only to think it, and he obeyed. Won one of the OF classes, won the flat. The judge wrote on the comments, “Excellent upright posture.” If only she knew why . . .
But I have always had a fondness for fleabit gray since, and this stud was the image of him. All other criteria being met, that one sold it. I hoped for a gray (he wasn’t homozygous), and I was disappointed to get a neat little chocolate foal the next spring, a rich, dark bay. I sent off birth announcement pictures, and SO replied, “That is a gray. I’m 100% positive.” Really? I never knew how official adult color they could look. Sure enough, he is a gray, he is everything in spades that I wanted from that match in other ways. His only fault is the wrong plumbing, and that has been fixed already. His dam died in 2010, and I am so glad to have her sole foal. He’s even a nicely Teflon gray and isn’t bad to groom.
ETA: The stallion owner was absolutely delighted that spring to have somebody come there to look at her senior guy, her own heart horse, instead of the newer, younger, flashier black model.
Just like fashion don’t most sport horses go threw a certain coolness factor… There was a Paint/Pinto fad, Arabian/Saddle bred cross, Draft horse etc… But don’t the solids stay true? Same as color such as Bay, Chestnut, & Grey? The basics never change (I hope). But are grey’s less healthy than the other colors? I will always love the basics as well as the exotics but will always follow the athletic ability over color & breed.
Other than the melanoma issue, greys are just as healthy as any other color of horse.
[QUOTE=dressagetraks;6030753]
He’s even a nicely Teflon gray and isn’t bad to groom. [/QUOTE]
Isn’t it funny that some are like that? My heart mare is one of them too. Flea bitten grey and (mostly) teflon. She stays quite clean, and the green rubs off easily. My roommate’s grey on the other hand is yellow no matter how much she washes him. I tease her that my mare is magic. (Although, I’m sure the truth is closer to the fact that after 21 years of showing grey horses, I have completely OCD stall cleaning tendencies. ;-p) But she really is one of the easiest horses I’ve ever had to keep clean.
I grew up in harness racing and swore that I would NEVER EVER have a bay or brown riding horse. So far, I’ve managed to achieve that goal. I love greys, and will hopefully always have one.
I stand a grey stallion and have to mention that alot of the prospective mare owners are very concerned they WON’T get a grey. My stallion is not homozygous but does throw a high percentage of grey. I will also say regarding the grey offspring we have, there is no trouble selling them.
I am a professional trainer in the Hunter- Jumper world and have bought and sold horses for over 40 years. At least in our area, greys are popular.
Nancy
Same here! We have more Mare Owners that come to us that WANT to end up with a grey pony hunter
I have always loved Gray horses!!!
Way back to the great Grays of the Past: Riviera Wonder, with Steinkraus; or Aberali with Kathy Kusner; or Good Twist with Frank Chapot or Gem Twist or Abdullah with Conrad Homfeld…come on what is not to like about Gray???
In the hunter ring, in the 60’s I feel in love with the gray, Spindletop Please Note and Dave Kelley. I also had the pleasure in the Equitation ring to switch horses with eventual Medal Winner Jim Kohn who rode a gorgeous grey hunter mare!
More recently, there is Mary Soulka’s Cunningham; Bridget Hallman’s COTH Hunter of the Year, Gray Slipper; and hunter stallion C Quito; and don’t forget Rumba, COTH Show Hunter of 2010! Some gorgeous Gray hunters out there!
I waited with great hope and anticipation for my bay TB mare Mystery to foal in March of this year. I was BLESSED with a BEAUTIFUL GRAY Filly, sired by Ironman! She is wonderful both inside and outside. I am so impressed with this lovely girl, with the gorgeous hunter movement!
Gray horses occur naturally in nature, they are not man made. Gray Arabians were always highly prized. Those who own Gray horses adore them, and no one has trouble selling an impressive Gray Show Hunter!
There is a school of thought that grey is a disease and not a color. I don’t have access to the article, but the author stated that the grey horse gene is due to a mutation that causes unnatural and premature loss of pigment and since grey is not truly a “color” but a mutation of an existing color gene, it should be considered a disease and NEVER ever bred for. This author says that people who knowingly breed for grey are lacking in morals and values due to the melanoma issue - no different than people who breed HYPP positive horses.
I don’t have any opinion on that one way or the other, but it was an interesting read. I can’t search the net too much here at work, but if I can find it at home, I’ll post a link.
Are you referring to Fredrico Tessio? That was a work/theory from the 50s I believe.
nsm
Auventer Two, you are sadly uneducated as to GRAY genetics! What you are attempting to quote was the statement of Frederico Tesio from the 1930s who claimed that gray was a disease of the hair shaft!
In 2008 Swedish University Research found that Grays have a modifier gene which gradually modifies the original hair color. I bred silver persians for 30 years, they have an inhibitor gene, which inhibits pigment to the ends of the hair shaft. Neither modifier genes or inhibitor genes are a DISEASE!
You seriously should not make unimformed statements without the proper scientific investigation!
- have two Masters Degrees in Sciences and Research
[QUOTE=Auventera Two;6045397]
I don’t have any opinion on that one way or the other, but it was an interesting read. I can’t search the net too much here at work, but if I can find it at home, I’ll post a link.[/QUOTE]
Just going to point out this out Sporthorsefilly… sheesh. She wasn’t claiming it was true, just that it was interesting…
The most conclusive proof that grey does not lead to shorter life or more vets bills is that insurance companies do not load the premiums on greys.
Isn’t that the truth!!! Had to smile at that one.
Nancy
[QUOTE=stolensilver;6045869]
The most conclusive proof that grey does not lead to shorter life or more vets bills is that insurance companies do not load the premiums on greys.[/QUOTE]
True. Just sometimes (depending on where the melanomas are located) they are just a pain in the neck to deal with.
It’s not a deal breaker for me, but it’s one of those… If there were two identical horses and one was sorrel and the other grey… I’d pick the sorrel lol .
FROM: http://www.horsetesting.com/Gray.htm
Animal Genetics, Inc.
Description
Gray (Grey) is a modifier that, over time, causes depigmentation of the horses hair. Horses born with this modifier are born colored but gradually loose pigmentation and can become mostly white in 6-8 years. The vast majority of white horses are in fact horses that have fully grayed out. The Gray modifier is a fully dominant gene meaning a single copy of the gene will cause a visibly graying effect on the base coat. Horses homozygous for the mutation (GG) showed an increased rate of graying as well as more evenly distributed effects during the final stages of graying than a heterozygous gray horses (Gg).
Gray occurs in almost every breed although it is more common among a handfull of breeds. Different breeds of horses that commonly show this phenotype are Andalusian, Arabian, Connemara, Iclandic, Lipizzaner, New Forrest Pony, Shetland pony, Thoroughbred and Welsh.
Gray horses, especially horses that are homozygous for the gene, have an extremely high rate of dermal Melanomas (Melanoma Cancer). Research conducted in Sweden showed that 70-80% of gray horses age 15 and older have melanomas. Primary melanomas are generally benign but later metastasize to internal organs.
The genetic mutation that produces graying in horses was located in 2008 by researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden. The gray mutation is caused by a 4.6-kb duplication in intron 6 of STX17.
Reference:
Rosengren Pielberg G, Golovko A, Sundström E, Curik I, Lennartsson J, (More Authors) A cis-acting regulatory mutation causes premature hair graying and susceptibility to melanoma in the horse. Nature Genetics. 2008 Aug;40(8):1004-9. Epub 2008 Jul 20.
Gray is NOT a Disease, it is caused by a modifying gene, which causes depigmentation of the hair.
Melanomas are more prevalent in horses from Gray x Gray (homozygous)breeding.
I hope that this gives scientific credibility to the fact that Gray color is a simple genetic mutation of hair color. Mutations occur quite naturally in nature without mans help, advice or random criticism. Please note that Gray horses are found in ALL breeds of horse, with or without man’s help!
Another quote from a veterinarian, published in Horses and Horse Information:
http://www.horses-and-horse-information.com/articles/0701melanoma.shtml
Gray area
by Ken Marcella, D.V.M., Article donated by the mane points horse resource center.
Sooner or later, your gray horse will very possibly develop melanomas. That’s the bad news. The good news is that they are rarely fatal.
From TheHorse.com http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=3621
Jan 01, 2003 by Fred McCashin, VMD, MSc entitled Gray Horse Disease-Melanoma
It is interesting that Federico Tesio in his book Breeding The Race Horse described the inheritance of the gray coat color like a disease or defect, since melanoma skin tumors are so common in the gray horse. On the other hand, the gray horse survives these tumors better than any other species that develops them. While horse owners worry about gray horses’ tumors, scientists recognize that the horse must harbor the secret to surviving melanoma. …
As we anticipate some breakthrough in development of an immune stimulant in the fight against melanoma in man, we continue to look to animal models for some clues on the direction the research should take. Veterinarians will continue to use their tools of immunotherapy and surgery to enhance the gray horses’ ability to coexist with his melanoma. The gray horse might hold the secret to survival from melanoma for us, his caretakers.
