# Pink skin, white muzzle, sorrel foal?



## Solon (May 11, 2008)

Since he was just born I think he looks fine. His coat will grow in and change some as he gets older.


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## boxer (Feb 20, 2009)

he is really cute. his colouring as solon said may change as he gets older. It is possible that the grey muzzle (and I think it looks greyish around his eyes) may mean he will become grey as he grows up.


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## TrueColours (Apr 25, 2009)

He looks adorable! 

Please post a picture where we can see more of him when you have a chance - I'd love to see what he REALLY looks like ...


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## reining girl (Jan 30, 2009)

he is cute. He might turn grey, you never know.


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

I believe that in order to have a gray foal, you must have at least 1 gray parent. Foals are just colored funny sometimes and I think that is pretty typical for a sorrel colt. BTW, what do you consider a chesnut and what do you consider a sorrel? I have always thought they were the same thing except a chesnut was just a touch darker but it was the same gene.

Anyway, here is a really old pic of a QH foal that was sorrel. She had been born the same as yours but lost the light colored baby fuzz from around her muzzle as she grew a bit.


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## MacabreMikolaj (May 9, 2009)

You're correct smrobs. Chestnut and sorrel are just terms - genetically, the horse is still "red". Regardless of whether you call him flaxen chestnut, bright chestnut, or dark sorrel, he's still genetically red. Typically, the difference comes from Western to English people - the majority of Western people use the term sorrel, English people use the term chestnut. When used interchangebly, it's to describe a shade like you'd say dark bay or bright bay. Also, he can't grey out if neither parent was grey. Greys require a minimum of one parent to have the gene.

He looks pretty normal to me! What breed is he? Foal coats are hard to determine, but he almost looks to have pangare. Again, being a foal, it could just be a wacky foal thing, they're notorious for changing colors. If he stays white like that on his legs and muzzle though, I'd say it's from pangare.

Example:


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## Cremello (Jul 8, 2009)

That's actually pretty normal for a chestnut foal. It usually means that when it will shed out to its adult coat it will be a flaxen chestnut. Another hint that he will be a flaxen chestnut is his tail. His tail has a lot of whitish hairs on the under side of it.

_Flaxen is a modifying gene that affects chestnut horses' red manes and tails, turning them lighter than the body color. Some flaxen horses have silver-gray manes and tails instead of the more typical pale yellow or off-white shades of flaxen; this effect is thought to be caused by the sooty modifier acting on the flaxen hairs, effectively "dirtying" their color. Light flaxen chestnut horses can be mistaken for palomino, and dark flaxen chestnut horses can be mistaken for sooty palomino or silver dapple. Flaxen can "hide" on black based horses, as they do not have red manes and tails to show the effects of flaxen on. Not much is known about the inheritance of flaxen, but it is thought to be recessive.
_


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## dashygirl (Nov 21, 2006)

smrobs said:


>


I just had to comment, what and ADORABLE picture!


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