# What is a blood bay to you?



## anndankev

I think of blood bay as you do, a certain shade of red-ish.

A bay of any shade with no white markings at all I would call a solid bay. 

Or a solid blood bay, if that was the case. Don't know if I actually identify the exact shade correctly though LOL.


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## Chessie

I agree, a blood bay, or blood chestnut, is the deep red red horse.


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## SunnyDraco

When it comes to names like light bay, cherry bay, blood bay, dark bay or black bay it really comes down to who taught you as there is no right or wrong. Just like there is no right or wrong to sorrel and chestnut, to some any red horse is sorrel while others only use the name chestnut to describe a red horse. Others may use both sorrel and chestnut to describe red horses but use different features (shade/flaxen) to decide which term to use. There isn't a universal coat shade chart to describe all the red shades a bay horse can be, using a term like blood bay means that some will agree with the description while others have a different idea of what makes a blood bay.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## JCnGrace

I've always thought it was by body color not whether they have white markings. I consider Gamble to be a blood bay and he has a star. I usually just say he is bay though because like Sunnydraco said, it's pretty subjective.


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## stevenson

I always called a blood bay, a darker reddish body with black points.


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## Saranda

I've been told that my gelding is a blood bay -


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## Avna

Okay, well at least I am not crazy. It isn't a big thing; obviously we can call colors anything we want, doesn't disturb the horse nor its DNA. 

I am guessing the local term comes from the word blood's old meaning of "without impurity or taint" as in "noble blood" or "pure blood". 

I like words . . .


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## DraftyAiresMum

Saranda said:


> I've been told that my gelding is a blood bay -


I would consider this blood bay. Cleveland Bay horses are usually what I think of when I picture blood bay.












Avna said:


> I like words . . .


This made me chuckle. :lol: I like words, too!


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## Avna

This is my idea of a blood bay. No 'shadows' as most Cleveland Bays have, just red red red. We can all have our own ideas . . . This is a Hanoverian mare named Foreign Affair.


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## Whinnie

Ha! I would call the Cleveland Bay a Burnt Bay (because of the shadowing) and the Hanoverian a Cherry Bay because of the brightness. To me, a Blood Bay is a dark liver red. It must be regional. 

Should there be a book written, "50 Shades of Bay?"

P.S. to my husband, they are all "brown" horses.


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## HombresArablegacy

DraftyAiresMum said:


> I would consider this blood bay. Cleveland Bay horses are usually what I think of when I picture blood bay.
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> The second horse, the Cleveland Bay?? I consider his color to be a Mahogany Bay. Hope I'm not stirring things up here.
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> This made me chuckle. :lol: I like words, too!


_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Avna

Whinnie said:


> Ha! I would call the Cleveland Bay a Burnt Bay (because of the shadowing) and the Hanoverian a Cherry Bay because of the brightness. To me, a Blood Bay is a dark liver red. It must be regional.
> 
> Should there be a book written, "50 Shades of Bay?"
> 
> P.S. to my husband, they are all "brown" horses.


Waiting for that book! And are you sure we aren't married to the same guy?

Where I'm from the Cleveland Bay would be called a mahogany bay, but I've heard cherry bay and red bay for the Hanoverian's color. 

Today while I was doing pasture chores a neighbor driving by stopped by to schmooze. "I used to love horse riding!" he said, tipping me off to his knowledge status because no horseman I have ever known calls it horse riding. 
"Which one is yours, the black one or the brown one?"

The "black" one, which is mine, is actually a fairly standard brown (what we used to call seal brown in the olden days before DNA tests) and the "brown" one is a bright chestnut overo (out West we call her a sorrel). So it was a bit confusing for me for a second, but I regrouped.


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## Saddlebag

My previous horse was a bay like the Cleveland Bay until I vacuumed him. Then he was a blood bay as he was noticeably reddish.


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## LoriF

I've always called bays that are dark red a blood bay as opposed to brownish or golden tint.


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## Whinnie

I forgot about Mahogany Bay! And I do remember Seal Brown as opposed to Brown/Black or just Brown.

I remember my days in law enforcement. If I were describing a red car, I would call it by the shade I saw--- "orange-red" or "maroon" or even "fire engine red" and "apple red" and other nuances in the red range. My male colleagues would just say "red". My female colleagues would know exactly what color to look for.


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## verona1016

Whinnie said:


> And I do remember Seal Brown as opposed to Brown/Black or just Brown.


There's a whole other can of worms! I've always thought it should be called seal bay, but the researchers who isolated the gene called it seal brown. And then it's been shortened by many to just 'brown' which is not very descriptive. As was mentioned earlier, many non-horsey folks think of a lot of horse colors as just brown and don't notice the differences between bay, seal brown, chestnut, etc.


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## Avna

Whinnie said:


> I forgot about Mahogany Bay! And I do remember Seal Brown as opposed to Brown/Black or just Brown.
> 
> I remember my days in law enforcement. If I were describing a red car, I would call it by the shade I saw--- "orange-red" or "maroon" or even "fire engine red" and "apple red" and other nuances in the red range. My male colleagues would just say "red". My female colleagues would know exactly what color to look for.


Men surprisingly often don't physically see as many nuances in color as women, and then they often aren't as verbally adept either (law enforcement may not attract a lot of lit majors). Poor things! 

I like seal brown a lot better than brown. Such a drab, vague word.


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## DuckDodgers

Yes, I've always thought of/heard of a "blood bay" being a RED bay horse. One with a more vibrant, colorful red coat than a brownish coat. The photo posted of the Hanoverian is what I think of. I love blood bays! 

I've never heard of anyone call a bay with no markings a blood bay. Well I guess it COULD be, assuming the shade was right. I'd just call such a horse a plain bay- nothing negative or boring about it, just plainly colored. Or just call it solid colored, or the bay without any markings. 

Of course, as mentioned everyone has their own color definitions. I've seen people get snippy online about there being a clear distinction between a chestnut and a sorrel horse, but you'll never catch me referring to a sorrel horse unless they're shown to be genetically distinct  No problem if someone else wants to, though!


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## WhattaTroublemaker

Avna said:


> This is my idea of a blood bay. No 'shadows' as most Cleveland Bays have, just red red red. We can all have our own ideas . . . This is a Hanoverian mare named Foreign Affair.


THIS is exactly what comes to mind when I hear the term blood bay


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## Textan49

I think it all depends on what part of the country you are in, what period in time, and who's "words of wisdom" got stuck in your brain. I grew up in New England and I guess my parents taught me what a bay and a chestnut were. I haven't heard "mahogany bay" in years but I would call the Cleveland Bay mahogany, blood bay is dark red bay without the dark shading, and copper bay is a lighter bay. At least IMO. Chestnut was chestnut or "liver chestnut", and sorrels had a lighter mane and tail. Then someone told me sorrel was just a western term. Then I was "corrected" again and told that reddish chestnuts are sorrels regardless of the mane and tail, and chestnut applies only to liver chestnuts. Hmmmm? I never heard the term "cherry bay" until recently but assume it's like a blood bay and don't see what any white has to do with the shade of bay. I just happened to come across this recently . . . .a horse described as "dark bay or brown", well which is it?


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## smrobs

I normally don't differentiate between the shades of bay when I'm talking, but if someone else says "he's a blood bay" to me, I picture something like this


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## smrobs

I do call red horses by different shades. To me, a sorrel is a horse that has the more orangey color, whereas chestnut is the deeper richer red. Of course, the ones shading close to black are liver chestnut.

I always use this picture as an example for how I see red horses. This is my Belgian mare and her half QH son. She is what I consider a sorrel and I call him a chestnut.


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## Avna

My avatar mare, my first pretty darn good horse, we always called sorrel. She didn't have a flaxen mane and tail, though. Sorrel was a lighter color than chestnut (though often used interchangeably), and sometimes but not always had lighter points. 1970's California. 

In our DNA-innocent minds, the gradation was cremello -> palomino -> sorrel -> chestnut -> liver chestnut. I'm still pretty innocent of DNA knowledge, don't know how that holds up.


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## SunnyDraco

Avna said:


> In our DNA-innocent minds, the gradation was cremello -> palomino -> sorrel -> chestnut -> liver chestnut. I'm still pretty innocent of DNA knowledge, don't know how that holds up.


As DNA goes... 

Cremello is homozygous cream dilution on a chestnut/sorrel (ee CrCr)

Palomino is heterozygous cream dilution on a chestnut/sorrel (ee Crcr)

Sorrel, chestnut and liver chestnut are all red (ee) horses 

To confuse you even more, there are also other light colored and light red colored horses when you get the dilutions of cream, dun and champagne. A perlino (homozygous cream on a bay horse) and a smoky cream (homozygous cream on a black horse) aren't much darker than a cremello... The shade of a horse depends mostly on the amount of pigment in the hairs which is why some red horses without other coat modifiers are almost palomino and others are almost black.


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## FrostedLilly

To me, blood bay is a deep, deep red. Ones like this come to mind. But it really depends on what you've been taught, what you've seen, where you're from, etc. 










The same goes with the sorrel/chestnut debate. When I was growing up, people swore up and down that my mare was sorrel and others would insist she was chestnut. As a part-Arab, her papers say chestnut since they don't have sorrel as a colour option, so I just defaulted to what was on her papers. She'd also turn a deep, deep orange-red colour in Winter, so I'm sure that added to the debate.









And my filly's coggins test says she's black... she is clearly a seal brown (also confirmed via DNA test). 

Old photo, but really shows her lighter points on her face.


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## DuckDodgers

FWIW, I do not put any stock into a horse's listed registered color is. My boy was a wild bay with very little black on his legs, but a very black mane and tail. AQHA had him listed as a chestnut, which was very obviously incorrect. His dad was listed as a grulla, and he was a buckskin based on photos.


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## KLJcowgirl

smrobs, that is EXACTLY what I learned growing up! A "Chestnut" horse with flaxen mane and or tail is also called Sorrel in my coloring book.

Blood Bay to me, like many others have mentioned, is a very RED Bay. But that's the only other variation on the bay color I learned. The rest were just Bays.


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## ponyboy

Glynnis said:


> To me, blood bay is a deep, deep red. Ones like this come to mind. But it really depends on what you've been taught, what you've seen, where you're from, etc.


That's definitely what I would call "blood bay!" I have never seen a horse like that in real life. 

http://www.horseforum.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/


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