# Flaxen mane but "regular" chestnut tail?



## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

Was watching a TB race replay and found myself intrigued by the look of this horse. A nice looking chestnut colt with a very vibrant flaxen mane:


















But, his tail is just "regular" chestnut, totally different than that "blond" mane. How does that happen?



















Sire is also a chestnut, dam is brown: https://www.pedigreequery.com/current7


I don't usually pay much attention to color, but this seemed unusual to me. Maybe our color experts can explain (and maybe it's not unusual at all! )


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## SwissMiss (Aug 1, 2014)

Interested as well! My mare's tail is getting more red the older she gets!


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

I have a chestnut horse, his mane is almost flaxen but not quite, his tail is chestnut and very black at the bottom. I agree, strange, but Mother Nature is quite the artist with her colors.


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## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

Gracie had a much lighter mane than tail, not flaxen though.


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## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

The flaxen gene for mane and the flaxen gene for tail are separate.


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

The horse in my avatar as a Belgian has flaxen. You can see from the tail shot that the top is colored same as the body but the core and underneath is flaxen. Mane is fully flaxen except for the guard hairs. This is mane and tail you can see from the back shot. They were also taken in different seasons. After a long summer the stripe of red is not quite as wide and you can see the underside of the tail in the first shot.


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

The guard hairs are really long and you can see that from the back shot as well. The darker is normally against his neck as in the top pic. Light and shadow also have a big effect on how the mane looks and whether it is lighter or darker.


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

greentree said:


> The flaxen gene for mane and the flaxen gene for tail are separate.



Huh. That makes perfect sense! I will count this as my new fact learned for the day :wink:


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## Captain Evil (Apr 18, 2012)

I think most Belgiums are chestnut - many with the flaxen gene, and all if not nearly all Haflingers are flaxen chestnut. I just read that the Haflinger gene is a little different than other flaxen chestnut genes, but I just briefly glanced at it. And, I can't finish this note now, because I have to leave again!


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