Horses are majestic and graceful creatures. The nicer the coat, the more beautiful they get. And they come in a wide variety of colors. But what makes a horse truly unique is their coats.
Source: Pixabay
Most horses come in the common brown shades but some actually have rare color combinations as well. Read on to see a wide variety of horse coats and get to know their distinguishing qualities.
Paint
This is a paint horse with a very unique pattern on its back. Paint horses usually have several patches along the body but this one is unique because it has a large black patch on his back while the bottom half of his body is completely white.
Source: Give It Love
The horse also has a brown patch on his muzzle, giving the illusion of a mustache. He seems like a real gentleman, doesn’t he? This is one horse you definitely would spot right away in a crowd.
Pinto
This is a pinto horse. Pinto horses have a coat that is partly white and partly black or brown. Does its coat remind you of another animal? Pinto horses have coats that resemble a cow’s.
Source: Give It lLove
Sometimes, a pinto horse is also referred to as “paint.” But you should know that not all paints are actually pintos. Some paints are mixed breeds that happen to have pinto coloring.
Bay overo paint
This horse is a paint horse but with an interesting pattern. The white patches start at the belly but it never reaches the backside of the horse. Horses with these patterns on their coats are called bay overo paint.
Source: Give It Love
The uniqueness of the pattern is very clear at first glance and you can spot it from any angle. This is one of those coats that you can easily identify even as a newbie because of its specific markings.
Red roan
A roan is a solid-colored horse that has white fur mingling with the base coat. But the manes and tails still remain true to their base color. The horse in this picture is a red roan quarter horse.
Source: Give It Love
But did you know that red roans are not really red? The base coat is actually chestnut but because of the white fur, gives the base coat an almost pinkish and reddish look. A red roan is also sometimes called a “strawberry roan.”
Blue roan
A blue roan is just like a red roan, except that they have a black base coat instead of a chestnut base coat. When that base coat is mixed with the little white fur, it gives a bluish effect in certain lighting.
Source: Give It Love
The white fur usually does not reach the mane and tail. This blue roan has a black mane and tail. But there are times when a blue roan would have reddish manes and tails too. Among the many roan horses, a blue roan is the rarest.
Rabicano
Rabicanos are horses that have roaning on the top of their tails and around the flank area. Sometimes, this is also referred to as white tickling. Most rabicanos have two-toned tails and mostly, their tail would be white on top and then a darker color on the bottom.
Source: Give It Love
Although there is some roaning present, Rabicanos are not considered as roans since the white furs are restricted to a specific part of the horse’s body. The name has a Spanish origin where “rabo” means tail and “cano” means white in Spanish.
Sabino
This unique type of coating refers to a very specific spotting pattern caused by the Sabino 1 gene. They look very similar to roan horses. Horse breeders actually have a DNA test to differentiate a sabino horse from a roan horse.
Source: Give It Love
So how can you tell it apart from a roan horse without the need for a DNA test? Sabino horses usually only have the markings on specific areas of the skin. Usually, the spottings can be found on the face and the belly.
Dapple gray
This is a dapple gray Arabian horse. When a horse’s coat is called gray, it actually means that the horse is gray or white. Most gray horses are actually born a darker shade and sometimes born with a black coating.
Source: Give It Love
But as they get older, their coat turns white. When this happens, dapples appear on their coat. This horse is still young so you can still clearly see the dapples as his coat transforms into white.
Dapple gray paint
Here is a unique horse that you won’t find anywhere. This horse has a combination of a dapple gray and a paint coat – which is very rare. As you can see, the mottled coat pattern is paint but the dark patches of his coat are dappled.
Source: Give It Love
It is possible that the darker patches on this horse’s body would fade into gray or white as it gets older since the horse is quite young in this picture. The horse also stands out by having feathers – the technical name for the long fur a horse has on his feet.
Silver buckskin
A buckskin would be a horse with a tan body and a black mane and tail. A silver buckskin, however, is a buckskin with a silver dapple gene mutation. As a result, they have gray bodies with black manes and tails. This horse is very rare.
Source: Give It Love
One way to identify buckskins is to look at their legs. This horse also has darker legs, which is normal for buckskins. Other horse breeds usually have the illusion of having white “stockings” on their lower legs.
Silver dapple sooty buckskin
A silver dapple sooty buckskin is probably one of the prettiest coats you will ever see on a horse. They are actually a combination of three gene elements that make up several variations of beautiful colors.
Source: Give It Love
Silver dapple sooty buckskins usually have dark base coats with lighter spots all throughout. Their tails and manes remain to be dark-colored as well. This horse looks very elegant with a coat that has a black and gold effect.
Appaloosa
Appaloosa horses are horses that have spotted coats. Similar to roans, there is a base coat color and then another color is seen for their spots. If a horse has a dark base color, it will have white spots and if the horse has a light base color, the spots will be dark – usually black or brown.
Source: Give It Love
Aside from the spots, appaloosa horses are known to have striped hooves. This is a result of their spotted pigmentation which could extend past their legs. This horse looks like a giant Dalmatian, doesn’t it?
Leopard appaloosa
One look at this picture and you get an idea why these horses are named this way. Leopard appaloosas are white horses with dark leopard-like spots covering their entire bodies. They used to be rare but thankfully, there was a resurgence during the 20th century.
Source: Give It Love
Like most appaloosa horses, they have prominent scleras. This means you can see the white part of their eyes, which is a very unique thing for horses. However, horses homozygous for this variant usually have an ocular condition called congenital stationary night blindness.
Blanket appaloosa
If you think ponies are cute you should see a mini horse like this one! This mini horse happens to have a blanket appaloosa coat whereas the horse has a leopard appaloosa coat that looks like a blanket of fur over the mini horse’s rear end.
Source: Give It Love
For those of you who do not know, mini horses are smaller than the smallest pony breeds. Ponies are also not baby horses. A pony is a horse that stands under 14 hands, which is the way they measure horses.
Brindle
Brindle horses are very rare – rarer than appaloosa horses. The brindle pattern, which is similar to stripes, is not usually found in horses. They are more common in cattle, dogs, and guinea pigs.
Source: Give It Love
The gene that causes this brindle coat can be inherited by horses but this happens on a very rare occasion. The unique pattern looks like paint splatters that form stripes. The brindle pattern is also referred to as tiger striping.
Flaxen manes
When a horse has a flaxen mane, it means that its mane and tail have a significantly lighter color compared to the color of their bodies. Take this horse for example. He has a chestnut coat and a very light blonde mane and tail.
Source: Give It Love
This horse also stands out because of the stripe on his face. A stripe refers to a white face marking that extends down the horse’s nose. This one also has a star face marking, which refers to a circle marking on the forehead of a horse.
Cremollo
Horses with cremello coats have pale blue eyes and rosy pink skin. Their coats are a product of what they call the “cream gene” in horses. Technically, they are chestnut horses but their coats happen to be very light and pearlescent.
Source: Give it Love
The horse in this photo is probably the most popular cremollo horse. This horse is an Akhal-Teke, a horse breed that hails from Turkmenistan and is one of the oldest horse breeds on earth. This horse’s extremely shiny coat has helped it win a lot of awards.
Palomino
Palominos are considered to be a very glamorous breed. Palominos have a golden tan coat and a blonde or white mane and tail. Their unique, golden tan color is all thanks to the cream gene.
Source: Give It Love
Thanks to their unique looks, palominos are considered to be the barbies of the horse world. Take note that not all palominos look the same. Some palominos come with darker tans while some would come with blonder manes and tails.
Perlino
Perlino horses are homozygous cream base, meaning that they have a bay base coat and the mutation is caused by the cream gene. It is another way the cream gene manifests itself.
Source: Give It Love
Perlino horses usually have a cream-colored body but with reddish manes and tails. It is usually hard to distinguish the difference between cream-colored horses, which is why a DNA test is necessary.
Champagne
Champagne horses are just as expensive as the drink they are named after. They get their name from the champagne gene, which affects the skin of a horse than its coat. As a result, these horses look almost blonde because of their very light-colored skin.
Source: Give It Love
The horse in this picture is a gold champagne horse. If you look closely at the ears, you can tell that the skin is pink all throughout. Most champagne horses also come with amber-colored eyes.
Classic champagne
This is the classic champagne horse. Isn’t it a beauty? As mentioned earlier, the champagne gene changes the dark hue of the coat because it makes the horse’s skin lighter. It looks like velvet!
Source: Give It Love
This horse could have a black coat. However, because of the champagne gene, the horse looks like it has a soft brown coat instead. But you can see that it actually is a beautiful effect. No wonder this breed is expensive!
The horse that labeled itself
Sometimes you can find neat shapes in a paint’s patches – but this one is one of a kind. This is because this may be the first and only horse whose patches actually spell out the word “horse.”
Source: Give It Love
If you look closely at this horse’s body, you can see that the white patches form the word with the lower case “h” on his rear end and ending with an upper case “E” by the neck part. I guess it wants people to know what animal it is in case they could not figure it out.
Four-in-one coat
We finish this list with an extremely unique coating. This foal has a combination of four coats – a blue roan, a red roan, a gray coat, and a paint coat. The result is a very unique look that definitely stands out even next to the most expensive horse breeds.
Source: Give It Love
Just take a look at the white stripe on its body. It looks as if somebody took a paintbrush and ran it through the horse’s body in just one stroke from the foot up. Its coat might change as this foal grows up but one thing is for sure – this one is extremely rare.