Colour Information

The Gypsy Horse has no limitation on colour so although some colours and patterns are much more common, some of the more unusual ones can be quite popular. This is just to hopefully give you a basic understanding of what colour your horse might be.

The main key when learning about colour is to ignore the white. White is not important when determining the coloured parts of the horse. This is because the coloured parts and the white parts are not related and the genetic control of one has nothing to do with the genetic control of the other. The only time white becomes important is when we are talking about pinto and paint patterns.

Please if you have an unusually coloured Gypsy Horse I’d love to see pictures and hopefully use here on this site.

Special thanks to all the people who have let me use their pictures on the following pages.

Base Colours

Every horse, of any breed, will have a Black or a Red (Chestnut) base coat, regardless of its physical appearance.

• Black
• Chestnut

Colour Modifiers

Colour Modifiers are genes that modify a body colour, a mane and tail colour or both. These modifiers can range from very subtle to very extreme. Some Modifiers even have the ability to change the physical look of a horse to something totally different. The following are the common known modifiers:

• Bay/Agouti
• Grey
• Flaxen
• Sooty/Smutty
• Mealy/Pangare'

Colour Dilutions

Palomino, Buckskin and Taffy are examples of colours that are created when a base colour and a dilution gene are combined. Dilute genes include: Cream, Silver, Champagne and Dun. Although as yet I have never seen a true Dun Gypsy Horse and only one possible Champagne

• Cream
• Taffy/Silver
• Dun *Update*
• Champagne
• Pearl

Pinto Markings

Broken colour markings and patterns are very common with the Gypsy Horses. The pinto markings are just groups of white hairs or patches on the solid colour anywhere on the horse. It is thought that all white markings are one of the pinto genes, this includes minimum expression such as just a small star or sock. So although these are grouped together as pinto genes they are probably responsible for many more white markings that would never be classified as pinto:

• Tobiano
• Blagdon/Sabino
• Splashed White
• Overo

Other Patterns

This group is the roan related patterns. Like the pinto patterns they are simply white markings over the colour of the horse but instead of the white being grouped together in patches the individual white hairs are mixed in with the coloured hairs:

• Appaloosa
• Roan
• Rabicano

Other (Not Colour!)
I actually wanted to show you some of the unique things about the Gypsy Cob. That is HAIR!!! The first link is not done by me but a great reference when talking about feather in the Gypsy horse. The second is a little about the gypsy horse moustache and other extra hair.
Feather Moustache