Читать книгу Horse Economics - Vera Kurskaya - Страница 39

Silver bay is often confused with flaxen chestnut (see p. 39)—for example, in the United States these colors have been recognized as separate entities only since 2002. The silver bay horse has a red or brown color to the trunk and a lighter mane and tail—from dark ashy with separate whitish and yellow locks of hair, to almost completely white (Photo 51). Sometimes the same horse can have a dark and smoky tail paired with an almost white mane, or vice versa. The skin and hooves are pigmented.

The main difference between silver bay and flaxen chestnut are the dark legs, resembling the legs of an ordinary bay horse. In flaxen chestnut animals, the lower part of the legs has a red or whitish color. In the silver bay, the color of the lower part of the legs fluctuates from light to dark brown—to sometimes black. In addition, the ears often have black rims.

A horse with the weakest manifestation of the Silver gene does not differ from an average bay, unless the guard hair is mixed with a considerable amount of light hair, making the mane and tail look ashy. The lower part of the legs is almost undiluted, sometimes showing mild leg webbing. This color may also resemble “Wild” bay or dun, but from the first it can again be distinguished by light guard hair, and from the second by a saturated red color of the trunk and lack of primitive markings. When the body hair of this horse is in poor condition, the color can also be confused with red or brown.

Sometimes you may see a horse with brown body hair and black legs, while the mane and tail are diluted, matching the brown body color. However, the most characteristic and recognizable variety of silver bay has a reddish body, a mane and tail that are nearly white or light ashy, and light brown lower legs because of the presence of leg webbing. Separate ashy or black locks remain in the guard hair.

A silver bay foal has light lower legs, similar in appearance to ordinary bay foals, and becomes darker after shedding his baby coat. Silver bay commonly occurs in the Rocky Mountain Horse.

Silver seal brown is very rare (Photos 52–54). It is recognizable by the dark brown, almost black color of the body, sometimes with a bluish tint to it, with characteristic red “burn marks” around eyes, muzzle, near the elbows, on the stomach, and the groin. The guard hair is diluted from dirty red to a whitish color.