# pics of horses born black, turn grey, and end up being white? please share!



## dirtymartini

I know the Lippizan Stallions are born black or dark bay and eventually turn white. I was trying to explain this to a friend and wanted to find photos to show her the progression, but I was surprised I could not find any online. Do you have any pictures, or can you provide a link that illustrates this? I would love to see the same horse as it progresses thru the years. Thanks!


----------



## ErikaLynn

Here's a picture of a mom and baby Lipizzan..You can see the baby is dark and the mom is white...

Not really a progression though.

Lipizzan Mare Nursing Filly - Rights Managed - Corbis


----------



## Ray MacDonald

I always thought it was camragues? I don't even know if thats how you spell it?? lol


----------



## dirtymartini

Thank you Erika! That is definitely a start. Such an amazing transformation.

Ray-I think it happens in many breeds. I have a 2 year old filly boarded here...a Paso Fino. She is a gorgeous smokey gray color. I was told by the time she is 4 or 5, she will be completely white. I would love to see pictures of a dark foal, that is then a smokey grey, that then turns white.


----------



## Shasta1981

There is a two year old Lippizan at the barn I am at and he is grey. I don't have any pics of him but if you really want me to get some you will have to wait until Sunday when I get back out there! I'm not sure when he will be white.....


----------



## sitbacnroc

I can show pictures of Ash and Jozie. Jozie is Ash's 1 1/2 yr old baby that is black but already getting specs of grey and should go through stages and end up grey/white like Ash.

Here's Jozie (Ash was like this as a yearling as well)


and here is Ash, Jozie should go through stages or grey's and such and end up like Ash. Ash is kind of fleabitten ish with some light dappels on her rump.


----------



## Gizmo

Show here the movie "Miracle of the White Stallions" it is actually a great old movie about the horses and how they almost where killed in WW2. It shows them as babies and how they turn white and how they pic out the special ones. Its a great movie. It might be on youtube.


----------



## wakiya

Interestingly, a horse can be born any color with any pattern then 'grey out.' Lippizans are known for the end result looking white (which is a different color generically) they were originally more colorful and color was bred out of them. You can tell a horse will go grey by certain traits it is born with like the 'goggles' light color surrounding the eyes. Every horse greasy a little differently some never completely grey out.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## dirtymartini

wakiya-That is interesting about the "goggles". Would she have them now, or do you only see that as a foal? She is 2 now.

Gizmo-that does sound like a good movie, I will look for it. Sounds pretty darn sad, tho...should I have my kleenex ready?

sitbacnroc-Ohhh, your horses are so gorgeous! I just love drafts. You rarely see them down here (SoFla.) Is Ash done turning white? How old is she, and at what age was she considered "done?" (sound funny, like we are cooking a chicken, lol)

shasta-I would love to see a picture, even just to compare his shade of grey to the paso filly here.

thanks guys!


----------



## candandy49

What wakiya described about a horse that is going to eventually turn grey will have light colored hair around their eyes. These horses as foals will display the light colored hair around the eyes. Plus sometimes they will have light colored hair at the coronet band as foals. I had bred my solid red QH mare to a grey QH stallion and her two full sister fillies greyed-out before they were yearlings.


----------



## Gizmo

No it is good. It is about this one guy that ran the riding academy in Austria and he found out that the Nazi's were going to destroy it along with all their horses so the had to enlist the help of the American army and they put on a show for General McArthy and his men and they all voted to risk their lives to rescue all the horses and move them to the country where they would be safe. It is disney so its super good.


----------



## wakiya

Here's some examples:
















older horse:









This horse is going grey:








here's a fun one a dun going grey:








Sometimes a horse doesn't fully grey out and they are left with a "blood mark"








http://ultimatehorsesite.com/colors/bloodmarks.html
info about grey:
http://www.horsecolor.info/THHNGrey.pdf

Here's a really cool progression of a palomino going gray


----------



## dirtymartini

candy-I did not know that, thanks for describing the halo. And I guess that they can grey out at different speeds. That's crazy!

gizmo-ahhh, ok. Good...I can't stand seeing awful things happen to animals in movies! People....well, that's ok. But animals? never!

wakiya-thank you for the illustrations! I see what you mean now about the white ring around the eye. Wow, I did not know it could happen to any color horse, thought it was just the black/grey/white progression only. Is that dun the same horse pictured beneath it, grown up?

This is all very interesting, thank you so much for the info, everyone!


----------



## sitbacnroc

dirtymartini said:


> wakiya-That is interesting about the "goggles". Would she have them now, or do you only see that as a foal? She is 2 now.
> 
> Gizmo-that does sound like a good movie, I will look for it. Sounds pretty darn sad, tho...should I have my kleenex ready?
> 
> sitbacnroc-Ohhh, your horses are so gorgeous! I just love drafts. You rarely see them down here (SoFla.) Is Ash done turning white? How old is she, and at what age was she considered "done?" (sound funny, like we are cooking a chicken, lol)
> 
> shasta-I would love to see a picture, even just to compare his shade of grey to the paso filly here.
> 
> thanks guys!


 Thank you!
Hm, I've just bought her but the breeder said the start black, then turn a steel grey with dapples at about 5, then a prominent fleabitten or grey around 10 -12 and stay. I think Ash will stay, she is fleabitten so maybe she'll be all grey eventually?


----------



## candandy49

Here are pix of my mare's second born filly by a grey QH stallion. The top picture was taken the morning after she was foaled the night before. The bottom picture is at about 3 months. By the time she was a yearling she had greyed out. I registered her as Docs Sharp Valentine.


----------



## wakiya

Two different duns I think, but they do look really similar


----------



## trailhorserider

When my foal was born out of my gray mare, I was really interested in finding out if he would turn gray, and what the first stages would look like. There is only one website I could find that showed progression photos. Here it is: 

Winsdown Hi Octane's Gallery Of Stars

I have heard the goggle theory too. But I don't think that's ALWAYS the case. At least, if it is, then my baby is a weirdo. :lol:

He didn't have goggles when he was born, and he doesn't have goggles now (at 6 months) but I am 99% sure he is turning gray. He was born a red bay with no sign of white, other than a little light colored hair in his tail, which I wasn't sure if it was actually white hair, or just the blond/buff color babies sometimes have in their tails.

But when he shed into his winter coat, all of a sudden he has a sprinkling of white hair throughout his coat, and white hair on his face. Still not around the eyes though. But because he does have a good section of white on his face, and sprinkling throughout, I'm pretty sure he's going gray. 

Anytime a foal has at least one gray parent, you have at least a 50% chance the foal will turn gray. If one of the parents is homozygous for gray, then you have a 100% chance of gray. I assume my mare isn't homozygous, but at any rate, the foal would have a 50% chance of going gray. Here is my mom and baby. The only place you can see the white hair in photos is on the bridge of his nose.


----------



## dirtymartini

oooh, trailhorserider, that is exactly the kind of link I was originally looking for! Thank you SO MUCH! Very interesting and informative. I was told this horse will eventually be "pure white." I saw the one example on that link of a horse that was pure white at age 14. The original horse, I think...winsdown hi octane. How gorgeous! It will be interesting to see the progression of your little colt! Thanks again for the link and info!

sitbacnroc-make sure you take pictures along the way!

candandy-what a cutie! So, do you think she will turn grey? I don't see too much of a change in the second picture.

Here is a pic of the filly. I *LOVE* this color...wish she would stay this way!


----------



## candandy49

dirtymartini, the filly was foaled in 2003 and lives near San 
Antonio,Texas near to LaVernia, TX. When I registered her with the AQHA she was a Red Roan and that's what I put on her registeration form. By the time I sold her she was a rose grey. Before I let my AQHA membership expire I looked her up at the AQHA website and her color had been changed to grey by her then current owner. My mare's third and last foal was a full sister to the one in the picture and that one was born with the same color coat as the first one, but number 3 did turn grey by the time she was a yearling.

Thank you for your comment on her being "a cutie". She was that and oh so very gentle and a sweetheart. When I sold the filly pictured I consigned her to a Registered Horse Sale and she brought the highest dollar for yearlings in that sale.


----------



## trailhorserider

dirtymartini said:


> I saw the one example on that link of a horse that was pure white at age 14.


They really must gray at different speeds, because I had an Arabian gelding that was fleabit when I bought him at age 14. By age 24 when he died, he still had some fleabits and wasn't pure white. His mane and tail did get whiter over the years though.

The gray mare I have now, is currently 17 and she still has some dappling on her hips and such. I would have loved to have seen her when she was younger and (I assume) had more dapples. 

I hope my baby goes through a dappled stage. I would love to get him at just the right color and "freeze it" so he wouldn't change. :lol:

Anyway, here is Isabelle, last summer, at age 16, and she still has a few dapples. And a lot of fleabits. 

The filly you posted a picture of is gorgeous!


----------



## MagicDestiny

Here's a link to a really good coat color website! There are lots of pictures to look at! If you click on the MODIFIERS album and then the gray album there are lots of pictures of many different types of grays! Gallery | Learn to Identify Horse Colors and Learn Color Genetics, Discussion Forum, Photo Gallery


----------



## dirtymartini

I am on my phone now, but wanted to say a quick thank you for the link!!! I am going to look at it later today at home!! Thanks! I googled and googled but couldn't finad anything like that!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## dirtymartini

Just looked at that link...VERY COOL! There is a lot of great info on that site, I am bookmarking it for later. Thanks again!


----------



## masatisan

My grey was born chestnut and he is what is called "rose grey" though its only really possible to see the "rose" in the winter. He has a pinkish/chesnut tone in his bum and legs, its really neat, i wish it would stay all year.
This picture is a few years old, but you can see the pinkish tinge:








And then in the summer it gets much less noticeable:
























He used to have a beautiful blaze, but now its hardly noticeable anymore. I wish I had picutres of when he was young, that white stripe in his mane and his blaze with the chestnut toned dark grey, he was so pretty!


----------



## MagicDestiny

Yeah no problem! It's a cool site with lots of pictures to look at! Haha!


----------



## DressageIsToDance

wakiya said:


> Interestingly, a horse can be born any color with any pattern then 'grey out.' Lippizans are known for the end result looking white (which is a different color generically) they were originally more colorful and color was bred out of them. You can tell a horse will go grey by certain traits it is born with like the 'goggles' light color surrounding the eyes. Every horse greasy a little differently some never completely grey out.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


I just wanted to say I know someone who owns a gray paint. He is also fleabitten gray, so if you pay attention, you can see his pattern still.


----------



## CarolinaGirl

Here is my Arabian EMIR'S FIRE

He was brown at birth but he is roaning out and will turn grey...

9 months old (2 days after I got him)









17 months old here...getting lighter









2.5 years old here...you can see the grey really starting to come out..


----------



## Ray MacDonald

He's gorgeous! ^


----------



## CarolinaGirl

Thank you. He is a Rohara Samurai and SHF Showkayce grandson. His sire is ShowStopper.


----------



## Christine1003

I just wanted to point out that there is gray, and there is fleabitten gray. Usually the fleabites don't show up until the horse is almost "white" and the fleabites will not go away as your horse gets older, they may be sparse of they may get more plentiful as the horse ages.


----------



## Amblin Cowgirl

I have two that have been born coal black and now are in varying stages of grey! First we have Piper, 9 year old TB mare. Her sire was grey, mother was black! I can't find my foal pictures of her right now! These pictures are from 2007 and 2010! But can still see the greying progression! The second set of pictures are of our Percheron gelding, Sonny who just recently passed away. He was only 4, and his greying was progressing slow, well, slower then Pipers!


----------

