[EquineLVR]

My Trainer and I cannot decide what color my mare is - we are stuck between seal brown and a very dark liver chesnut - how can you tell which one it is?

[eqsiu]

Seal brown has black points. A liver chestnut would require two chestnut parents if that helps the decision any. Otherwise you can do some genetic testing for red and agouti.

[Simkie]

Seal brown has black points. A liver chestnut would require two chestnut parents if that helps the decision any. Otherwise you can do some genetic testing for red and agouti.

Ah...no. A liver would not require two chestnut parents. Two chestnut parents can only produce a chestnut, but any two horses that carry the red allele can produce a red horse. Since red is recessive, it can hide beneath any black-based color.

[EquineLVR]

Does anyone have pics of the difference of seal brown horse? or a very, very dark liver chesnut?

[Dressage4Fun]

I do,, email me at [email protected]

[vtdobes]

I also have good photos of my brown mare and she has been tested so we know she is not black (not that you could tell from her photos!).

[email protected]

[Dressage4Fun]

so she is a black bay. correct?

[EquineLVR]

so she is a black bay. correct?

yes she seems to be - but her black points dont seem entirely black but more like dark dark brown and she has that lighter coloring on her flanks and muzzle.

[Dressage4Fun]

ok,, then that is what we call a seal brown (seal points) black bay is one that is dark dark bay almost black all over, but if you get the light right on them (or get them tested) they are not "black"

[Astraled]

Najih

He's brown.

A plethora of chestnuts


If you must know, I think you can get the mare tested for black through UC Davis

[Dressage4Fun]

LOL! OH arabs are wierd (I only have one,,ok,, TWO) if he were ANY other breed HE would be a black bay!!
Hubby thinks that OP's horse is seal brown if the main and tail are not black if they are then the horse is a bay (mahogany bay) in the picture the main is on the other side and the tail is not real "visable"

[Astraled]

Najih was bred by an equine geneticist, Dr. Ann Bowling, so I'm sure she was technically right but honestly, in person he looks like a regular old bay to me.

I believe she was hoping the AHA would recognize it as a separate color for registration but I don't think they ever did.

[BravAddict]

Seal brown horses do not have off-black points. They have black points. No black-based horse has off-black points without a diluting modifier.

The OP had better just do a genetic test for red factor. If it comes back "ee" then the horse is a liver chestnut. Either that or familiarize herself with liver chestnuts.

Nahij IS called a black bay, by some, I'm sure, but it's a matter of semantics; black bay is a romantic term.

[EquineLVR]

LOL! OH arabs are wierd (I only have one,,ok,, TWO) if he were ANY other breed HE would be a black bay!!
Hubby thinks that OP's horse is seal brown if the main and tail are not black if they are then the horse is a bay (mahogany bay) in the picture the main is on the other side and the tail is not real "visable"

Just sent some newer pics - you can see her tail is not black or true black but has lots of light brown running through it - I keep thinking she must be a bay but then I look at her in person and her legs dont seem a true black like other bays in the barn. Maybe my eyesight is going...

We also have a very very dark liver chesnut mare in the barn but my mare does not look like her either...

[RTBSH]

So what color would you call Piper and Fiato? Fiato's sire is homozygous black. Her points are really dark brown, not black, as are his.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...iatoandmom.jpg

[BravAddict]

The foal is black. Her foal coat is sunbleached, and her mom looks like she's prone to sunbleaching too.

[goodpony]

This is my seal brown filly...she is almost black (about as black as you can be) with lighter brown in the soft spots. Sire is Grey from seal brown and dam is smutty bay (looks dark dappled bay).

[goeslikestink]

Seal brown has black points. A liver chestnut would require two chestnut parents if that helps the decision any. Otherwise you can do some genetic testing for red and agouti.

a bay horse has black points
a brown is brown
and then you can have liver chestnut which ic very very dark dark almost brown /bay ish
colour

[EquineLVR]

This is my seal brown filly...she is almost black (about as black as you can be) with lighter brown in the soft spots. Sire is Grey from seal brown and dam is smutty bay (looks dark dappled bay).

Your filly has that same lightness of her tail that my mare does - I can see it in the pic down at the bottom - my mare is not that dark - and her light points on her flanks and face are more pronounced.

[rcloisonne]

Najih was bred by an equine geneticist, Dr. Ann Bowling, so I'm sure she was technically right but honestly, in person he looks like a regular old bay to me.

He's awesome, whatever the color!