# Brown or Dark Bay?



## HunterJumper3D (May 31, 2012)

Alright so is my boy a brown or a dark bay? 
thanks! 

winter-
















spring-








summer-


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## MicKey73 (Dec 26, 2010)

I vote brown because of that lighter muzzle, especially in the first picture.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

I would call him a brown without any doubt.


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## Tryst (Feb 8, 2012)

Bad *** Brown without a doubt!


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## Lexiie (Nov 14, 2011)

Brown


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## lilruffian (Jun 28, 2010)

i agree with brown


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## CLaPorte432 (Jan 3, 2012)

Brown.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## HunterJumper3D (May 31, 2012)

thanks everyone!


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## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

Keep in mind there's pretty much no such thing as "dark bay" anymore. I'm fairly certain every dark bay in existence is a brown. A true bay is rather blatant and at least that deep reddish mahogany shade with sharply contrasting black legs. If you plug "dark bay" into Google, every pic that pops up is a brown.


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## Chiilaa (Aug 12, 2010)

MacabreMikolaj said:


> Keep in mind there's pretty much no such thing as "dark bay" anymore. I'm fairly certain every dark bay in existence is a brown. A true bay is rather blatant and at least that deep reddish mahogany shade with sharply contrasting black legs. If you plug "dark bay" into Google, every pic that pops up is a brown.


This is exactly how I have started to think too. I am also beginning to wonder if sooty causes any change on a black based horse, or just red based. Every "sooty" bay or buckskin I have seen are brown or brown buckskin.


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## lilkitty90 (Nov 11, 2009)

chiilaa i have started to question whether there is a sooty gene at all, and just the base coat of brown at work.


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## Chiilaa (Aug 12, 2010)

Sooty is definitely there, you can see it on red based horses all the time. Look at all those "dirty" or "smutty" palominos. Since brown is an agouti mutation, it only affects black pigmented hair, which red bases don't have.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

I've often wondered if some of the variation in the pali colors is due to the particular shade of red they would have been had they not carried cream. For example, is some particular really dark pali perhaps just a creamed out liver chestnut instead of carrying sooty?


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## Chiilaa (Aug 12, 2010)

This could also be the case. So much to find out lol.


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## NdAppy (Apr 8, 2009)

You should have become a geneticist Chiilaa so we could badger you to find the test. :rofl:


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## Chiilaa (Aug 12, 2010)

NdAppy said:


> You should have become a geneticist Chiilaa so we could badger you to find the test. :rofl:


HA! I have three semesters of Uni left then I am NEVER going back to school... Well... I will be going back to school, but I will be the teacher not the learner lol.


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## dbarabians (May 21, 2011)

Chillaa are you studying genetics?
It would be right up your alley.
Good luck. Shalom


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## Chiilaa (Aug 12, 2010)

dbarabians said:


> Chillaa are you studying genetics?
> It would be right up your alley.
> Good luck. Shalom


Nope. Studying to be a primary school teacher. There isn't much call for equine geneticists here in Australia :-(


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## TexanFreedom (Apr 2, 2012)

You have to remember, most registries do not register 'brown' horses as browns, they register them as 'dark bay', especially in Throughbreds. 

I personally think 'dark bay' is an outdated term to refer to brown/seal brown. They're either bay or brown, not bay or dark bay.


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