# Buckskin or dun?



## BuckyGold (Nov 8, 2017)

I've seen so many horses that look buckskin called dun and vise versa. So, lets use my boy as an example, tan coat, black mane and tail, black ear tips, black legs and NO dorsal stripe. I've always believed him buckskin but am I wrong?
What's the difference and do you have pics for examples? Here's my boy Buck


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## rambo99 (Nov 29, 2016)

Duns have a dorsal stripe down their backs,just buckskins don't your guy looks buckskin. He sure isn't a bay and i don't have any examples to post. A lot of people don't know the difference between a buckskin and a dun, so call them the same or interchange the two colors as being the same.


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## LoriF (Apr 3, 2015)

No dorsal stripe or other primitive markings, I would call your boy a buckskin.


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## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

No stripes no dun gene and like @rambo99 said many people, even ones who should know better like my hubby, interchanges the two colors. 


This is Cutter, he is a bay dun. You can't see his dorsal stripe in this picture but you can see the striping on the back of his front legs.


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## Caledonian (Nov 27, 2016)

He'd be a dun to me, although correctly, i'd say he's a buckskin. 

I'm well aware of the genetic difference between a buckskin and dun, as are the majority of horsey people in the UK but culturally 'buckskin' is considered a US term and is not used. 

Most of our duns are natives and the limited number of buckskins may have been included with that group before science could differentiate between the colours. I can't see it changing.


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

Caledonian said:


> He'd be a dun to me, although correctly, i'd say he's a buckskin.
> 
> I'm well aware of the genetic difference between a buckskin and dun, as are the majority of horsey people in the UK but culturally 'buckskin' is considered a US term and is not used.
> 
> Most of our duns are natives and the limited number of buckskins may have been included with that group before science could differentiate between the colours. I can't see it changing.


Maybe you could start a British movement to call buckskins "stagskins" :angel2:
Or to be more technically accurate than either, "cream bays".


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## phantomhorse13 (Feb 18, 2011)

With the discovery of nd1, what is or isn't "dun" is actually more complicated from a visual aspect (though of course just testing the horse in question would remove all doubt!).

A dun horse has primitive markings but also has a partially diluted coat. A horse with one or two copies of nd1 can have really distinct primitive markings, but will not have any dilution.

Both of these bay horses have primitive markings:



















But the top horse has no dilution at all, so is most likely nd1 versus true dun.

Adding in the cream gene can make things a bit more complicated as buckskin has a wide range of color, but again a horse with true dun has body dilution along with the primitives.



















Testing is really the most simple way to know, but of course that doesn't deal with regional differences in terminology (seems like buckskin vs dun is the British version of the US's sorrel vs chestnut!).


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

Add sooty to the mix, wild bay and counter shading and it really gets confusing.


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## Willrider (Oct 25, 2018)

I would call him a buckskin, no dorsal stripe or zebra bars on his legs.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

A buckskin, no sign of a dorsal stripe.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

In the UK and Eire breeds, particularly the Connemara, where you see the buckskin color described as dun on their papers its because dun is a recognized color there, nothing to do with genetics. It would be like telling them that red or blue is no longer a color. You can have different shades of dun just like you have different shades of red and blue
It dates back to pre-saxon times so I doubt its going to change!
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dun


If you want to get into genetic correctness this is a good source
https://colorgenetics.info/equine/p...ed-dun-bay-dun-brown-dun-and-black-dun-grullo


The genetic dun color traces back to the primitive horses - the Przewalski horses are all dun in the genetic sense


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

I believe a buckskin is also supposed to have black tips - not brown.

Mine is registered with the buckskin association, but he's a dunskin I think is what they called him. He has primitive markings (tiger striping), the "saddle" and brown points on his ears. His mane is also brown, so is his stripe.

I don't have the best pictures to show but here is mine...


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