# black hooves on white legs?



## Piaffe (Jan 11, 2010)

*Probably a silly question,but I am curious now. When my farrier came out to trim my brindle gelding for the first time yesterday he noticed that 3 out of 4 of his white/grey legs have black hooves. He said that is really uncommon...I was just wondering if it really is uncommon and what it would be caused from? *


----------



## Piaffe (Jan 11, 2010)

here is a pic...it is a reallllllllly terrible one,but the only one i have on this computer....you can see his three black hooves though....


----------



## Arksly (Mar 13, 2010)

The legs with the black hooves probably aren't really white, just grey. It's like grey horses having black hooves, the hair may look white but the skin could be black.


----------



## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

I have no idea what 2 colors he is a mixture of but whatever they are from gray to chestnut to palomino, all natural horse colors have black hooves on non-socked legs. Of course, with the exception of appy's with striped hooves and such. My guess is that he has a sock on the right hind and the other three are sockless but just appear to be white because of his odd coloration. In all honesty, to me, it appears that the whiter portion of him might be a very pale pali. I might be mistaken but I don't think that gray horses get so faded so quickly. He is just a yearling, right? Or is he a 2 year old, I don't remember LOL.


----------



## Scoutrider (Jun 4, 2009)

A friend of mine has a flaxen chestnut gelding, and the hair on his legs fades steadily down their length, from red-chestnut above his knees to sort of a beige-y color at the coronets. Not a clear-cut sock at all, just very pale chestnut. His hooves are dark horn. Maybe part of your gelding's brindle coloration is similar? I *think* all that my friend's horse is color wise is flaxen chestnut, no panagere or anything. 

I do think that the white horn hind foot on your (very handsome) little guy does have a sock, though.


----------



## Piaffe (Jan 11, 2010)

smrobs said:


> I have no idea what 2 colors he is a mixture of but whatever they are from gray to chestnut to palomino, all natural horse colors have black hooves on non-socked legs. Of course, with the exception of appy's with striped hooves and such. My guess is that he has a sock on the right hind and the other three are sockless but just appear to be white because of his odd coloration. In all honesty, to me, it appears that the whiter portion of him might be a very pale pali. I might be mistaken but I don't think that gray horses get so faded so quickly. *He is just a yearling, right? Or is he a 2 year old, I don't remember LOL*.


He is over 3! He is just really gangly and odd looking still.

Up close his stripe markings look beige/palominoish and then his other coat is light grey/light pali. I guess i was considering his legs white with socks...but i guess not....hmm...well...it is interesting. So if i am understanding right the hoof that IS white has a true socked leg?


----------



## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

Exactly.

My great uncle owned and extremely striking Arab stallion who stood out because he greyed very young to virtually pure white but had black hooves - basically, he just didn't have any actual white markings under the grey.

White markings will always result in white horned hooves, solid legs in dark horn or a potential mixture of the two. My Arab mare had a very tiny coronet band of white, and had a white horn hoof with a stripe of black down the centre, much like an Appy.

It just means he has solid legs for three, and that one leg has an actual sock that's not super visible due to his coloration.

Link to a website showing a "white" Arab with what appears to be all four hooves dark:
Arabian horses MagicEye

Bad picture of Zena's white hoof with black stripe:


----------



## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Piaffe said:


> He is over 3! He is just really gangly and odd looking still.


 :shock: Sorry. I could have sworn he was younger than that LOL.


----------



## Piaffe (Jan 11, 2010)

Lol...no problem....he looks like a yearling! Poor little guy. 

Thanks for all the great answers! Genetics/markings,etc confuse me...but im trying to learn!


----------



## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

Generally it's true, white markings with pink skin will have light colored feet, and dark skinned areas will have dark feet. For instance, my gray mare has dark feet even though her legs are white, because the skin is dark there and they are not socks, just areas that have gone gray (she does have one sock). So I would say the same thing about your brindle. He has one sock and the rest are just areas that have either gone gray or are a result of his brindle color, but are not actual socks.

But, I used to own, briefly, this tobiano mare who had white legs and DARK feet. I thought it was the strangest thing. But she did have ermine marks there, so I guess that is where the dark hooves came from. But has anyone else seen tobianos with dark feet like this? They are wet in this picture, but nothing was done to color them. The hoof horn was actually dark. Kind of interesting...... or common and I just am not aware of it?


----------



## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Huh, that's interesting THR. I would guess that it was likely due to her ermine marks but I'm not real sure. I will have to go back through the pix of my one paint and see what color his feet were. His legs were also white.

Hm, I looked but I can't really tell if his feet are dark or just dirty. I don't have any pix close enough :?.


----------



## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

That's REALLY interesting about the pinto! Jynx is almost completely white with tobiano and splashed white, and her hooves are all white horn. I would bet it's the ermine spots doing it - what color is her skin right around the coronet band? It's still VERY unusual to see them solid black like that - usually you'll get striping when you have an "indecisive" leg like that. Very neat!


----------



## trailhorserider (Oct 13, 2009)

I only had that particular mare for about two months. She wasn't a very nice horse. :-( My guess is that the dark hooves are because of the ermines too, but they were completely dark with no stripes.

I also owned a tovero Paint (who passed away but was a wonderful horse!) and his hooves were striped and he did not have ermine spots. So I guess they can vary quite a bit.


----------



## Katesrider011 (Oct 29, 2010)

I think it looks cool!


----------



## DunAsYouWish (Apr 21, 2010)

Mine too has all 4 white stockings, but mostly black hooves. He does have quite a lot of speckling of dark spots around his hooves though. Only one hoof is striped. 
Interesting thread! I have always wondered this about my guy...


----------



## TheLastUnicorn (Jun 11, 2010)

It's hard to see that this mare has white markings on her legs - but she does, she's a genetically tested Tobiano... and dark feet. A lot of ermine marks on her too, which is where I always assumed her dark feet came from (they're actually sort of "pin striped" )


----------



## kitten_Val (Apr 25, 2007)

My paint is mostly white including legs (white, not grey :wink: ). All her hoofs are black (and her eyes despite her white head are black even though her siblings have blue eyes :shock: ). My qh has 2 white socks and hoofs there are white.


----------

