# What color?



## KateS (Jul 3, 2008)

I bought a 2 yr old (now 3) in October of last year and she was registered as a brown. After I bought her my trainer and I decided she was more of a buckskin than a brown. Now with some good food/exercise she has turned a totally different color. I have had people call her a dun but I'm not sure. Some people say that only duns have the dark black legs. I always have thought that in order to be a dun a horse has to have a darker dorsal stripe. I'm very curious to see what you all think. Just for fun I threw in a picture of her grey leg.


----------



## AQHA13 (Apr 19, 2017)

My first thought was that she was a buckskin, but it appears that she has a dorsal stripe. Only duns have dorsal stripes, unless it's just counter shading. They both have dark legs... Conclusion; I really have no idea. Sorry if I really confused you.


----------



## AQHA13 (Apr 19, 2017)

On second thought, because the stripe along her back sort of fades into her other hair, I think she might be a buckskin. I believe that duns have very crisp and clean edges to their dorsal stripes.


----------



## twogeldings (Aug 11, 2008)

She looks kinda like a sooty buckskin...? Especially with the darker face shading.

I lay my vote on buckskin


----------



## xXSweetBreezeXx (Aug 17, 2010)

The town where I live, most people would say that's a buckskin. They say that duns should not have darker heads. That's just one person's thoughts though. He sure is beautiful either way!


----------



## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

Buckskin was the first thing that came to my mind to but her head is throwing me off. It is kinda unusual that her head would be so much darker than the rest of her body. That is the coloration that you see with grullo horses but I really don't think she is a dun because her dorsal stripe isn't dark and defined. I think we can be certain that she does carry the agouti gene (causes the dark points on bays and buckskins). Her head is what is just screwing me up though LOL.


----------



## 888vegas888 (Jun 23, 2010)

twogeldings said:


> She looks kinda like a sooty buckskin...? Especially with the darker face shading.
> 
> I lay my vote on buckskin


couldn't agree more. soot soot sooty buckskin...


----------



## KateS (Jul 3, 2008)

Buckskin is what I thought too. Actually changed her registered color to that when I bought her. Just had some people come up to me and call her a dun so I wanted some other opinions. Thanks a bunch.


----------



## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

She's a sooty buckskin. 

Her dorsel stripe is typical of countershading and not an actual dorsel stripe, and her head is typical of sooty acting as opposed to an actual dun with a very prominent and defined dorsal stripe. A dark head is typical to roan, not to dun, so that's definitely sooty acting. I also see no zebra stripes on her legs.

And actually, it's opposite, it's typically buckskins that will have very dark legs as duns typically have zebra striping with lighter black on the lower legs.

If you know her parents colors, it would be easier to tell. If neither of them was dun, you know she's buckskin. My money is on buckskin anyway, definitely.


----------



## arasumi (Jun 7, 2010)

no leg stripes and dorsal looks like countershadding, so I voted sooty buckskin. And she is lovely!!


----------



## New_image (Oct 27, 2007)

I'd call her a dun. 

Look at duns, most HAVE darker faces (black duns/grullas and red duns) face shading, points etc. Buckskins do not have dorsal stripes.. She reminds me of a grulla but "a shade off" on the color. Perhaps a chocolate dun color. HOWEVER if the 'dorsal' is counter shading thats smutty/sooty buckskin I guess. Pretty girl.


----------



## KateS (Jul 3, 2008)

Ok thanks. I find it interesting that you say that if neither of the parents are dun then the foal can't be (not argueing just curious). I used to own a different mare that was registered as a dun when we bought her and her sire was a bay and I'm pretty sure her mother was not a dun. I'll attach a pic of her. Her dorsal stripe was very dark and prominant. I'll also attach one of her son who was also registered as a dun. Has a dark brown stripe not black. Don't have very good pics on this computer so please forgive me


----------



## Plains Drifter (Aug 4, 2009)

She's a sooty buckskin. I have one very similiar to her.  Your girl is lovely! Congrats on her.


----------



## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

New_image said:


> I'd call her a dun.
> 
> Look at duns, most HAVE darker faces (black duns/grullas and red duns) face shading, points etc. Buckskins do not have dorsal stripes.. She reminds me of a grulla but "a shade off" on the color. Perhaps a chocolate dun color. HOWEVER if the 'dorsal' is counter shading thats smutty/sooty buckskin I guess. Pretty girl.


Incorrect. Dun can cause cobwebbing on the face, but there's nothing about dun that consistantly causes darker heads. Even if this mare WAS dun, I'd still say she has sooty.

Examples:
































































The black duns above are the closest to having "darker" heads but it's only because of the way certain shades distribute - some will have darker heads and legs, some won't. Any photo I found online of bay or chestnut duns with darker heads, blatantly had sooty. The darker heads on a grulla act completely different then on the mare posted, which is much more typical of sooty.

OP - of those photos, the first one is hard to tell and the second one looks BLATANTLY buckskin. You don't find that rich rich golden color in duns due to the primitive nature of the color.

However don't forget that dun and buckskin can both be present on the same horse. Because buckskin covers the black points, it can actually hide the dun gene. For example, these horses are "dunskins":



























 
Even though they totally look buckskin, they have been proven to sire/genetically tested to also have dun.


----------



## Plains Drifter (Aug 4, 2009)

I have had 2 duns and one buckskin. Here are mine. On each dun, the heads were a bit darker.

Here is my dun Lillie (sold her this spring.) Her head was darker than her body.









You can really see how her face is darker in this picture: (same horse as above)









Here is my sooty buckskin filly









Here is the cobwebbing that can happen on buckskins. (same horse as above)









And here is my new dun colt: His dad is a grulla and his mama is a buckskin (?)

See..his face is darker too.



















Here is his buckskin mother:


----------



## Plains Drifter (Aug 4, 2009)

Here's a fun website.

HOME: Grullo ( grulla ) quarter horses and blue roans at Cedar Ridge; reining, cutting, and ropinghttp://www.grullablue.com/colors/dun_factor_markings.htm


----------



## thatwhitepony (May 9, 2010)

i dont know much about coloring but i will vote for buckskin


----------



## Quixotic (May 22, 2009)

KateS said:


> Ok thanks. I find it interesting that you say that if neither of the parents are dun then the foal can't be (not argueing just curious).


Dun is an actual gene, not just the name of a colour, so if neither parent is carrying the Dun gene, then it would be impossible for the resulting foal to be Dun. Buckskin is caused by a bay horse carrying a single copy of the Cream gene. So it's a different genetic makeup than a Dun horse, but a lot of people don't realise that, so they will mistakenly use Dun interchangeably with Buckskin.

As for the OP's horse, I'm voting sooty buckskin.


----------



## CloudsMystique (Mar 3, 2009)

Another vote for sooty buckskin : )


----------



## mom2pride (May 5, 2009)

Definitely have to go with Sooty Buckskin...


----------



## Uma (Aug 26, 2010)

Another vote for sooty buckskin. It sure has been interesting reading all the color discussions though!


----------



## lilkitty90 (Nov 11, 2009)

definitely sooty buckskin! the dorsal isn't defined enough to be an actual dorsal so that removes the dun gene plus there is no leg striping.


----------



## Cat (Jul 26, 2008)

What are the colors of the parents? That will give the best clue on this horse.


----------

