# Gray question!



## Jubilee

8 is still young as far as grays go. More than likely he will get even lighter than that. I know a gray that is in his mid-teens who has kept a lot of his dappling, but his is also kept inside all day during the day and only let outside at night, so his coat never gets bleached. It really depends on the individual horse.

That is kind of the curse of the gray. They are SOOOO beautiful when they are grayed and dappled like that. It is my most favorite color. But almost all of them turn white or near white eventually (which just so happens to be my least favorite color. Is it possible for grays to be both my most favorite and least favorite? I guess so). They are out there, but you never can really know for sure. Another horse I used to know was the same color as the horse in your picture when he was 8, but now at the age of 13 his is completely white (save for a few flea bits that you can barely even see).

It does not always work, but if you keep a sheet on them or keep them out of the sun they usually will stay darker longer. But eventually they will turn white.

Jubilee


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## southerncowgirl93

Lipizzaners turn 'white', by the time they turn 10 usually. But, yes, horses can stay dapple grey like that. Or just a straight grey color. White horses are the ones with pink skin, so Lipizzaners are really grey forever. lol Hope that helps.


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## Wallaby

My mare was completely black with little white dapples when she was born but now at 24 she's the complete opposite.

Luckily for me, she's very fleabitten so in the summer she's absolutely beautiful with all her little dark gray spots. In the winter she tuns completely white which is pretty darn cute too. Haha

Here's a picture of her in the summer and the winter so you can kinda see the difference. =)

Summer:










Here's a close up of her shoulder:










Winter:










And here's her shoulder:










I'm a fan of grays. Haha


And welcome to the forum!


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## deineria

In my experience, they all turns nearly white in their teens - some keep fleabites though. My stallion is white at 3!

I wish the dapples would stay though. Love LOVE love Dark grey dapples!


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## soulnova

Aww, what a shame. I really hoped them to stay like that. they are just so beautiful!! 
I was really concerned because I was writing a fantasy story and the main character's horse is dapple gray. He can be a "new race" then. xD


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## Jubilee

The horse in your story can still have dapples, just make him around 8 or 10 in the story and he can still have them. Any older then that the dapples will be much lighter. It's your story, do whatever you want with it. If you want to make a new breed that stays dappled forever than go for it.


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## CheyAut

There's also silver black, which can look grey (often with white "starburst" dapples) who never loose their color. Found often in minis and ponies. Silver is also common in gaited horses, but in them it most often (if not always?) looks different: the "chocolate" Rocky Mountain horses are silver black. 

This is caused by the silver gene, not the grey gene.


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## rider4life

My first horse was a flea-bitten gray QH mare; at 15 she was mostly white. I loved her sooo much and she was so beautiful. And I _adore _grays.

The one sad thing about grays, and I haven't seen it mentioned in this thread, is that they have a predisposition to "gray cancer." It doesn't matter what breed, either. I know first hand about this horrible disease because at around 20 I found small lumps under her tail, and when she came my vet found more in her mouth. She told me that it could stay just like it was forever, or metastasize at any time. At 25, after retirement, she started dropping weight in late summer (and oh! what a pig was she!!), she ate constantly but within 3 or 4 weeks was racked out. I called the vet to put her down, but she died in the night before the vet came. My dad (she was at his farm) dug a hole and had her buried before I had to see her like that. But, not all grays get it, which is the wonderful part!!


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## ElDorado

I got my grey when he was 5 and he was already almost compleatly white except for some slight dapples on his butt. A couple years later he started getting flea bitten on his face and every time he would shed it would spread further back. Now he's so flea bitten he's starting to look like a strawberry roan. I need to change his name from Smokey to Pinky.


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## equiniphile

While gray is visually a distinct coat color, it is genetically a pattern that is imposed over other colors. Horses are not just 'gray'; they can be bay grays, cremello grays, silver grullo roan grays, etc. 

Gray is a pattern that is dominant over all other colors. For that reason, when you see a gray horse, it is impossible to tell what genes it has. A gray horse's foal color should be noted for this reason.

The gray gene (G) is dominant and thus will not skip generations. Two non-grays can never have a gray foal. Gray in horses is a bit like gray in humans-- the hair will lighten with age. In horses, the graying usually starts when the foal coat is shed, although the graying can start later when the horse is a few years old. Some horses will gray very quickly, and some will gray gradually. Eventually, the horse's coat will turn white.

While the horse is turning gray, it may develop odd patches of lighter hair that look like large spots. These are called "Watermarks". The graying process will even the horse's coat up and make these dissapear as the horse ages. 

Since the graying process creates many shades as the horse gets lighter and lighter, there are many terms for the different 'shades' of gray. However, unlike shades in other colors, the shade will not remain for long and will lighten with age. "Rose Gray" is a term used to describe bays and chestnuts as they are turning gray and are a slight pink color; "Steel" or "Iron" is often used for black horses that are a deep gray color; and "dappled gray" is used on horses that have dark dapples of their base color that are visible. A "White gray" is a horse that has completely lightened 

When a horse grays, the pigment is gradually removed from the skin and hair and is deposited in the gut and intestines. For this reason, grays are more likely to get melanoma (lumps of pigment granules), especially under the tail near the rectum (intestines)and on the face where pigment is deposited.


_
_*Horse with extreme fleabitten pattern. The patch on the shoulder is not a bloodmark, it is just water. King Sonitas, AQHA stallion Owned by Teresa Coufal *Website _. _
Some grays will have flecks of their base color in their coat; these are called flea-bitten grays. The flecks reflect the horse's base color; a bay or chestnut will have red flecks, a black will have black flecks, etc. Flea-bitten grays also get more colored (fleabitten) as they age, getting more speckles. Fleabitten grays are recessive, as non-fleabitten grays have had a fleabitten foal. Fleabittens are rarer than regular grays. Sometimes the flea-bites will touch each other, creating a large splotch, and sometimes a striking colored patch. These are called* bloodmarks.*

Gray horses can be born any color, as the gray pattern will show up on a horse having any base color or genes. A gray foal could be born cremello, black and white tobiano, an appaloosa leopard, etc., but the gray will eventually 'take over' and turn the horse gray. For that reason, people who breed for Appaloosa or Pinto coloration should avoid grays.
Because gray is a dominant color, breeds can consist entirely of grays. An example is Lipizzan or Lipizzaner horses, a breed that is almost exclusively gray. A rare bay or black, the offspring of two heterozygous grays, is occaisionally born and is considered good luck.


~Article curtousy of http://www.ultimatehorsesite.com/colors/gray.html


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## Eastowest

Very good info in the article posted except for this statement--

_"When a horse grays, the pigment is gradually removed from the skin and hair and is deposited in the gut and intestines. For this reason, grays are more likely to get melanoma (lumps of pigment granules), especially under the tail near the rectum (intestines)and on the face where pigment is deposited."_


That is inaccurate. Grey horses typically do not lose pigment from their skin. 
The greying action-- hairs gradually growing in white-- is because as a grey horse ages, pigment (melanin) no longer travels from the skin up the hair shaft in more and more hairs. The cells in the skin are still producing pigment-- but the genetic action of grey causes the pigment to no longer enter the hair shaft. This disruption of melanin dispersal is thought to be why grey horses are more prone to their particular type of melanoma-- the pigment collects in the skin and is basically being overproduced because it has no where to go, and can form tumors.


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## dressagebelle

I have a grey arabian mare, who's mom is a flea bitten at 13 years of age, and who's dad is a bay. She at 4 years old had an almost flea bitten looking head, is definately lighter than the body, but the legs and mane are completely black still, as is most of her tail. Her mom retained a pretty dark mane and tail herself. My horse's coat is also very very dark still, though I know that in a few years she will be lighter. It is very true that the lightening process differs in horses. I know a horse that a year ago looked very similar to my mare, but now is almost completely "white". It is a bummer in one sense that they lighten out as they age, but at the same time, it makes for a more interesting horse, to look back at pictures over the years, and see the horse when it was very dark, and watch as it has lightened up. I've read in a color genetics book that you can generally tell relatively accurately how quickly a grey is going to lighten up. The head mane, tail, and legs are generally the first to get light, and as soon as those lighten up, the body starts lightening up quicker. But we shall see with my horse, as it also said that generally by the time a grey is 3, it should have a considerably lighter head, and by the time its 4 or 5 should be getting lighter in the body, and my horse at almost 5 has a light head, but still dark mane, mostly dark tail, black legs, and a very dark body. She does have black skin though, as that had to be recorded when her papers were being drawn up, though I'm not exactly certain what difference that makes whether the horse has pink skin or black skin. If anyone knows, I'm definately curious about it.


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## XxHunterJumperxX

They turn fleabitten, almost always.

I knew a colt, born practically black, now he is WHITE! Not a dapple on him, and he is 15.

I have also seen four other cases, of horses that seemed like they would be dark gray, turn fleabitten.


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## Taihoa

This is why I love greys - they change colour so much its like a new horse every year.
My mare was born dun, went dark donkey grey, then a lovely dappled grey and ended up TOTALLY white. Was awesome!
My grey pinto is doing the same thing - its neat seeing what colour he will go each season.


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## tscowgirl

*Silver Dapple*

This little mares winter coat changes all the time but when clipped the only change is from sun, no fading from age since she was born, back to the dark dapples as soon as u clip her again


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## eventerwannabe

*Meet Bear...*

17.2 TB. I am pretty sure he was never dappled, and im pretty sure he has always been a light flea bitten gray... he is a TB, if anyone is wondering... Just to show him off... ;]


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## Eastowest

He may have never dappled, burt almost all grey horses are born a normal dark base color and turn white as they age. Like this mare, who resembles your Bear-- she was born dark bay/brown. Picture below is winter coat age 14.










I don't have an actual photo of her at racing age, but from her owner's descriptions she was probably at a greying stage similar to the horse pictured below when racing.


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## ponyboy

tscowgirl said:


> This little mares winter coat changes all the time but when clipped the only change is from sun, no fading from age since she was born, back to the dark dapples as soon as u clip her again


She is silver dapple, not gray.


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## orin

this was my grey he is about 8 years old in this photo. he had black hair in his mane but brown fleabitten spots so i imagine he was bay as a foal?


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## Seahorseys

We have a dappled grey at our barn too,..and she is kept inside most of the day and always has a sheet on. it bugs me. BTW, some people have told me that all horses can have dapples. Frida has little brown dapples that contrast her black fur. I was told it means they are healthy.


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## Eastowest

_>>>>We have a dappled grey at our barn too,..and she is kept inside most of the day and always has a sheet on. it bugs me. BTW, some people have told me that all horses can have dapples. Frida has little brown dapples that contrast her black fur. I was told it means they are healthy. _

Other colors besides grey can exhibit dapples. I have a palomino mare whos coat shows dappes year round. But not all healthy horses will get a dappled coat-- some do, some do not.

I think that maybe what happens is that when you see a dapple grey, that horse would have been a dappled bay or brown or whatever-- and when the greying started (white hairs replacing dark hairs as the greying mechanism caused pigment to no longer go up some of the hairshafts) it somewhat followed the "framework" of the dappling in the coat that the horse was already prone to have. 

This is just my theory-- I am not aware of anything scientific regarding why some greys dapple as they turn white and others don't, nor why some bays or palominos or blacks or horses of whatever color show dapples, and some do not.


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## westonsma

Here is one of my all-time favorite stallions. This is Starby, a buckskin-gone-gray. He is a sterling silver gray, and you can still faintly see his dorsal stripe! His black points look flat amazing on his blinding gray! He's an ROM reining, and took AQHA 1998 World Champion Working Cow Horse with only one eye as a 3 year old.

Here are some flicks of him, then one of a 2009 buckskin colt, and a 2008 cremello, we call Wizard, and these colts have been some of the best minded horses I've ever come across. ("Topper," the sooty buckskin mare in the photo with the cremello was put down only a couple months after the photo was taken due to colic.) 

But man, I can't get over his beautiful color! (Kevin's wife is a terrible photographer, lol)


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