Flaxen mane/tail change color with age?

Miniature Horse Talk Forums

Help Support Miniature Horse Talk Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Tanimals86

Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2021
Messages
18
Reaction score
25
Location
Salem, OR
Does anyone have a real life example of a foal's flaxen or white mane/tail changing color as they shed out? My colt was born looking palamino and his body is now darkening. I was brushing his tail and noticed the hair close to the tailbone is dark. Is there a chance of his mane and tail darkening like his body? His dad is a buttermilk buckskin, and I assume his mom is a silver bay (She's in the background of the napping pic). At birth I thought he was a silver bay too but now I am thinking silver dapple as he has lost his red hairs, but if his mane and tail are going to go dark too, then I'm clueless!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20210827_144630481.jpg
    IMG_20210827_144630481.jpg
    279.1 KB · Views: 8
  • IMG_20210909_101244754.jpg
    IMG_20210909_101244754.jpg
    592.5 KB · Views: 8
  • IMG_20210909_101436104_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20210909_101436104_HDR.jpg
    336.8 KB · Views: 9
  • IMG_20210909_101549488.jpg
    IMG_20210909_101549488.jpg
    285.9 KB · Views: 12
  • IMG_20210627_062947042.jpg
    IMG_20210627_062947042.jpg
    608.1 KB · Views: 8
Do you have pictures of sire and dam? As well as foal pics of him? He definitely looks silver bay to me. He’s got stride hooves I think? Dam looks silver bay as well.
 
One pic of his sire, then two pics from when he was two weeks old, with his dam. Thank you! And yes he does have striped hooves!

Do you have pictures of sire and dam? As well as foal pics of him? He definitely looks silver bay to me. He’s got stride hooves I think? Dam looks silver bay as well.
 

Attachments

  • blue.JPG
    blue.JPG
    16.3 KB · Views: 8
  • IMG_20210515_120646386.jpg
    IMG_20210515_120646386.jpg
    490.6 KB · Views: 8
  • original_55404ff4-123f-4689-aa9e-d3dee688c0ac_IMG_20210515_100631020_2.jpg
    original_55404ff4-123f-4689-aa9e-d3dee688c0ac_IMG_20210515_100631020_2.jpg
    573.4 KB · Views: 8
Hi Tanimals86,
The first two pictures are of my horse Rocko. And the 3rd one is of his tail now. The last two are of his parents so you can see the coloring of their tails. Amazing sometimes how much their coloring can change.
 

Attachments

  • Rocko baby.jpg
    Rocko baby.jpg
    97.7 KB · Views: 5
  • Rocko colt3.jpg
    Rocko colt3.jpg
    270.8 KB · Views: 5
  • Rocko's tail.jpg
    Rocko's tail.jpg
    90.7 KB · Views: 6
  • Rocko's Dad.jpeg
    Rocko's Dad.jpeg
    25.6 KB · Views: 6
  • Rocko's mother.jpeg
    Rocko's mother.jpeg
    46.8 KB · Views: 5
Hi Tanimals86,
The first two pictures are of my horse Rocko. And the 3rd one is of his tail now. The last two are of his parents so you can see the coloring of their tails. Amazing sometimes how much their coloring can change.
Wow, thank you so much for sharing the pics! Amazing how much he has changed. He's been beautiful in all stages! That chocolate brown, though - How gorgeous!
 
He may change a lot between winter and summer too. Especially the red hairs can look really different in the different seasons (they actually grow from separate follicles). Either way he's super cute!

Rowan is a silver bay pinto and his mane and tail (where they aren't white) are a complex combination of hairs that are flaxen, silver, and darker chocolate color. His legs above his high whites are a darker chocolate while most of his body looks chestnut. He does not have striped hooves, but he has four white socks so his hooves are all white also. Of course I have no idea what he looked like as a foal, but maybe the end result comes down to the exact ratio of the different colored hairs as well as how much the dilution is affecting them?

If you find your horse gets really bleached-looking in the summer, it could actually mean they need more copper and zinc. I think there has been some research also that shows that horses with dilution genes (what I read referred mainly to chestnut since it's the most common, so I'm not sure whether it applies to other dilution genes) may have higher trace mineral requirements because they don't metabolize certain things as well. I'm not sure how good this research was but I do know that my bay horse's mane stopped sun-bleaching to brown when he was getting minerals to balance his forage. And when I was doing saddle fitting, I noticed that chestnuts and palominos were FAR more prone to white hair formation from saddle fit issues than horses with non-diluted base coat colors.
 
Beautiful little colt!! 😍



I love silver!! My little Stormy is always changing colors, it is sooooo cool!
Here is a baby pic of him:
A7B2C32A-A8C3-4CEA-B3C8-3AA5F9DAE327.jpeg




I love this pic of him, has to be one of my favs:
4B3A6126-E589-401E-A5AA-86E1B77712BF.jpeg


Then he will also turns a copper brown when his hair starts to grow out. I haven’t noticed his tail or mane turning colors yet.
A6DAFF1A-02C3-4F67-8A95-081F5FC7983C.jpeg


Sometimes he doesn’t even look like the same horse….but he is always silver with the first clipping in the spring time.
 
Here is a bit of an example.
Migo, a silver bay, at age 3
Screenshot_20210909-202807_Samsung Internet.jpg

And this is his mane tonight at age 6
1631237349964.jpg
The ends are still light but the mane is growing out quite a bit darker.
 
Looks silver bay. Likely going through a dark foal shed, and then getting winter hair too.
 
He may change a lot between winter and summer too. Especially the red hairs can look really different in the different seasons (they actually grow from separate follicles). Either way he's super cute!

Rowan is a silver bay pinto and his mane and tail (where they aren't white) are a complex combination of hairs that are flaxen, silver, and darker chocolate color. His legs above his high whites are a darker chocolate while most of his body looks chestnut. He does not have striped hooves, but he has four white socks so his hooves are all white also. Of course I have no idea what he looked like as a foal, but maybe the end result comes down to the exact ratio of the different colored hairs as well as how much the dilution is affecting them?

If you find your horse gets really bleached-looking in the summer, it could actually mean they need more copper and zinc. I think there has been some research also that shows that horses with dilution genes (what I read referred mainly to chestnut since it's the most common, so I'm not sure whether it applies to other dilution genes) may have higher trace mineral requirements because they don't metabolize certain things as well. I'm not sure how good this research was but I do know that my bay horse's mane stopped sun-bleaching to brown when he was getting minerals to balance his forage. And when I was doing saddle fitting, I noticed that chestnuts and palominos were FAR more prone to white hair formation from saddle fit issues than horses with non-diluted base coat colors.
Thanks so much for this info! With my goats, they definitely show their mineral deficiencies with their hair bleaching - hasn't thought to wonder if that was true for horses. I have a buckskin who gets really coppery in her mane and take and this has made me want to investigate whether her mineral mix is correct.
 
Beautiful little colt!! 😍



I love silver!! My little Stormy is always changing colors, it is sooooo cool!
Here is a baby pic of him:
View attachment 44516




I love this pic of him, has to be one of my favs:
View attachment 44517


Then he will also turns a copper brown when his hair starts to grow out. I haven’t noticed his tail or mane turning colors yet.
View attachment 44518


Sometimes he doesn’t even look like the same horse….but he is always silver with the first clipping in the spring time.
Wow, the difference is amazing! I hope my Walter grows a tail like THAT someday!
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top