# Such thing as a sooty bay?



## Fluffy Pony (May 2, 2010)

I think they call a sooty bay... mahogany bays.


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## Poseidon (Oct 1, 2010)

He's a sooty buckskin too. He's too light and golden to be a bay. I know a sooty buckskin QH that is as dark as he is too.

Bays that are dark like that are just referred to as dark bays or black bays.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

I agree with P. He looks like a sooty buckskin as well. There is too much yellow in his face for him to be a bay.

However, yes, sooty bays do exist, and they are commonly called Mahogany bays, or dark bay in the western world. Here is a decent example of one.


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## Fluffy Pony (May 2, 2010)




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## Chiilaa (Aug 12, 2010)

Yup sooty can affect bay, as already noted. Also agreeing with P, I would say your guy is a cream dilute. I would lean towards a smokey brown though instead of buckskin, but it is only just becoming usual to differentiate between the two so P could have already deduced that too


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## NdAppy (Apr 8, 2009)

Pretty much ditto what Chiilla said. i was going to say smokey brown over buckskin as well.


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## crimson88 (Aug 29, 2009)

Oh interesting! And all this time I thought he was a bay, haha


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## crimson88 (Aug 29, 2009)

Here is a pic of his full sister, who is a sooty buckskin, you can see she's a little differently colored.


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## Chiilaa (Aug 12, 2010)

I would call her a smokey brown too to be honest.


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## Gidget (Jan 19, 2010)

i was going to say he looks like a sooty buckskin.


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## FeatheredFeet (Jan 27, 2010)

What colours were his sire and dam? That might give a clue too. There is no breed which can offer soooo many colours which try to fool us, as Minis.

Lizzie


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## lildonkey8 (Dec 12, 2010)

I'm just subscribing...I love getting to know about sooty...all types! Gee, I hardly know the difference between regular and sooty...can anyone explain it to me?


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## Chiilaa (Aug 12, 2010)

Sooty (sometimes called smutty) is a modifier that causes black hairs to be mixed into the coat. Generally, the effect is as if someone had dumped a bucket of soot over the horse's head and back. It seems to act as a form of countershading. The dark pigment can also be distributed evenly throughout the coat or concentrated on the mane, tail, legs or other parts of the body. It may express itself as smudges, patches, striping, spots, or dappling. It can mimic primitive markings. It is believed to create dark bays, possibly dark chestnuts, as well as dark palominos and buckskins. There is debate over whether it causes liver or black chestnuts, and seal bays or browns. Sooty tends to vary seasonally and is susceptible to bleaching and the general condition of the coat caused by grooming, stabling and nutrition. It is not known at this time what causes sooty.

From http://equine-color.info/content/modifiers#sooty

They have some great pics of horses with sooty too, so you can begin to get a feel for how it looks.

Unfortunately, there is no test for it yet, so there is still a lot of guesswork going on


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