Okay I have a headache..

I am trying to figure out this dunn or sorrel thing.. I had colors.. just call em red,brown,black..and white.

Then everyone could sleep better. What is this counter shading thing everyone is talking about?

I don't know he is light and I just thought that was darker by the roots. I don't have any photos so can someone clearly advise on what the major differences are?

And do you know why they needed to be seperate?

Dun horses of any shade are a dilution of a base color.

Sorrel/Chestnut is a basic color the horse will have red hairs. This group is put into 3 shades 1) Sorrels lighter reds (which can have flaxed mane and tails)
2) Chestnuts where the body color matches the mane and tails
3) Liver chestnuts these horses are a very dark red with dark red mane and tails.
A red dun is a dilution of this gene

Dun is a dilution that affects the black and red color on the body but not on the points of a horse (mane, tail, legs).

Chestnut or Red horses are diluted to a pinkish-red with dark red points = red dun

Dark Bay is diluted to a yellow with black pionts producing a buckskin colored dun or =dun
(lighter bays dilute to produce buckskin horses)

Black is diluted to a mouse-grey color with the black points=grullo horse

Dun horses will have darker points with a dark stripe down the back and may have wither stripes and legs stripes.

Hopefully this helps. There are so many new colors that are being produced and and the industry still has a hard time with just the basic colors, it is hard to keep up.


Just a funny little thought on color:
I know of a reining stallion that is registered as a red roan but he is not he is actually a bay roan and the AQHA never picked up on it and made them change it so when people are looking to produce a certain color from him they are not getting what they expect because he is not registered correctly.

P8ntCrazy that is mostly right except Bay or Zebra duns aren't always lighter. I have a bay dun filly and she is a dark bay. She has some leg barring and spidering on her forhead as well as ear tips and a dorsal strip. She comes from a long line of duns that gray out. She is staying dun. So not all bay duns go lighter. They almost have the test at UC Davis for the dun and then I will have her tested.

My daughter's quarter horse is a dark dun color some say she is the brown shade of grulla. She is listed as bay on her papers, I never had her papers revised. One of my friends that raises buckskin QH's said alot of times these horses do look bay at birth and no one bothers to change the papers unless there is a dispute over a foal color. I love genetics and figuring color and patterns!
When our newest filly was born this year she looked like she might shed out grulla, but no she is a beautiful black and white tobiano. I like the duns and grullas in the mix to keep us guessing each year what the new babies will look like. Karen