Roan

Any sort of roaning is the effect of white hairs throughout any colour coat.

 

This section talks about TRUE Roan or CLASSIC Roan. Not Sabino roaning, not appaloosa roaning, not even rabicano roaning. A True Roan will have a dark head and legs and varying about of roan in the body. It is caused by the Roan gene. Not very common except in American Mustang breeds, although it is know to occur in many other breeds everywhere. There are Roan Gypsy Horses but they are not at all common and most roan looking cobs are sabino.

 

Roan is dominant so for a roan foal to actually be a roan, it mast have had a roan parent. It is thought that homozygous, has two roan genes, roan could be lethal. It may or may not be true. However if it is lethal the foal is simply reabsorbed, a dead or sickly foal is not born like with the overo lethal white.

 

One of the most identifying characteristics of a true roan is when they lose hair, either from a bite or a scrape, the hair grows back without the roan. Thus a true roan usually has these little dark bits over the coat. It’s better illustrated in the mustang below that may have been scratched in his bush environment.

 

Black roans are often called blue roans and chestnut, even sometimes bay, roans are often called strawberry roans. But greys and sabinos are also called Blues by the Gypsies.

or dark bay roan, note the black head

and the bit of black on her knee

http://www.irishcobireland.com/

A black (blue) roan mare just before foaling.

She still has a bit of winter coat thus is lighter.

A roan may change colour through the seasons

but won’t get progressively lighter each year

http://www.gypsyhorses.co.uk

Another pic of the same filly from the front.

Her white pinto markings on the legs

hide the otherwise black points

http://www.irishcobireland.com/

The same mare as above in her summer coat.

This mare is especially noticeable as a true roan

As she does not have the white markings the

sabino roanings always have

http://www.gypsyhorses.co.uk

A bay roan mustang. He has an obviously red head
and the pale roan body. His legs have no roaning.
Also a few of the typical non roan scratches can
be seen on his body.

This is the foal from the mare above.

Although he hasn’t completely lost his foal coat

his body will stay mostly that colour with the

legs going dark as he loses the rest of  foal coat.

http://www.gypsyhorses.co.uk