Hello,
I am looking into a foal who’s dam is a Champagne Dun gone grey. The foal is 50% friesian so the stallion is black. I know she has a 50% chance of going grey because of a parent being grey.
How can I tell if she will go grey?
I think it is hard since she is a champagne so she is light colored.
Here are some photos of the foal.
Let me know what you think if she will grey or stay champagne?https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7MNaNTRY1T4RDVGY292cmJ6TUk?usp=sharing
To know definitively, you can get a test done for $25 here or here provided you can get some hair to send in.
Foal has at least a 50% chance of going grey… not sure how much you know about the dam, but if both the dam’s parents were grey then it’s possible she could be homozygous for grey and then all her foals will 100% certainly turn grey. If she’s had other foals that didn’t grey, then your chance is back at 50%.
Is the mare grey? I can’t tell from these pics as her ears and legs look more peachy/rusty colored.
Unfortunately, the photos are not close enough or clear enough to tell anything. Regardless, the only way to know for sure is to get a DNA color test done for grey, as furlong47 mentioned above. Unfortunately, with the double dilutes and champagne, grey can sometimes seem to hide under the coat color, which makes it extremely hard to tell.
Up until this year, I would have always said check for grey around the eyes and an adult coat color at birth, rather than the washed out foal coat color. Those are often guaranteed signs that a foal with grey. I had a palomino foal born last year, born a washed out palomino, absolutely not a single grey hair anywhere. By looking at these photos, there is just no way he was gong to be grey. This summer, grey hairs coming in like crazy. Got him DNA color tested and he’s now turning grey. 
95% sure the foal is going gray. The first pic looks like very saturated color, indicating gray is already darkening things, which is what it does to foals, before it starts the lightening process.
Looking at the photo of the foal at it’s youngest the colour doesn’t look very saturate - as in there is no depth to the colour on the legs.
Do you know how dark the foal’s legs were at birth.
To me, even the youngest picture shows a darkening at the bony points - fetlocks, hock, top of the nose.
But, the only way to know for sure is test.
Thank you everyone. I am looking into buying her. Unfortunately the only photos I get from the owner are pasture far away photos. The dam is a tested champagne dun gone grey. I’ll upload more pics that she sent.
