# Arabians turning gray



## xxEmilyxx (Sep 5, 2010)

I really love arabians, and I found a couple I might want to go look at to buy. I think they are both 8. I was just curious, do all arabians eventually turn gray? I read it in a breed book I have...but they also said quarter horses were the fastest in the world so it might be wrong. Its just the one I really like is a lovely deep bay and I would hate for him to lose his color.


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## apachiedragon (Apr 19, 2008)

Nope, it isn't true. Unless they carry the gray gene they won't gray out any more than any other breed. There isn't any breed in which ALL of them turn gray. The Lipizzaner would be as close to that as it gets, and even they don't ALL turn gray, just most of them. I'd say if the Arab is fully mature, and shows no sign of graying, it's not going to.


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## PintoTess (Aug 18, 2010)

a bay WONT loose its colour to go grey, but a grey will go white when it gets older.


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## xxEmilyxx (Sep 5, 2010)

Well good!  I first took lessons on an older arab (maybe 22?) and the owner said he was born chesnut. So I guess some of them do gray?


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## PintoTess (Aug 18, 2010)

i may have been roan? and then just grayed out as it got older. i have heard of it happening to a roan before but only a strawberry roan, not blue roan. i ahve also heard of it happening to an overo, but the overo had really faded patches and you could only just see them


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## Chiilaa (Aug 12, 2010)

Arabians don't have roan PT 

As PPs have said, if the horse is 8 and shows no signs of grey, it should stay. You describe it's colour as a 'deep' bay, which makes me think that it is not a grey 

Have to remind you though, remember that a good horse is never a bad colour


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## apachiedragon (Apr 19, 2008)

xxEmilyxx said:


> Well good!  I first took lessons on an older arab (maybe 22?) and the owner said he was born chesnut. So I guess some of them do gray?


Well sure, any breed CAN go gray, but that doesn't mean they all will. And most grays do start out another color. I have a grey QH/Paint that was born chestnut and white, and another that was black when born but both grayed out before age 3. I'm sure the Arab you rode grayed out while still a youngster.

But I agree with Chiilaa about color not being the determining factor of a good horse. 
(I do have to say though, google image search "roan Arabian" and you'll see pictures of a bunch of really nice looking ones...)


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## Poseidon (Oct 1, 2010)

I know an Arabian that is probably in his 20s and he's still bay.

And the book may have said QHs are the fastest horses in the world because QHs can cover a quarter mile the fastest, but not over distance like Thoroughbreds or Arabians. QHs have power, just not quite the endurance.


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## Eastowest (Mar 26, 2009)

_>>> a bay WONT loose its colour to go grey, but a grey will go white when it gets older._


A horse can be born bay and look bay for the first little while of its life, but if it also inherited a grey gene from a parent, it WILL eventually turn from bay gradually to white. 

That horse still has all the genetic coding to be a bay-- its just that it *also* has the gene for grey..... and the grey gene trumps expression of the bay phenotype by causing the bay/black hairs to be gradually replaced by white hairs as the horse ages.

Baby grey horses are almost always born a normal looking solid color-- any color-- whatever their genes say they should be, which can be anything they inherited from their parents. Grey doesn't care what the original color is-- it still works the same way to gradually turn the horse white. Often the baby grey will have little clues to their future grey-ness, such as white hairs around the eyes and muzzle, at birth. They start getting more white hairs at each change of coat.

Here is a baby bay/brown that indeed did turn grey, due to the action of the grey gene it had in addition to its other genetics for color.... 

-------------------7 months old-------------------------------yearling year--------------
















---------------------4 years old-------------------------------7 years old------ 
















---------9 years old----------------------------------10 years old--------------


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

This boy was born chestnut, not one white hair on him, pretty much until this year. He was born in 2007 and by 2012 he'll probably be all grey. His sire is grey and his dam is a lovely blood bay. If your bay horse is still dark bay and not looking 'flea bit' then he's probably not got the grey modifier. Do you know his parents color? Or have his registered name?


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## baileydawn (Oct 8, 2010)

My horse was born Bay and was shown halter but then he greyed and the owners just used him as a stud. So If they parents are grey its mostlikely the horse will grey out.


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## Eastowest (Mar 26, 2009)

_>>>>>My horse was born Bay and was shown halter but then he greyed and the owners just used him as a stud. _

Hi Baileydawn,

I am not sure from your post exactly what you meant above, but turning grey would not be a problem for a horse being shown at showing halter.... Your horse looks like an Arabian? There are many famous grey Arabian halter winners. Grey is not considered a "bad" color for an Arabian, or most other breeds.


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## baileydawn (Oct 8, 2010)

It was the previous owners they told me they didnt want a grey arabian... his sire and dam both were so i dont understand why they wouldnt think he'd eventually turn grey. They wanted him to stay bay but he greyed out and they just used him as a stud. =/ I didnt think grey would be a problem but his last owner did I guess.


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## Eastowest (Mar 26, 2009)

_>>> It was the previous owners they told me they didnt want a grey arabian... his sire and dam both were so i dont understand why they wouldnt think he'd eventually turn grey. They wanted him to stay bay but he greyed out and they just used him as a stud. =/ I didnt think grey would be a problem but his last owner did I guess. 
_
If they didn't want grey Arabians, its even sillier that they stopped showing him to use him as a breeding horse-- as a grey himself, he would sire at least 50/50 grey offspring if he was heterozygous for grey-- since both of his parents were grey, it is possible he was homozygous grey, and if so, he would sire 100% grey offspring.


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## baileydawn (Oct 8, 2010)

Yeah i didn't understand it either they said he did good in show halter so I dont know... oh well he's with me now lol  and hes my life.


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## laceyf53 (Oct 21, 2007)

As far as I'm aware of, gray arabians are born as either a chestnut, bay, or black. Both of my last arabs were gray and one started as a black and the other started as a bay and eventually turned gray. Both horses began turning between 1 to 2 years of age, and they usually will show that they will turn by 6 to 8 months of age when they shed their baby coats. If this horse is still bay at 8 years old, he's going to stay bay.


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