Horsecolors

Ive always done my best to assign the proper color to my models as well as adding - to my best knowledge - the correct genotype. Ive always within brackets added a grey horses base color under the grey. Below Ive tried to put together a little overview of color and patterns of the horse. Not all horsebreeds have all the colors! There are no palomino arabians and there are no overo swedish warmblood for example - at least not here! I can really recommend you checking out The Equine Tapestry if you haven't done so already. The Coat color calculator is something I use often, sometimes in combination with a RNG generator. Ive tried to collect this information as best Ive could but the world of equine moves fast and the information below, especially on patterns like KIT and Lp might be outdated or new things have come up - Ive done my best to have it accurate.

When it come to ROAN I have used the term "red roan" for chestnut + roan and "bay roan" for bay + roan (and blue roan for black + roan). I know others use the term "strawberry roan" for red + roan but Ive also seen multiple of pages use the term "red roan" the same way I do it. I feel its easier to remember that color it is then.

Color Genes

The following tables briefly summarise the meaning of each allele.

Gene	Allele	Meaning	Notes
Extension	E e	Black Chestnut	Uniform black bodycolor Uniform redbrown bodycolor
Agouti	A A⁺ A^t a	Bay Wild bay Seal brown No effect	Bay - Come in a reddish-brown to quite dark-brown body coat with black mane, tail, and legs ("points"); dark bays are hard to distinguish from seal browns. Wild Bay - The leg points only extend up to the pastern or fetlock Seal brown - See more below. ¹
Grey	nG GG gg	Grey Grey No effect	[Dominant]
Cream	nCr CrCr cr	1x Cream 2x Cream No effect	See more below. ²
Dun	nD DD dd	Dun Dun No effect	Always have primitive markings: dorsal stripe, horizontal striping on legs, shoulder blade stripe. See more below. ³
Champagne	nCh ChCh chch	Champagne Champagne No effect	Most distinctive traits of the champagne gene are the hazel eyes and pinkish, freckled skin. ChCh are pretty much the same as a nCh horse, freckles may slightly sparser and the coat slightly lighter. See more below. ⁴
Flaxen	ff Ff FF	Flaxen FlaxCarrier No effect	[Recessive] Only affects red-based coats. On a horse with a flaxen the mane and tail is noticeably lighter than the body coat color, as it often has a more golden blonde shade
Silver	nZ ZZ zz	Silver Silver No effect	Converts black to brown with white mane and tail or results in silver coloring. No affect on 'red' (chestnuts).
Pearl	PrlPrl Prlprl prlprl	No effect No effect Pearl	[Recessive] Single copy (PrlPrl or Prlprl) does not change the coat color. Two copys (prlprl) on chestnut = a pale, uniform apricot color of body hair, mane and tail. Skin coloration is also pale. Known to interact with cream, producing pseudo-double cream dilutes.
Pangare	nP PP pp	Pangare Pangare No effect	[Recessive]
Sooty	nSty StySty stysty	Sooty Sooty No effect	Black or darker hairs mixed into a horse's coat, usually along the topline and less prevalent on the underparts. Can create a "false dorsal" or "countershading dorsal", not to confuse with the primitive markings of a dun.

¹⁾ Seal brown - To be seal brown, a horse must have at least one copy of the functional MC1R gene (E/E or E/E^e) and must have one of the following genotypes at the Agouti locus: A/A or A/a.

²⁾ Cream dilution

No dilution	Single cream	Double cream
Chestnut	Palomino	Cremello
Black	Smoky Black	Smoky Cream
Bay	Buckskin	Perlino

³⁾ Dun dilution

No dilution	+ Dun	+ Cream (single)
Chestnut	Red or claybank dun	Dunalino/palomino dun
Black	Grullo/grulla or mouse dun	Smoky Cream dun
Bay	Bay dun, classic or zebra dun	Dunskin/buckskin dun
Seal Bay	Brown dun	Dunskin/buckskin dun

⁴⁾ Champagne dilution

No dilution	+ Champagne	+ Cream (single)	+ Dun	+ Silver
Chestnut	Gold	Gold cream/Ivory	Gold dun	Not affected
Black	Classic	Classic cream	Classic dun/grulla	Classic silver
Bay	Amber	Amber cream	Amber dun	Amber silver
Seal brown	Sable	Sable cream	Sable dun	'Sable silver'

Pattern Genes

The following tables briefly summarise the meaning of each pattern gene.

Gene

Allele

Meaning

Notes

Rabicano

nRb
RbRb
rb

Rabicano
Rabicano
no effect

Sometimes called 'white ticking', a type of 'limited roaning'.
Can show as white hairs at the top of a horse's tail, or white hairs at the flank.

Kit

WW
Ww
ww

Lethal!
Dom. white
Colored

Solid white.
Ww - Has pink skin, dark eyes and white hair. There are several types. You can read about some of them here.
Most likely of those to show up here is "W5".

Roan

nRn
RnRn
rnrn

Roan
Roan
No effect

Roans have an even mixture of white and colored hairs in the coat.
nRn and RnRn are identical in appearance.

No dilution	+ roan
Chestnut	Red/Strawberry roan
Black	Blue roan
Bay	Bay roan

Tobiano

nT
TT
tt

Tobiano
Tobiano
No effect

[Dominant] Shows as a vertical pattern. White legs are common and white crosses the back. Patches are usually rounded/oval shaped, rather than jagged.

Sabino (Overo)

nSb
SbSb
sbsb

Sabino
Sabino
No effect

Is visually recognized by roaning at the edges of white markings.
Can show as little white as a chin or lower lip spot. See more below. ⁵

(Frame) Overo

OO
nO
oo

Lethal!
Overo
No effect

Irregular white patches, jagged edges rather than rounded, with a horizontal orientation.
The white rarely crosses the back, lower legs tend to be dark, tail in one color.
The head is often bald-faced, and blue eyes are not uncommon.

Splash (Overo)

nSp
sp

Splash
No effect

Its horizontally distributed, the markings are crisp, smooth, blocky, and well-defined.
Many have modest markings while others like they are "dipped in white paint".
The minimal expression includes few or no white markings at all.
Blue/parti-colored eyes is one of the most reliable identifiers.

Leopard pattern

nLp
LpLp
lplp

Little white
Much white
No effect

See more below. ⁶

Patn1
Blanket pattern

patn1patn1
nPatn1
Patn1Patn1

Non spotted
Many spots
Few spots

Varnish roan. ⁶
Little white. See more below.
Much white

⁵ Sabino (Overo) Is visually recognized by roaning at the edges of white markings, belly spots, irregular face markings (extending past the eyes/ onto the chin), white above the knees/hocks, and "splash" marks, particularly the belly. Some can have a dark leg or two, commonly all legs are white.

⁶ Leopard-type & Blanket-type patterns
A horse's genotype may be lp/lp (homozygous recessive), Lp/lp (heterozygous), or Lp/Lp (homozygous dominant). A single, incomplete dominant gene (Lp) controls the presence of spots. A dominant gene requires only a single copy to produce an affected phenotype; an incomplete dominant gene produces a different result depending on whether one or two copies are present.

Horses without a dominant Lp (ie lplp) gene don't show any traits, and can't produce offspring with the Lp gene unless provided by the other parent. Horses with at least one Lp gene show the following characteristics; mottled skin (around muzzle, genitals, and anus, often pink), striped hooves and white sclera on the eyes. Usually this is called "Varnish roan". Varnish roans are can be born with spots and "roan out" as they age, others can change color seasonally, often becoming less spotted as they age, some might look almost like grey horses. Bony areas retain their pigment longer.

The different types of the leopard/blanket spotting include: blanket or snowcap, blanket with spots, leopard, few spot, snowflake, varnish roan, mottled, roan blanket and roan blanket with spots. As a rule, heterozygous leopards (Lp/lp) have larger, more abundant spots, while homozygotes (Lp/Lp) have smaller, scarcer spots.

LP	=	+PATN1	=
lplp	n/n	n/n	Non Appaloosa, will not pass on Lp or Patn1 to offspring.
nLp	Varnish roan	n/n	Heterozygous Lp, will pass the Lp 50%. (blanket appaloosa)
LpLp	Varnish roan	n/n	Homozygous Lp. Negative for Patn1. (snow cap appaloosa)
lplp	n/n	nPatn1	Non Appaloosa, will not pass on Lp, will pass on Patn1 50% of the time..
nLp	Varnish roan	nPatn1	Heterozygous Lp. Produces a leopard or a near–leopard pattern.
LpLp	Varnish roan	nPatn1	Homozygous Lp. Results in a few-spot or near few spot pattern.
lplp	n/n	Patn1Patn1	Non Appaloosa, will not pass on Lp, will always pass Patn1.
nLp	Varnish roan	Patn1Patn1	Heterozygous Lp. Produces a leopard or a near–leopard pattern.
LpLp	Varnish roan	Patn1Patn1	Homozygous Lp. Results in a few-spot or near few spot pattern.

Decor Stud

Where the Winner's circle is our decor

Horsecolors

Color Genes

Pattern Genes