Pedigree Query

If one buys or breeds a horse of any color and at the point of time when they are about to race, their color conflicts with what their papers say because of changing color over the years or months or what have you....do the powers to be ask you change the papers to the color the horse is now? And if they do, does it have to be a huge color change or would small difference be OK, like a few white hairs or spots etc?

For example, I have known breeders to get a black or sorrel foal and paper it right away and then turns gray. For this reason when I bred to a gray I wait till the last min to register.

In my case I have a sorrel filly (born sorrel out of bay mare) by my gray stallion, and she is now roaning at age 2...not alot but it could be alot later and I have seen it before in one of my older mares, she was a bay and started to roan and her papers where changed before I bought her.

Should I just let it ride and see how much she will roan or do I worry that I may have to change her color on paper? I actually paid the extra fee on registration just to be SURE she would stay a sorrel, I waited till she was 2 to get her papers done....and now dang it, she is changing color!!

Her sire was born sorrel and he quickly roaned and grayed out by his first birthday.

Will she be raced? If so, her color must be changed if she is indeed graying. If she's for riding, then I wouldn't worry about it until she is for certain gray.

The papers must be changed. At the time the horse gets a lip tattoo is a really good time to go over the horse completely. If markings have altered, including cowlicks, or the color is different, the papers must be changed to accurately describe the horse, complete with new photos.

I've seen a mare decide to grey out at 4.
Be sure to keep an eye at the area around the eyes, white hair usually starts there. And if she wasn't born roan, she is grey anyway, no matter what color the base coat is. Roans don't change.

True roan doesn't exist in Thoroughbreds, barring the few that Catchabird in Australia produced.

This doesn't help you much now, but you can test for grey. It's only $25 from Animal Genetics: http://www.animalgenetics.us/Gray.htm

ElPrado wrote:I've seen a mare decide to grey out at 4.
Be sure to keep an eye at the area around the eyes, white hair usually starts there. And if she wasn't born roan, she is grey anyway, no matter what color the base coat is. Roans don't change.

But a horse can roan from sabino or rabicano later in life and get progressively more without being gray.

Ahh, but that isn't true roan, either. That's tied in to the pattern they carry. I'm talking about the dark head, with the white hair mixed in on the body and dark legs. I've seen 20 year old horses that never changed through their lifetime.
Owned one back in the '70's. He was born bald faced, stockings to knees and past the hocks, a roan patch under his right elbow, cream mane and tail and one glass eye. And pink. He never did change a hair of color. He also wound up 17.1. He was a show Walker. He was just a little easy to see doing the strut. I used to have people rent him from me to ride in parades here in Tampa. My phone would ring off the hook for 3 weeks before the Gasparilla Parade, Tampa's version of Mardi Gras. He would carry a 4 year old kid safely.

I am just wondering if this filly gains a few scattered whites hairs here and there and does not change drastically, will that need to be changed. Right now it is very very mild...I realize that if it is very noticable the change will have to take place.

And yes plan to run her.

Let's face it, she's grey. If you expect to run her she has to have her papers changed. The horse identifier wouldn't let her near the track.

All the papers would have to say, for that color change, is "white hairs scattered throughout the coat"...any white patches, though, would need to be described (belly spots, etc.)

It's $50 to change the papers. But really, I would wait until she is ready for a lip tattoo, and go over her then. Especially if you think her markings are still evolving. You can get the papers changed in a week.

Elprado....she is NOT gray. And I do not believe she will turn gray. She has just started with some scattered whites hairs over the past few weeks. I may not have notice earlier due to winter coat even....but she is not gray. She is sorrel and a solid sorrel with white hairs you would not see unless you where right beside her.

I am not trying to determine a color here...I am asking if the hairs are this mild, if a color change on papers to note them would be a must before racing. That's all...and I believe I got my answer.

Thanks!

So, let's see. She's sorrel. She's sired by a grey. She's showing grey. But any thought of her being grey and it's imaginary. Ok, got it. She's going to be sorrel even when she's snow white.

LOL....first I never said she was showing gray...I said she had scattered white hairs and I could probably count them. This makes her "Snow White' now?? HAHAHAHA that is fricken halarious!!

A few white hairs does not make a horse gray or snow white....lol. Do you know what sorrel looks like? Well some call it chestnut and my version of chestnut is not the same as sorrel....let's see.....Secretariat is sorrel....she is the SAME color with A FEW SCATTERED WHITE HAIRS on her body...not legs, not head, not neck, just her body on her side and AGAIN I could count them right now.

I tell you what...you put her in your watch and when she is listed as "snow white" I will publicly say how right you are.

AGAIN this is NOT about what color my horse is, it is IF THESE FEW WHITE HAIRS WILL MAKE IT SO PAPERS HAVE TO BE CHANGED TO ADD THESE FEW WHITE HAIRS THAT WHERE NOT THERE 3 WEEKS AGO!!

But like 50% of the posters on here you also can not stick with the topic nor quote what I say, and you are trying to say my sorrel horse is "SNOW WHITE" and/or gray and trying to make this topic on what color she "really is"


Frick....really??

Why do you even bother, oleos93? you're snarky response to El Prado is out of line.

My "snarky response" followed theirs...that is why I bothered.

But theirs is on line? Hmmm I must start reading and judging what I feel is easy...maybe then I will fit in to the posters that go off topic, say things that are way out there, and make it about what they want to talk about...should I try that instead.

Should I agree and say oh yes Elprado your are so right, my sorrel horse REALLY is snow white and I just could not see it...I was sooo wrong, it was MILLIONS of white hairs and my question was the wrong question...I really needed to know what color my horse was and you Elprado nailed it for me and NOW I KNOW the truth...oh thank you, thank you so much for putting me straight and knowing what was really in my head and reading my thoughts and putting out there what I really needed to know. Please everyone forget my original question, that was not what I really needed to know, I have been set straight and my mind reader has made me see the error of my ways. I will now quickly go change her papers and send them in and put on there she is SNOW WHITE in color so I do not look stupid on race day and have her listed as a sorrel because I clearly do not know my horse and what color she is and the few white hairs I THOUGHT she had, again, was all in my mind and not really the truth. Please please all forgive me for bothering anyone in asking that silly silly obviously unjustified question I had as it was clearly wrong.


Is that better?