Is my horse Roan or Grey?

[Aphrodite]

Hey everyone,

I have bought a 3.5year old stallion a few months ago, and on the passport he is registered as Grey but he has a weird color of grey. He has black, reddish bay and white hairs all over his body. His main is black with a few white hairs and a white and black tail with reddish brown hairs mixed. I have had mixed feedback from people ta my yard.

I want to know what are your thoughts on his coloring, as I am no expert in genetics etc. [IMG2=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“src”:“https://scontent.fmla2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-9/s2048x2048/42852334_1822579927869106_6913895558323109888_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&oh=55ea8d6346cc018efbd6c413787d5ec2&oe=5C54AD52”}[/IMG2]

[jvanrens]

Grey. His head is losing pigmentation. Roans don’t normally lighten on their heads.

Here is an example of a roan http://www.davisranch-d.com/html/sta…stallions.html

[Aphrodite]

Fro
[IMG]http://www.davisranch-d.com/img/stallions/magneticat1.jpg)

[IMG]https://equinetapestry.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/ksmithapp4.jpg)
[IMG]https://i.pinimg.com/736x/85/45/85/85458556e98e93e54f7b5d5791741d54--appaloosa-palomino.jpg)

I am very confused as his under color looks like a bay, another photo:

[IMG]https://scontent.fmla2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41873173_10214275660699107_7216420835471392768_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&oh=a3e25f3ab53883e8b6d099c5f8ecd099&oe=5C59ACA1)

[S1969]

Why would you question the passport? A grey horse can be born many colors including bay, and just lose their pigmentation as they get older. This looks like a normal grey horse at 3 years of age. None of them are born “grey” or white.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_(horse)

Probably many other “equine” sources of color genetics if you search.

[rememberthenight]

Absolutely a grey. That color you are seeingis a very common stage of greying. I have many greys and bred many more and they all went through that stage at some point in the first few years.

[Aphrodite]

@S1969

Why would you question the passport? A grey horse can be born many colors including bay, and just lose their pigmentation as they get older. This looks like a normal grey horse at 3 years of age. None of them are born “grey” or white.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_(horse)

Probably many other “equine” sources of color genetics if you search.

I’m questioning because his base coat is very much reddish brown than grey… I know that grey horses aren’t born grey but they should shed their weanling coats and some show quiet clearly that they’re grey. This one has very black legs, very reddish undercoat and a dark clear dorsal stripe. I’ve done a lot of research and am still unsure. I questioned the passport as sometimes the foal color is incorrect, happened with a friends horse.

[Aphrodite]

@rememberthenight

Absolutely a grey. That color you are seeingis a very common stage of greying. I have many greys and bred many more and they all went through that stage at some point in the first few years.

Thanks for this, how old were they when they started looking more grey-ish?

[WildLittleWren]

I think grey

[WildLittleWren]

There is a horse at my barn now that used to look roan in her younger years, she is 18 now and is a flea bitten grey through and through

[Simkie]

I have a mare that is just now, as an eight year old, looking like a dark dapple grey with a more “white” than dark head. Some of them grey out very slowly. At three and four, most people called her black–you had to look closely for the slight peppering of grey hairs in her coat.

This horse is grey.

[Bluey]

Each grey horse changes at a different time.

While it may seem hard to tell on some roans if they may be grey, there is no question if you have bred and raised enough greys what is what.

That first pictures is too dark to see much, the second, body picture, the head is turned away, so hard to tell, but the body does look like what here is called a mousy grey with red highlights.
They grey very much evenly, which may make them look roan at times.

We had several grey stallions and so grey foals, some born almost white, some black and anything inbetween.
They all greyed out eventually, after going thru all kinds of shades.

We had a grey gelding years ago that was absolutely dark bay until four, you could not see a grey hair anywhere and was pure white by ten.
My past ranch horse was registered as palomino and turned grey, the current one was registered as red roan and is definitively grey now.
Some people have a hard time telling both apart until the greys turn enough that it is definitively a grey to anyone.

[Nous]

My mare was a bay with blackpoints and a hints of grey when I bought her as a four-year old. She is now (at 10) a dapple grey with underlying bay flea-bites, but still with black points although the are starting to go grey as well. It doesn’t particularly matter what the base coat is, the greying gene will control the actual speed at which they grey out.

[fordtraktor]

Grey. I have heard this called rose grey often.

[Aphrodite]

[quote=“Bluey,post:11,top![](c:451431”]

Each grey horse changes at a different time.

While it may seem hard to tell on some roans if they may be grey, there is no question if you have bred and raised enough greys what is what.

That first pictures is too dark to see much, the second, body picture, the head is turned away, so hard to tell, but the body does look like what here is called a mousy grey with red highlights.
They grey very much evenly, which may make them look roan at times.

We had several grey stallions and so grey foals, some born almost white, some black and anything inbetween.
They all greyed out eventually, after going thru all kinds of shades.

We had a grey gelding years ago that was absolutely dark bay until four, you could not see a grey hair anywhere and was pure white by ten.
My past ranch horse was registered as palomino and turned grey, the current one was registered as red roan and is definitively grey now.
Some people have a hard time telling both apart until the greys turn enough that it is definitively a grey to anyone.

[/quote]

This is his head in good light

[IMG]https://scontent.fmla2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41873173_10214275660699107_7216420835471392768_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&oh=a3e25f3ab53883e8b6d099c5f8ecd099&oe=5C59ACA1)

[MsM]

He is a lovely rose grey.
I think people can get confused because they think of “grey” as a mixture of black and white. That is definitely not the case with greying horses! They can be born any horse color and then begin the greying process. They can grey at very different rates - some look greyish as yearlings and are nearly white by five, others only show hints of grey increasing slowly over the years and can be quite dark for a long time.
You should find that one of his parents was grey.

[trubandloki]

He certainly looks like a horse that is greying to me.
He looks like he was born bay and his coat is greying.

@Aphrodite two of the horses that you posted photos of appear to be appies. Appies do not follow the same rules.

[Toblersmom]

Looks like he was born bay, turning grey to me. Grey is a modifier and the underlying base color and markings could be, literally, anything (including roan, but that’s not likely here). Grey pintos are always a bit sad to me—so beautiful as they grey out, but it doesn’t last! One thing that you should be able to look at is his pedigree. I assume you have access to that as there’s not many people that would let a colt keep his testicles if his genetics were unknown. Presumably his parents and grandparents are quite a bit older and more clearly demonstrating their color. If one of his parents is grey and there are no roans in the tree, he’s grey. Good foal pictures would also be helpful, if you have them.

Typical roans keep color on their face (other than white markings). “Varnish” roans in the Appaloosa breed (I guess it would also happen in other horses/ponies that can have Appy characteristics, also, but am not totally sure) will have white hairs on their face but the white hairs on both the body and the face are distributed in a more distinct pattern than a horse that is going grey. Yours looks like a pretty even sprinkle everywhere.

[Aphrodite]

Hey he ![](s Grey his father and grand-father are both greys!

His Beautiful granddad Cassini I

[IMG]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a3/82/ba/a382baae1967a859abc0735f957c5ea5.jpg)

[LaurieB]

Grey. I had a filly who was that exact same color at 3 and 4.

[Aphrodite]

@Toblersmom His dad and grandad are grey, grandad is is Cassini I is a gorgeous grey:

I think he is deffo a grey!