Bay or brown horse turning gray!?!

[ILuvmyButtercups]

I know very little about how colors or color patterns in horses come about. I know you have to breed for desired colors, but anyway I cannot figure out why my 15 year old dark bay with wonderful shiny coat and marvelous dapples is frankly turning grey. She is registered, papers are lost - nick name used for so long no one remembers her real name. When I got her 3 years ago she was fairly solidly bay/ brown, but curiously she has a distinct salad plate size grey splotch on the right shoulder. Has a narrow blaze that was indistinct with lots of roany white sprinkles along her face.

In winter she’s very dark brown but that grey shoulder spot remains. Well now, three years later in summer she is getting more and more grey sprinkling everywhere, especially in the face, head, ears and throat. Looks like how baby horses go from dark to grey gradually. It disconcerts me somewhat because she’s certainly fairly young at 15, and very sound and healthy while looking like the proverbial “old grey mare”. I’m honestly considering putting dark hair dye on at least her face! Her head is long and thin, and with the mostly droopy lower lip and long floppy mulish ears… well, I’m sure you get the picture. I adore her, and her randy gelding boy friend loves her dearly, so I doubt she suffers from self esteem issues. How does this happen? Does she have many dominant grey or chestnut color genes in her lineage? Then why be bay/brown the first decade only to change out so soon? I see young chestnuts roan out all over as they age, all the time. But never this.
Anyone here can enlighten me please? Thanks!

[Bluey]

Greying out with the grey gene generally happens in the first decade.
We bought a beautiful registered four year old dark bay gelding from a nearby ranch that at turning five started to get white hairs and was snow white by ten.
Before that, you would not have found one white hair on him.

At 15, I would think that may be more of a sabino type gene affecting the greying.
Could she have some appaloosa in her?
Some of them can look solid and around ten start getting gray hairs, but you would also see the motley sclera around the eyes/mouth.
Or maybe just older age greying, but those generally are not that obvious before 18 or 20.

Are you sure of her age, could she be older than 15?

[supaflyskye]

Do you have any photos?
15 is truly quite old to be just starting to really grey out…
I agree w/ Bluey in that I’m more inclined to think that a Sabino or some related gene may be at work.

[Montanas_Girl]

Without pictures, it’s hard to say for sure, but I’m going to echo the question on her age. Are you absolutely certain that she’s only 15? Because the gray hairs on her head, combined with the “droopy lip” description, indicate a fairly advanced age.

It would be exceptionally unusual for a gray horse to not show any signs of color change before its teenage years. Some kind of white pattern gene (or even LP, if she’s an appaloosa) is possible, but, again, I’d expect to see some signs much earlier in the horse’s life. Based on the “when you hear hoofbeats…” principle, I’m going to guess that the mare is significantly older than you were told.

[demidq]

Re the “droopy lip”- not necessarily a sign of old age. My 11 year old mare ( a gray, by the way) has let her lip hang loose when relaxed for several years, and I know her age for certain because I bought her as a 3 yr old. In the past, I had an appie who also relaxed with droopy lip well before he was an old man. We used to stick a peppermint in his lip and watch to see how long it took him to notice.

[Inclined]

I have no helpful info on the greying, but my former appendix QH had a droopy lip at 5. My OTTB mare did, too, in her mid teens. A thoroughbred trait?

[demidq]

Not a TB trait, my mare is Arab/Hano, and my gelding was pure ranch Appie, if that means anything- that was 50 years ago!

[findeight]

Always suspicious of “lost” papers. Not that people claiming that are automatically liars. They were probably told that by whoever they bought it from. Sad truth is that without the physical papers or knowing the breeder? They can be anything of any age and the older they really are, the less accurate teeth are at estimating age. For example, my 21 year old (have papers) had teeth that said she was about 15.

She could be greying due to age, even if she is actually 15. She could have an Appy parent or two. It could run in her family. You never know unless you trace it back with the help of the breeders. OP might try contacting the breeders if anybody knows who they are.