# Rose Grey Horses



## Ryder

Hey everyone, I am going to be hopefully purchasing a mare at a local horse farm, and I was told she was grey, she looks to me, after doing some digging; that she is a "Rose Grey" QH, I cant really find any information as to how this occurs, She does have a dun factor, with dorsal stripe (it is predominant, but don't have a photo of THAT just yet) I am just curious who else owns a Rose Grey, or knows about them! Lets see those beauties!!!


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## Poseidon

Rose gray is just a term. It's just a stage in graying out where they are half gray and half whatever color they were before (usually "rose grays" are bay before, which gives them sort of a pinky color). 

She will eventually gray out entirely. The dorsal stripe might just be caused by the graying process, also. Do you know what color she was born?


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## Ryder

Thanks for the info! she I believe was born a chestnut, but not entirely sure, that's just from what I was told by a few breeders that know the horse, I have to ask the owner for photos! lol


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## Poseidon

If she was born chestnut, then the dorsal stripe is being caused by graying rather than dun. Gray makes things go wonky sometimes.


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## Ryder

Yeah, makes sense!!! lol I will double check today when I go out to bale, and post more updates! lol Thanks again


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## MangoRoX87

I always think of grey genes as two layers
A chesnut has two brown layers.
A rose grey has a grey layer and a brown layer.
A grey has two grey layers.

A normal grey will always produce a grey. A rose grey has a 50/50 chance, like they are half and half chesnut/grey
I have a rose grey filly, she was born a cute dark chestnut
Then I have a mare who WAS a rose grey, and is now just a normal fleabitten grey. That's where she got her name Rosie


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## Poseidon

Mango, that's not right. A gray horse won't always produce a gray foal. It depends on zygosity. Grays can be heterozygous or homozygous. Homozygous will always produce a gray foal. Heterozygous will have a 50% chance of producing a gray foal.

"Rose" gray is just a stage in the graying process. Same as dapple gray. 

Gray horses can be born any color also.


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## smrobs

Like Po said, rose gray is just a descriptor for the stage of graying and the original color of the horse. I rode a filly once, many years ago, that was literally purple. I have no idea what her birth color was, but she came to us as a 3 or 4 year old and looked just as purple as you can imagine. Of course, I was all of about 12 or 13 at the time so my only thought was "oooh, pretty purple horsey", but I know now that it was just a strange combination of her original color and the stage of graying she was in at the time.

This was her about a year after her "purple" phase...


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## trailhorserider

I love the dapples on your horse! 

My foal is a rose gray (base color bay). He's only 14 months though, so he's basically bay with white sprinkles. :lol: 

Anyhow, I can't wait to see him in a another 2 or 3 years. He's going to be so pretty.  I hope he dapples! I've owned two other grays but they were already in their teens when I got them so I missed the color change. I'm excited to see my foal change (can you tell, lol).


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## atomic

My 3 yo.


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