White Color

March 6th, 2010 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

White Color

Understanding your Horses Coat Colors and Markings

When you first see a horse in a field the most identifiable feature is the color of his coat. No doubt the first thing you learn after the word horse is his color. You certainly do not need to learn to identify every single horse breed, but knowing the colors and markings on a horse will help you distinguish between horses.

As a manager on a stud farm I was in charge of 150 horses that grazed the land. During the breeding season we would also have a number of other horses come and stay for a while. More often than not the visiting mares would be grouped together with our own.

I would be able to identify every single animal without needing a name tag, just by their color and markings. You may not need to know a dozen horses, perhaps only one, but knowing the color and markings gives you helpful knowledge.

When you are in a stable yard and a horse breaks loose, you can call attention to the urgency of the situation. If you said there was a black horse running loose, the yard manager may well know that the black horse is a stallion and other horses would be in danger, not just the loose horse.

Coat color and markings of horses is determined genetically. There are about 20 different coat colors, some are clearly defined like black and others are part-colored or broken such as spotted.

Unless there is a specific need for you to know all the colors and variations, knowing the basic usually suffices. I can not say that anyone in 25 plus years has ever looked at me weirdly because I called a dapple grey horse just plain old grey.

Besides the general body color of the horse it is also good to know the markings on a horse. That way when you are around horses you can tell them apart. If you are told that the brown horse in the field is for sale, and there happen to be 5 brown horses grouped together, it certainly would be helpful to know what else sets him apart from the others.

Markings are usually on the legs and face and mostly with white colored hairs. A horse with a white face or blaze has a large area of white, particularly on the nose. These horses would greatly benefit from a daily application of sunscreen when the temperatures are high.

There are basic leg markings on a horse known as socks or stockings which are general terms as to the length of white. More specifically for identification purposes the markings are named to where the white hair begins and ends on the leg. Some horses may have white on all four legs, others may have only a single sock on one leg and still others may have none at all.

A horse that is all one color, like chestnut, with no white distinctive markings on the face or legs can still be identified from other horses by less noticeable markings such as whorls.

Whether you are a beginner rider, a horse admirer or someone that works with horses it pays to know the color and markings of horses. It certainly makes identifying one horse from another a piece of cake.

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