# Gray horse with black AND brown skin? Huh?



## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

Yesterday I hosed Lacey off after our ride because it was 60* out and she still has nearly her full winter coat so she was crazy sweaty.

After I did that, I happened to glance at her left shoulder and noticed that her skin on that shoulder, and in her girth area, is mottled pinkish brown unlike the solid black skin on the rest of her body (except for her socks).

In thinking about it, I realized that in that area she gets brown/chestnut "fleabites" while the fleabites on the rest of her body are black. Even her bloody shoulder marking is black...

Anyway, does anybody know what might cause this? I've just never noticed it before so I'm curious.

Sorry about the shadows in these pictures, either her head was the way way of the sun or a tree was. Silly girl!





















Before you ask, yes, I made sure it wasn't dirt. :lol:


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## DancingArabian (Jul 15, 2011)

Do you know what her base color was before she started greying out?


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## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

Her dad was black so I always assumed she was black (don't know her mom's color but she must have been gray, at the very least) to begin with due her her mostly black fleabites, etc.

And the story that came with her about her name is that she had little white hairs sporadically over her when she was born so they named her Lacey becuase she looked like she had been covered in lace and spray painted black, leaving little spots of white here and there. Since they said she appeared to be spray painted black, it sounds like she was, at least, a black baby...
I have no pictures of this, that's just what her previous owner (who had owned her her entire life) told me.


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## DancingArabian (Jul 15, 2011)

Ah. I had thought maybe she was a paint or something that might account for the color of the skin being different.

I know a light palomino that has mottled skin, similar to what your horse has. The fur itself is all a uniform, pale yellow. When you give her a bath, you see pink and black skin and she looks marbled.


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## hflmusicislife (Dec 15, 2010)

^^I've seen that too. I'm not sure exactly what caused the color differences in your mare, but I've seen something like that in other horses so I don't think it's too uncommon.


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