Detecting Hidden Silver when horse shopping

[remington]

I noticed during my horse browsing endeavors it seems there are quite a few horses that are advertised as "buckskin, palomino, or sorrel" but APPEAR like they may have the silver gene.

Is there a way to detect hidden silver besides pedigree info? I know silver hides very well in sorrel....can it totally hide in buckskins and palominos as well? How about duns?

How can you shop and not be fooled?

 

[Jill]

I would put very, very little weight on what the pedigrees say as to horse color.

On palomino and sorrel, silver is very hard and sometimes (usually?) impossible to detect by looking.

However, on buckskins, it is very easy to see because it lightens the points.

 

[Becky]

Is there a way to detect hidden silver

I think as Jill said, there's very little way to detect silver in some colors. It can really hide and pedigrees are no help. I have a silver dapple mare here registered as a palomino! She's a classic silver dapple and though I suppose she could carry creme, she definitely is silver!

 

[Dona]

Chestnuts/Sorrels can be difficult....and Palominos, almost impossible.

But....if you know what you are looking for, you can usually detect the silver gene on Chestnut/Sorrels. They will have lightened manes & tails (anwhere from lots of gray hairs to silvery white!) They will also have noticeably "lightened" hair (around the fetlocks). It will have a "silvery" look to it....different from "flaxen".

:

As others have already said....Silver on a buckskin is easy to detect, as it lightens the manes, tails & legs to various degrees.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Silver will show on any Black based horse,- the exception being Perlino when it would be very difficult to tell if a horse were Perlino + Silver, and Grey, when, unless it has shown it at birth, and often they do not, again, it is almost to impossible to tell by looking.

The current accepted theory is that Silver does not show on Red, therefore it will be possible for a Chestnut or Palomino to completely hide it, and I would not base any hopes on a Palomino with a Silver Dam or Sire- it is just too much of a lottery.

Dun + Silver seems to do a few unexpected things, too- as you can see from Jill's thread on exactly this. Sarah has posted some good examples of mares, proven by breeding to be Silver + Dun, and some of their offspring.

One other thing is that Cream in a Black horse would appear also to have an unexpected effect on Silver, as the mane and tail do not appear to go as pale, thus a Smoky Silver Black will often have a darker mane and tail than a Silver Black.

 

[js1arab]

One thing to check out is what color are any other offspring from the parents of the horse you're considering. If a horse your looking at has had any foals of their own, what colors were they. Sometimes that's the only real way to know if none of the horses have been tested. If you see silver traits in the offspring when bred to a known non-silver then obviously your horse would carry silver, but if you don't necessarily see silver, it may still be lurking LOL. Example, silver chestnut crossed to a chestnut, you could end up with a silver chestnut foal, but it might not be any more recognizable than the parent was

: I thought I was going to offer some useful advise, but that probably didn't help as much as I'd like to have :bgrin

 

[Bess Kelly]

At certain times of the year an individual horse "may" show a little more of the silver. I have a silver chestnut who is usually referred to (& looks it) as a palomino when someone is looking at the mares. At times you can see the silvery shadow on her legs...maybe only a month out of the shedded season. BUT, in the winter she is tan on the outside and very much a silver on the inner part of her coat. At shedding, she appears to change color as the coat goes to white/gray, then to the golden look. This mare has a minimal amount of silver in her mane/tail...primarily, it's off white.

So, if you were looking to detect color, you may want to see them at different times of the year -- even pics could be quite helpful. Some of these guys have so many "color factors" in one package that it becomes a lottery, for sure

:

 

[slaneyrose]

Well I have a question .....my black silver mare had a colt for my palomino pinto with blue eyes and the colt is 8mths now.......he has a wide blaze and one blue eye.......AND a white tail (no white on legs or anywhere else) and his mane is chestnut like his body. Could this boy carry silver or is this a minimally marked tovero, tobiano or whatever???