Dear White-Horse (Light Gray) Horse Owners

[annairb]

To very light gray (white) horse owners:

Does your horse get sunburnt when pastured during the summer?

We are looking for a pasture mate for a retired mare and I’m wondering if close-to-white horses should be avoided if they get burned easily. These horses would be out all-day so as long as the weather permits, so would be out in the pasture during the day (with access to plenty of shade).

I understand that a horse with a wide, white blaze will get burned on the nose, but I am curious about their backs/sides as I haven’t owned a gray.

Thank you!

[Bluey]

True gray horses have dark skin, so should not sunburn.

White markins will sunburn, some more than others.

[PrincessPonies]

I have a grey paint with lots of white(pink skin). I’ve had issues with the nose but never anywhere else. And even the portion of her nose that’s grey(dark skin) doesn’t get burnt just the pink skin. I think either a grey or white horse would be fine for the most part.

[annairb]

Thank you both so much! I really appreciate the info.

[RMJacobs]

My very light gray horse also only burns on his pink nose. The rest of his skin is dark, and even in his current state of having some bald spots due to how he is shedding his summer coat, he doesn’t burn on the dark skin. I am hoping he gets on with growing his winter coat just to get some relief from the flies.

Rebecca

[retiredhorse]

Nope. My now-white (well, dirt-colored-white :lol:) retired horse is out 24/7; it’s nearly always sunny and gets to the 90s-100s in the summer. He does not burn when it’s hot out (not even his pink nose, though that has been a problem with other horses), and often dozes in the sun/heat. He has shelter/shade, but doesn’t use it much. His pasture mate is also white-grey and fine with the sun also.

[Scribbler]

I’ve never seen a grey horse burn unless they have white nose markings that are effectively hidden under the grey.

My Chestnut Paint will burn on her white nostril, but not on her white body spots.

[Amy3996]

A friend had a paint horse with a pink-skinned, white back and hindquarters. She was on 24/7 turnout last summer, and became terribly sunburned. It was awful and looked incredibly uncomfortable. She now goes out at night or in a UV fly sheet, but it was a lesson learned the hard way. So yes, it’s definitely something to keep in mind!

[Heartofhorselords]

I’m seconding what all of those that have mentioned greys have said - they generally don’t burn unless they’ve had some form of white spotting gene IE pinto horses that have gone grey, white markings on the face, or something else funky (like a double cream dilute with a grey gene, though I’ve never heard of that but I don’t know off the top of my head if it’s even possible.) The penultimately grey horse is the Arabian, and it - or some other sort of desert dwelling equine type from the days of yore - are likely the progenitors of the mutation that causes this particular depigmentation. I doubt these would have survived long, or bred on overly much at all, if the light coat color had allowed them to be easily sunburnt when they lived in intense desert conditions. The neat thing about grey horses is they all start with a base color, and thus all have the base skin color as well - which is why most greys have black skin. In Arabians it was actually a signifier of great beauty, and perhaps even of authenticity to the original Bedouin people that bred them, if an Arabian had the dark “kohl” around their eyes; that is, the dark skin.

re: @PrincessPonies - I suspect the reason the nose burns but not the general body is the amount of hair that covers the pink skin! Do you ever have an problems with the skin around the eyes or on the ears burning? I’ve known a lot of Paint and pinto owners who have encountered this problem before D:

I’d probably be more worried about sarcoids than sunburning, myself, but that’s just my experience with greys.

[Toblersmom]

The barn where I board keeps several very pale (older greys, one double dilute, one double dilute pinto) equids, out 24/7 with shelter here in Texas. They get no special blanketing or other care that I know of, and have had no issues I’ve ever seen. I can’t recall offhand if the double dilute pinto has any marking on the face that would make more pink skin on the nose, eyelids, or ears. I think not. The other double dilute only has a star.

[PrincessPonies]

@Hearofhorselords
My girl has blue eyes. Though she does have black eyeliner naturally we keep a fly mask on her year round when she’s out so I never had an issue. However one time when she was out in snow when it was very sunny she got a little pink on her belly from the reflected sunlight.

[TCA_Arabians]

Mostly greys here. Should have called the place “Another Shade of Grey Ranch.” No problems with sunburn. Problems with melanomas yes. They can go in and out of their stalls at will. Even on the hottest days… they like dozing in the sun.

[Lyssabd]

I have a grey horse, now very fleabitten and mostly white. The only places he burns are the snip on his nose and on his white sock along his pastern/right above his hoof. Very random place, I’ve not seen another horse burn there but somehow my guy manages it. I put desitin or sunscreen on it and it’s not an issue, sometimes he’ll get a little burnt but we manage it. Not sure where you are but I’m in SC and the sun is HOT. Despite his treeline and shed, he prefers to bake in the sun all day.

To reiterate what others have said, grey horses still have black skin. The only places they might burn is anywhere they have a white marking (sock, blaze, snip, etc.)

[Magicboy]

Milk white gelding here…never any sunburn and lives out 24/7

[cloudyandcallie]

Do not get a “grey” or “white” horse unless you have the barn where he’s out at night during the summer and in during the day in summer. Winter is the only time he’ll see the daylight pasture. BTDT
Cloudy, from Germany, 1/2 dapple grey pinto and 1/2 white. Sunburn on neck, shoulders and rump depending on whatever exposed to the SE sun in Florida and Georgia. No melanoma gene, so some advantage. Fly mask? LOL. The only thing not burning was the wide blaze, pink nose and pink underlip. Thin pink skin under the 50% white and thin light light grey skin under the grey area.

In during summer during the day and out at night. All the horse and human suntanning products were used but useless.
Only thing I could use was zinc oxide which attracted sand and had to be cleaned off every day and replaced the next day. Can’t use the sun shower sheets or any kind of fly sheet or sun sheet in SE GA or FL.

So while a beautiful horse that everyone wants, the “grey” or “White” stud look, LOL, is appealing, the sun burn is not.
Oh, and all the manure stains will NOT stop the sunburn.

GeT a nice bay horse like Callie was. She even stayed under the trees and shade in summer, unlike a certain “white stud” as people called Cloudy, who stayed out in the sun if left out in summer, to turn bright pink. At his first show in Savannah, he turned pink, in October, in the heat. Pink (and sunburn) is not a good color for a horse.

He never burned on his nose, which was always in the grass or on a mare, nor on his high white stockings. 50% of the rest of his body was in danger in the sun.

[B_and_B]

I have one grey (black skin) and one black and white pinto. The grey doesn’t sunburn at all. The pinto however…she seems to have very sensitive skin and I have spent all summer dealing with sunburn on one side of her neck. Now, that side has some scarring, which means less hair, and that is probably the reason. But, no more pink skinned horses for me! Though, does anyone know of a good UV sun sheet? I anticipate having her for a long time.

[JB]

The issue with sunburn is pink skin, not white/gray hair.

Gray is gray, it’s all “true gray”, and it can be present on ANY color horse, whether he was black/bay/brown/chestnut, or the dilute of those colors smoky black/buckskin/smoky brown/palomino, and therefore has black skin, or on champagnes or double dilutes of the normal colors smoky cream/perlino/cremello where the skin is pink.

Gray also exists on top of any dun dilution, but dun even in the double form doesn’t make the skin pink.

It can be on a pinto of any of the above colors, and all the white markings will have pink skin, all the colors of the first category will have black/dark skin.

Gray horses don’t automatically have black skin. Or pink skin. Skin color is entirely dependent on their base color before they grayed out.

Blue eyes are also generally not a problem Where they become more of an issue is if the skin right around them is pink (ie white markings) because then it’s a double whammy of thinner hair and pink/unpigmented skin. Tattooing an “eyeliner” for those horses has become more popular in helping prevent squamous cell tumors. Many, many blue-eyed horses, whether from Splash or Frame or Champagne never have a problem with sun. Rarely do horses with white around their dark eyes have problems.

[piedmontfields]

I opened this thinking it would be about cleaning, not sunburn. I too have a milk-white grey with no pink on her nose or anywhere else. No sunburn issues (and she has always lived in the southeast). That said, she is mostly on night turn out for summer, just for comfort and insect avoidance.