What is this color?

[Sylvanshine]

Hi, I'm new to HWO, but somewhat familiar with horse color genetics from other games. I've been working on starting to learn how colors appear in this game with the help of the coat color guides, but oftentimes I run into situations where I cannot seem to find a 100% match and have to deduce the color myself. Most of the time that's not a problem as I can think of some color that I'd consider likely enough to write on horses I plan to keep, but this stallion has me stumped.




Having done comparisons with the images of this guide I found Perlino Champagne Dun to be the closest to what he has, but his legs are considerably darker. I'm also not sure if his sire could have cream (potentially making perlino impossible), as he looks to come from two sooty chestnut parents. His legs and muzzle make me think he is bay + champagne + something + snowcap, but I can't quite figure it out. (I say snowcap because of the smaller 'holes' in the blanket - maybe I'm wrong and it's blanket instead?) Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[EclipticEnd]

Having done comparisons with the images of this guide I found Perlino Champagne Dun to be the closest to what he has, but his legs are considerably darker. I'm also not sure if his sire could have cream (potentially making perlino impossible), as he looks to come from two sooty chestnut parents. His legs and muzzle make me think he is bay + champagne + something + snowcap, but I can't quite figure it out. (I say snowcap because of the smaller 'holes' in the blanket - maybe I'm wrong and it's blanket instead?) Any help would be greatly appreciated!

He is indeed snowcap. The difference between blanket and snowcap will be that the border between the white of the pattern and the rest of the coat will be diffused in snowcap whereas it'll be more uniform in blanket. It's simply the difference in transition between the normal coat color and the white pattern. You'll find that both blankets and snowcaps can have tiny spots or very large spots within the white. Both parents are blankets whereas this guy's snowcap. Genetically this is because the blanket/leopard is presented as having one LP switch gene whereas snowcap/fewspot has two switch genes. The foal got both genes from the parents, hence snowcap. Here's a visual example using your horse (left) and the horse's father (right) from a younger age where the pattern's a bit more contrasted for clarity. Note how the left pattern is more of an airbrush/sprinkled transition whereas the right abruptly goes from red to white.

Anyway, you're right about the sire not having any cream. He's a Chestnut that got hit by some heavy varnish, which is why he went from a red foal to a grey adult. The dam similarly has Varnished which is why her color is off a bit despite also being an Amber Cream.

The color of your stallion would be an Amber Cream Snowcap. That would be Bay + Cream + Champagne + 2x LP Switch genes. More specifically, your stallion is probably Ee/Aa or AA/Crn/Chn/LPLP meaning one Black gene, one to two Agouti/Bay, one Cream gene, one Champagne Gene, and two Switch genes. It's also possible that he's AAt (one Bay and one Seal gene) but I find that to be unlikely.

The lightening of his mane comes from Varnish, which is white roaning that comes with LP markings. Varnish will lighten manes and tails and make bodies look clouded over. As horses age it can also change their coloration to be more grey/silver on their bodies where the varnish is most present.

[Sylvanshine]

The color of your stallion would be an Amber Cream Snowcap. That would be Bay + Cream + Champagne + 2x LP Switch genes. More specifically, your stallion is probably Ee/Aa or AA/Crn/Chn/LPLP meaning one Black gene, one to two Agouti/Bay, one Cream gene, one Champagne Gene, and two Switch genes. It's also possible that he's AAt (one Bay and one Seal gene) but I find that to be unlikely.

The lightening of his mane comes from Varnish, which is white roaning that comes with LP markings. Varnish will lighten manes and tails and make bodies look clouded over. As horses age it can also change their coloration to be more grey/silver on their bodies where the varnish is most present.

Thank you! This was very useful, the clarification regarding blanket vs. snowcap as well. Varnish distorting the color to where I couldn't recognize it sounds like it'd make a lot of sense. I've noticed the effect is very noticeable on many AC Tarpans as well, but didn't make the mental connection here.

[StormTheAnimalLover]

How do send a image?