What Color is My Horse? Quick Guide by Ancient Breed

[Tenacious Equine]

A great way to tell if your horse carries a recessive gene is to breed them to other horses who have two copies of the recessive version of the gene.
For example, you could breed a bay horse to a black horse to see if the bay horse is hiding the "a" version of Agouti- if any of the foals turn up black based, then the bay horse must be carrying a copy of "a". Though it's entirely possible that you'll have a stroke of bad luck and none of the foals will turn up black, even if the bay is carrying it.
You can also do this with dominant genes, by breeding horses with the dominant copy of the gene to horses that do not carry the dominant copy of the gene. If the horse is homozygous for the dominant copy, they will always pass on at least one copy to their foals, while heterozygous horses may not always pass on a dominant copy of the gene.
I learned a lot about horse genetics from another genetics-based horse sim (that does have gene testing), so if anyone ever wants my help to try and figure out what color genetics their horse has, feel free to ask.

[PanzerStud]

Midnight


Would I be right in saying this horse is super dark red? Shes had 3 foals to a red stallion, and all three have been red based. Might just be a fluke, but given that shes only had red foals (2 have been rehomed)

[BlackOak2]

Midnight


Would I be right in saying this horse is super dark red? Shes had 3 foals to a red stallion, and all three have been red based. Might just be a fluke, but given that shes only had red foals (2 have been rehomed)

Your horse is a flaxen chestnut pangare.
Yes, she is red-based and will through only red foals with red studs.


But she's not really that dark. She's rather quite brilliantly colored. Very pretty.

[PanzerStud]

Midnight


Would I be right in saying this horse is super dark red? Shes had 3 foals to a red stallion, and all three have been red based. Might just be a fluke, but given that shes only had red foals (2 have been rehomed)

Your horse is a flaxen chestnut pangare.
Yes, she is red-based and will through only red foals with red studs.


But she's not really that dark. She's rather quite brilliantly colored. Very pretty.

If you check her gallery, I've updated her image since then. She used to have a black body with the red mane and tail, I'm unsure what happened, but she was black, then I posted that and shes not anymore lol

[PanzerStud]

[BlackOak2]

That is a glitch coat.
When looking at AC horses, sometimes they'll have these. They're not the correct coats, but the mane and sometimes also the tail will give away the true color of the horse.
These glitch coats will eventually revert to the true coats at or before the horse's 10th birthday.

With the exception of one, the glitch coats have only ever been found in the AC.

They are gorgeous though, aren't they?

[PanzerStud]

That is a glitch coat.
When looking at AC horses, sometimes they'll have these. They're not the correct coats, but the mane and sometimes also the tail will give away the true color of the horse.
These glitch coats will eventually revert to the true coats at or before the horse's 10th birthday.

With the exception of one, the glitch coats have only ever been found in the AC.

They are gorgeous though, aren't they?

Oh definitely! I thought it might be something like that, a bit sad shes changed, even if she is glowing red now lol. Shame that

[BlackOak2]

That is a glitch coat.
When looking at AC horses, sometimes they'll have these. They're not the correct coats, but the mane and sometimes also the tail will give away the true color of the horse.
These glitch coats will eventually revert to the true coats at or before the horse's 10th birthday.

With the exception of one, the glitch coats have only ever been found in the AC.

They are gorgeous though, aren't they?

Oh definitely! I thought it might be something like that, a bit sad shes changed, even if she is glowing red now lol. Shame that

Indeed!
The closest we can get to this color is the pseudo-black chestnuts. If you can find the right sooty genes, you can breed a line that creates a sooty coat on the chestnut that turns essentially black and that leaves maybe a bit of the mane and tail not so black. If you pair that with the flaxen gene, you can further brighten the mane and tail (and any feathers as well). It can be handy, but I haven't yet seen or heard of anybody tackling it, to see just how far it can be achieved.
There are... somewhere around here... Halloween Horses. Contest gifts from years ago that have genes that exhibit similarly.
It's easier to just show you:
Taken from the Favorites Topic.

[YixingLao]

This was such a helpful guide, I love looking at horse stats whenever I do have the free time. However, I can never understand the horse colours that are expressed with a few letters that look like a code, I mean, they are actually a code. In a regular human eye we can say that horses are either white, black, brown, or possibly gray at times. However it is in the horse racing scene that I learned colours like bay and wild bay and sooty. I mean, what are those, right? Anyway!! thanks for this! I'll save it as reference.

[HaloShingTsui]

hmmm from the looks of it your horse should be way higher up in the list, given that your breed has something significant to do with it, but that is a gorgeous looking horse by the way.