# Bay, but shedding out weirdly!



## Lorraine West (Feb 13, 2019)

Hi, all! I've done a lot of googling and looking at foal pictures, and I can't find one that matches mine, so I'm creating this post. Many apologies if I've overlooked something that's already out there!

I have a filly who was born in May of last year (now 9 months old), and her baby pictures show what looks like a regular old bay foal. She looks like a dark bay now, and she's shedding out her wooly winter coat, but she's got some weird stuff going on with it. Some pics for reference:

1 day old (with her dam): https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/40120952923/in/album-72157689674126823/
9 days old (with her dam): https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/46362253964/in/album-72157689674126823/

3 months old: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/46172225515/in/album-72157689674126823/
Another one at 3 months old: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/47085671801/in/album-72157689674126823/

Now: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/32144063087/in/album-72157689674126823/
And: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/47085767341/in/album-72157689674126823/

Here are some close-ups of the weird coat shedding that make me wonder if she's maybe going to be a light bay or something else:

On her hind leg (this silver/white patch is very prominent and can be noticed from a good distance away): https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/47085671901/in/album-72157689674126823/

Just in front of that same hind leg (also very obvious): https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/46172225855/in/album-72157689674126823/

The little whorl on her forehead (note the hair closest to the skin, just like with the hair in front of her leg, is lighter in color): 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/46172224695/in/album-72157689674126823/

Her dam (reg. name Bustin Open by Mr. Eye Opener) is in the baby pictures, and her sire is Guys Dash A Latte, who is a buckskin and looks like this:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/33210758448/in/album-72157689674126823/

Her full brothers are all either buckskin, sooty buckskin, or this color here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/46172226465/in/album-72157689674126823/

I'd love for her to stay her dark bay color (or get even darker), but...has anyone ever seen this kind of shedding with an almost-yearling? The whitish patch is what struck me as rather odd...her legs also have little white fringes on the ends, but that might be completely normal for a bay. I know graying out isn't an option since neither parent is gray. I do also know that foals can go through all kinds of weird, crazy sheds - just haven't quite seen this before! Any possibility she might be lightening up a bit?

Thoughts?


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## Lorraine West (Feb 13, 2019)

I’m not sure how to edit my post on this mobile, but the pure white/silver patch hasn’t to be a hidden brand that has disappeared into this wooly winter coat of hers! Pregnancy brain has hit me full-force. Oops. Also, here’s another picture of her side, if that helps tie everything together. She’s also got light tan hair on the insides of her ears and underneath pretty much all of her hair when you lift it up.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

What you are looking at it the lighter and lower hair of her winter coat, not her summer coat. 

Foals always get a fluffier winter jacket first year. I would imagine she will have a summer coat much the same colour as she is now.


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

Seems like Bays kinda just... do this... at various stages. We have a bay that's 3 this month. She was actually born with beige socks and her hair on her nose was a creamy color. You had to realllly look to find the black, otherwise you'd have thought she was a sorrel. 



Here's a collage snagged from my daughter's FB, a pic at 1 year, and a pic from two weekends ago, all for comparison. Oops still has cream hairs in the same places your horse does. If I'm understanding correctly, it takes a Bay until their 5th year for the markings and coloring to 'settle'. So don't despair! That may be just a phase her coat is in.


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## Lorraine West (Feb 13, 2019)

Thank you both very much! Also, that is a lovely foal. 🙂

I feel better now! I’ll love her no matter what color she is, but I just really love a dark bay. She will be the only one of her full siblings to end up this color. I’m very new to the horse world and had no idea it could sometimes take years for a horse to settle into its color until I started doing some research! Some of the sheds I’ve seen are just downright amazing.


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

Hahah, Thank you.

I'm new to horses in my ADULT life... but as a kid, the neighbor to my parents bred cutting horses (early 80s through the 90s). His brood mare pasture was the one that shared a fence with my parents' 5 acres.

Soooo many springs spent watching the babies be born and eventually change color. I saw a lot born black that turned out grey, or born a pale cream and I just KNEW they'd be a pale palomino... and they were sorrels (Yeah, IDK. those may be wrong examples, but the point is, the color changes could be dramatic and surprising). I got to where I could tell you what color one would be when the baby hair was gone - but I was in 5th and 6th grade then. Now I'm 46 and I've forgotten most of it. Thank goodness for the internet.

Fun Fact!

When Oops was born, you'll note in the upper left hand corner of the collage she had a letter M on her nose. She was TINY (Still is)... I mean... we had a senior Golden Retriever named Max at the time. Max was bigger than her on the day she was born.

We convinced our daughter that Oops' daddy was a mini-donk and that she was obviously a mini-mule and that all mule babies were born with a letter M on their nose and that's how you knew - just like a Maine **** cat has a letter M for Maine on their forehead.

SHE WAS OUTRAGED and vowed to sell the baby to the lowest bidder as soon as she was old enough to go. She didn't want no stinkin' mini mule.

We let her believe it for about a week before telling her Oops' daddy was actually a paint horse... and a he was a friend's bucking horse.


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

She could have a dose of pangare which will add more cream to a bay or sooty which will darken the top and make the red appear lighter. As mom is brown she may shed to brown. Browns as foals have a smutty appearing topline which makes you think sooty on bay but the red is muted on a brown.


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

Hello!  I know your foal doesn't have grey parents, but thought people might like to see what greying out looks like in a heterozygous grey (one grey gene).


At birth:










At age two:




















At age six:



















At age 10:










At age 27:










You can click on these photos to enlarge to see things up close.

Intermediate to the photos of her at six and ten was a stage where her coat had greyed out like in the ridden photo, but her mane and tail were still jet black.

My mare was a heterozygous grey - one grey gene, one bay gene - and greyed out slowly. Homozygous greys (two grey genes) generally grey out totally or near-totally by maturity.


This horse is officially brown - photos at birth, and at maturity:


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

@AtokaGhosthorse OOPs looks to be wild bay. Unless that is a winter coat on her.


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

QtrBel said:


> @*AtokaGhosthorse* OOPs looks to be wild bay. Unless that is a winter coat on her.



Well, I've thought that too! But. The cream/light color is slowly giving way to black. I'd love to see her with the long black stockings like Sarge has - the black is up to her knees now, just not very thick - but if she settles in at Wild Bay, I'm good with that too. She's been a most unexpected blessing for us, so I'm happy with whatever she turns out to be.


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## Filou (Jan 16, 2014)

Looks like a normal course of action for a bay foal to me.


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## 4horses (Nov 26, 2012)

Looking at her forehead, i think she will be dark bay.


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