Coat Colors II

GRAY – A pattern of white hairs mixed with colored body and point hairs; gray horses are born colored and become progressively more white with each shedding; the mane and tail may either remain dark or go white before the coat grays; dappling is common and the skin is always pigmented; graying tends to mask white patterns on the horse as he ages.

WHITE – A solid white coat with a few pigmented skin spots; the horse will usually have brown eyes.

PERLINO – A nearly white or cream-colored coat having slightly red or blue points; the horse will have blue eyes.

DUN – A generic term; all lighter-colored horses that may or may not have black points; more specifically, yellow horses with black points which include all shades of yellow mixed with other colors to create variations from pale, creamy gold, to a dirty tan; commonly have amber (hazel) eyes, although some have gray eyes; horses with non-black points include red and yellow duns; variations include dusty dun, grullo, claybank, coyote dun, golden dun, silver dun, zebra dun, lilac dun, red dun and yellow dun; also known as bayo or gateado.

BUCKSKIN – A type of dun having a grayish-brown yellow coat, black points, and a head of a similar, but darker color than the body; wither and dorsal stripes and stripes over the knees and hocks may occur; variations include zebra dun, dusty buckskin, smutty buckskin and silver buckskin.

All definitions are excerpts from Horsewords: The Equine Dictionary
By Maria Belknap; Trafalgar Square Publishing; ISBN: 1-57076-274-0.