Horse coat colors and markings

Horses exhibit a diverse array of coat colors and distinctive markings, and a specialized vocabulary has evolved to describe them. In fact, one will often refer to a horse in the field by his or her coat color rather than by breed or by gender.

Coat colors include:

Leopard or Appaloosa -
A group of coat patterns caused by the leopard gene. There are several distinct leopard patterns: blanket (a blanket of white hairs over the rump with or without spots), varnish roan (a mix of body and white hairs that extends over the entire body--no relation to true roan), snowflake (the least common pattern--small white spots covering the body), leopard (large coloured spots on a white background over most or all of the body), few spot leopard (a nearly white horse from birth that retains colour just above the hooves, the knees, 'armpits', mane and tail, wind pipe, and face) and frost (a sprinkling of white hairs with no spots that extends to or past the withers). Several breeds of horse can boast leopard (a term used collectively for all patterns) individuals including the Knabstrup, Noriker, and most famously the Appaloosa.

Bay-
From light brown to very dark brown with black mane and tail with black points. Three types - Dark bay, blood bay, light bay and just bay.

Black-
There are two types of black, fading black and jet black. Ordinary black horses will fade to a rusty brownish color if the horse is exposed to sunlight on a regular basis, this though wouldbe considered brown as soon as any black coat gets any brown. Jet black is a blue-black shade that is fadeproof. Black foals are usually born a mousy grey color. As their foal coat begins to shed out, their black color will show through,but jet black foals are born jet black. Usually for a horse to be considered black it must be completely black with no brown at all, only white markings.

Brown -
A bay without any black points.

Buckskin-
A bay horse with a gene that 'dilutes' the coat colour to a yellow, cream, or gold while keeping the black points (mane, tail, ears, legs).

Chestnut-
A reddish body color with no black.

Cremello -
A chestnut horse with two dilute genes that washes out almost all colour. Often called pseudo albinos, they have blue eyes. There are no true albino horses.

Dapple gray-
a gray colored horse with rings, or dapples, scattered throughout.

Dun -
Yellowish brown with a dorsal stripe along the back and occasionally zebra stripings on the legs.

Fleabitten gray -
refers to usually red hairs flecked in the coat of a gray horse.

Gray -
A horse with black skin and clear hairs. Gray horses can be born any color, and eventually most will turn gray or white with age. If you would define the horse as white it is still grey unless it is albino. Some gray horses that are very light must wear sunscreen.

Grulla-
A black horse with a dun gene. It is often a grayish/silver colored horse with dark dun factors.
Pinto -
a multi-colored horse with large patches of brown, white, and/or black and white. Piebald is black and white, while Skewbald is white and brown. Specific patterns such as tobiano, overo, and tovero refer to the orientation of white on the body.
Paint -
In 1962, the American Paint Horse Association began to recognize pinto horses with known Quarter Horse and/or Thoroughbred bloodlines as a separate breed. Today, Paint horses are the world's fifth most popular breed.
Palomino-
chestnut horse that has one cream dilute gene that turns the horse to a golden, yellow, or tan shade with a flaxen (white) mane and tail. Often cited as being a color "within three shades of a newly minted coin", palominos actually come in all shades from extremely light, to deep chocolate.

Perlino -
Exactly like a cremello but a bay horse with two dilute genes.

Roan -
a color pattern that causes white hairs to be sprinkled over the horse's body color. Red roans are chesnut and white hairs, blue roans are black/bay with white hairs. Roan can happen on any body color; for example, there are palomino roans and dun roans. Roans are distinguishable from greys because roans typically do not change colour in their lifetimes, unlike gray that gradually gets lighter as a horse ages. Roans also have solid colored heads that do not lighten.

Rose gray-
a gray horse with a pinkish tinge to its coat. This color occurs while the horse is "graying out."

Sorrel -
a light brown coat with a flaxen mane and tail.

Splash -
a genetically controlled horse coat variation.

Tobiano -
a genetic trait among horses which produces a characteristic white pattern in the coat.

White -
Any non-albino white horse is called a gray, even though they appear white. All white, may be the result of overlapping pinto, appaloosa, or sabino markings. Rarely there are true white horses born and are documented to have a dominant white gene (see Gray (horse) for a discussion of these). These horses have normal eye colour, and they stay white for life.

Facial Markings include:

Star (a white patch between the eyes)
Snip (a white patch on the muzzle)
Stripe (narrow white stripe down the middle of the face)
Blaze (broad white stripe down the middle of the face)
White Face (sometimes called Bald Face)

Markings On the Legs:

Ermine marks (black marks on the white just above the hoof)
Sock (white marking that does not extend as high as the knee or hock)
Stocking (white marking that extends as high as the knee or hock)

Elsewhere:
Whorls, coloquially known as "cow licks" - are divergent or convergent patches of hair found anywhere on the body but mostly on the head, neck and just in front of the stifles.