# Roan?? Sabino?? Help!



## hutchinsr (Sep 18, 2016)

My gelding is registered APHA and PtHA, his papers say bay roan, and blue roan, respectively. At shows everyone comments on his color and asks and I never know what to say because he doesn't look like a typical blue roan or bay roan. He bleaches out in the summer if let out without a UV sheet, but someone mentioned to me he reminded them of a sabino.....? I am ultra curious about this, I find genetics and coat coloring incredibly interesting, so if someone had any knowledge on this I would love to hear it! If it means anything he has a lot of TB in his bloodlines. I will attach some pictures of him with his natural color and the color he is bleached out. Any help would be appreciated, so thank you in advance!!!


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## Kaifyre (Jun 16, 2016)

Kinda looks sabino to me. I don't have much knowledge of color genetics so take my words well salted lol ... But if I had to pick one I'd say sabino. The markings on the left side of his face and barrel look sabino-y to me. Anyhoo he's drop dead gorgeous!

-- Kai


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## AnimalLover21 (Jul 26, 2016)

Whatever he is, he is absolutely gorgeous 😍😍❤ I love his cost pattern and color.


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## Dehda01 (Jul 25, 2013)

He is a bay( or is he liver chestnut? - can't tell from the pictures his coloring) sabino. Jagged HIGH white and ticking. Any paint heritage to add overo to the mix?


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## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

Sabino is adding the white ticking and I think Splash too that's causing the white to be concentrated underneath. I'm not sure on his actual color. He is a handsome dude even with his markings not included.


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

He really looks like a sabino. Does not look at all like a roan -- his head would be solid not ticked. And sabino can account for the high white and the lower-body white splashes. What his base color is, though . . . almost every photo shows a different color. In the first two he looks black. The others, bay or brown or liver chestnut. Are his mane and tail black or brown? Are the fine hairs around his mouth and eyes black or brown?


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## Celeste (Jul 3, 2011)

He's the "horse of a different color"! Wow, what a pretty boy. If you get tired of looking at him, you can just wait a couple of months and he changes.


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## hutchinsr (Sep 18, 2016)

His father was a black overo, and his mother was a sorrel splash white overo, thanks for the reply!


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## hutchinsr (Sep 18, 2016)

Haha yes that is why I am asking!! In the winter his coat is almost black (you can barely notice the white flecking) if I keep him off lights, in the spring it sheds out to a darker grey color where you can really see in the first couple pictures. Summer he will bleach out to where he looks like his base coat would be brown or bay...so I would bet that his real base color is black.....? Idk, I am not good at this stuff! Thank you for replying!


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## paintedpastures (Jun 21, 2011)

Definitely a sabino{not roan} splash overo. Base color i'd say he is a fading black or brown ,but I'd test to be sure.I use to have a black overo, in winter looked black but end of summer much more brown hue to his coat from sun bleaching his coat. If I kept him blanketed or indoors he would blacken back up. My first impression was a dark Bay but the first pics were he is shedding out his black winter, I really see no hints of brown/bay ??.


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## hutchinsr (Sep 18, 2016)

paintedpastures said:


> Definitely a sabino{not roan} splash overo. Base color i'd say he is a fading black or brown ,but I'd test to be sure.I use to have a black overo, in winter looked black but end of summer much more brown hue to his coat from sun bleaching his coat. If I kept him blanketed or indoors he would blacken back up. My first impression was a dark Bay but the first pics were he is shedding out his black winter, I really see no hints of brown/bay ??.


Yeah the brown/bay is definitely after he bleaches out if I let him...my first instinct is black and a base coat color (for obvious reasons) I just wasn't sure if he was a sabino or roan like his papers say. His color is quite unique, and it will change with the seasons, I have had him for 13 years and it has always been that way!


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## hutchinsr (Sep 18, 2016)

Avna said:


> He really looks like a sabino. Does not look at all like a roan -- his head would be solid not ticked. And sabino can account for the high white and the lower-body white splashes. What his base color is, though . . . almost every photo shows a different color. In the first two he looks black. The others, bay or brown or liver chestnut. Are his mane and tail black or brown? Are the fine hairs around his mouth and eyes black or brown?


Forgot to mention - his mane is a black and silver mixture of hairs and his outer tail is the black and silver mixture with solid silver hairs on the inner core of his tail. When we ordered his tail extension we had to get a custom mix because of the prevalence of silver hairs throughout the tail, it is really weird...we didn't want to dye it totally black because it would look even more artificial LOL so we caved and spent the $$$


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Looks like a Sabino to me as well...I'm no expert on that, but...he is so gorgeous! Well, HANDSOME!


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## paintedpastures (Jun 21, 2011)

My Black overo was Frame/sabino/splash. he had the white in his tail too Splash likes to do that:wink:.As for the increased "roaning" look when they shed out in spring I find the sabino really shows more.For him to be a TRUE roan he needs at least one roan parent.APHA has been known to register the sabino type horses as red roan, bay roan etc but they are not!! but they don't have a classification /registration term for actually calling them Sabino:frown_color: hence call them roan...



Here is the increased sabino in the coat at spring shedding. This mare looks just your regular bay after all shed out.only retains a couple small of areas that show that sabino hair"roan" look.


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## Prairie (May 13, 2016)

Sorry, I don't have any good pictures to show our mini's colors. However she is chestnut with sabino roaning (and possibly splash), looking almost like a palomino from a distance after she sheds in the spring. In late fall and winter, she's definitely a chestnut and there is only a sprinkling of the white hairs so nobody would call her roan.


Thus from what our mini does during the year, I'd suspect yours is black or fading black with sabino roaning and most likely splash.


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