The ointment of a horse, the colour of its coat is not assigned to a given breed. There are exceptions to this rule, e.g. haflinger or palomino. Here is an overview of all the fixed colours of the horse’s coat. Are you familiar with all types of colouring of horses?

What is this colour scheme about?

Beginner riders usually don’t realize what a horse’s coat is. Of course, the first step in learning the basics of riding should be to get information about the animal itself. And the colouring of horses is one of the basic topics. What pride one can feel when one is already able to recognize the ointment of horses! But the matter is not as simple as it seems.

We have basic ointments, but there is a whole range of lesser known ointments. But what is it about this coat? Well, the horse’s ointment is the colour of the coat that covers his body. It also includes the colour of the mane and the tail. The coat has a genetic background. But why this range of coat? Several genes are responsible for horse ointment. In the past, all wild horses had the same coat colour.

Along with evolution and domestication (as well as other factors) – the genes mutated and therefore the horse’s ointment also changed. The genes responsible for colouring are divided into three groups: basic, lightened and white coat patterns.

Let’s look at what are the ointments of horses all over the world:

Horses’ coat: Nests

The horses’ nest has a brown body. The mane, tail and legs (usually up to half the leg length) are black. The brown colour of the main body of the horse ranges from chestnut to very dark brown, which may seem almost black.

Blood and firewood or Cherry and firewood

The picture shows a horse in chestnut ointment in a coat. The “Blood ointment” depends on the different shades that can appear in chestnut horses. Some ointments may even come close to a carrot-orange colour or a rust-like shade. See below for a chestnut coat.

Dark Breakfast Horse

The stallion shown in the picture has all the characteristic features of a bay’s coat (black legs, black mane and black tail). Despite this, his coat is much darker. Moreover, he also has a shade of dark chocolate.

Brown colour of the coat

This colour of horse ointment is difficult to distinguish even for an experienced eye. This is the main reason for the inaccuracy in the terminology of the description of the horse’s coat.

The mane, the tail and the lower part of the legs make his ointment considered bay. The main part of the body appears black in some places, including the neck, shoulder blades and the upper part of the legs

Horse penalties – black type of horse’s coat

Kare’s coat is quite rare. Most of the ointments of horses considered to be kare horses, usually turn out to be dark brown or burnt brown. Due to sunlight, black ointment can also brighten up. Nevertheless, truly punishment horses always have (dark blue) black hair covering their heads, mainly around the eyes.

Roasted brown type of horse coat

This colour is relatively new. It applies to horses that have a black-brown or truly dark base with light brown or “tanned” areas around the eyes, inside the ears, on the front of the head, sides, underbelly and joints.

This colour may be mistaken for brown. The decisive difference between them, however, is that the delicate areas listed above must be noticeably lighter in horses with tanned brown ointment.

Buckskin – deer colour, beige

This horse ointment has the same black elements as bay horses. However they definitely differ in body color. The beige color is used to describe horses from a “beige tan” to a golden color. This horse ointment has no backbone.

Beige horses have bay horse genes, with the addition of a gene that affects. Thanks to this they achieve bright golden colours.

Sometimes you can confuse a rolled horse with a beige one, because they have similar body colours. However, a rolled coat colour is caused by the gene specific to this horse ointment.

Chestnut

Horse chestnut ointment is very common. It has many shades from copper-red to dark brown. There are no black elements in the colouring. The mane and tail are the same color as the body or are a little lighter.

No distinction is usually made between chestnut shades, unless they are very noticeable.

Arabian horses have black skin, so the black colour of the eyes and front of the head can be misleading. The mane is not black, therefore this horse cannot be described as a bay.

Cream Horse (Cremello)

Horses of this ointment are very rare, although in Akhal-Teke and Marwari breeds they are more frequent than in others. Creamy horses have a basic chestnut coat with the addition of two “diluting” genes (Creme Dilution genes). They have pink skin (like real white horses) covered with reddish white hair and a matching mane and tail. Characteristic feature of this horse ointment are blue coloured eyes.

Sometimes they are mistakenly called a horse-albino. The latter are unable to produce pigment at all, while creamy horses can have blue or brown eyes. This shows that they produce pigment.

Rolls

Rolled horses may have a red or black basic colour, which is ‘diluted’ with the correct gene (Dun gene). This term can be called horses from sand-gold ointment to almost brown. The Dun gene can also influence the bay ointment.

The bread colour is the relatively basic colour of the horse’s ointment and always occurs in combination with the dorsal bar. It is a dark bar that leads through the horse’s spine, from the withers to the tail.

Another distinguishing mark of this horse’s ointment are the stripes on the legs, sometimes running up to the shoulders (similar to those of the zebra). These stripes can be very fuzzy.

Breakfast and rolled-ups

A popular shade of breadcrumbs. The horse shown in the picture has a basic bay colour with the addition of a bun gene (Dun gene). Notice the dorsal ribbon, dark nasal areas and eyes, hardly noticeable zebra stripes (especially on the right front leg) and dark tilted ears.

Dark buns (Grullo) buzzard ointment

This ointment is formed from a combination of a bun gene with a black fur base. The horse becomes “mice grey” and has black legs, mane and tail. It also almost always has a dorsal ribbon, clearly striped limbs and dark spots on the ears.

In contrast to gray horses, the dark rolled coat does not become lighter with the horse’s age. The coat of grullo horses is always in full steel-grey or mouse-grey colour. For comparison, blue-grey horses have mixed white and black fur.

Red horse ointment

This horse ointment is produced from a combination of a bun gene with the basic chestnut colour of the coat. This means that while the horse still has a dorsal stripe and striped limbs, the black elements typical of rolled horses will become dark brown (in the basic colour of the coat).

Burnt gold (Palomino)

The body of this ointment of horses can range from beige and gold to light cream . All horses of this color are characterized by a maneane, which may sometimes seem almost white.

This ointment is formed from a combination of the “dilutive” gene (Cream Dilution) and a basic chestnut-coloured coat. This ointment is very easy to distinguish without the need for genetic testing.