How is it a grey when it is a bay in the photos?

Question

I often see foals, colts and fillies listed as grey but when I look at the pictures, they appear to be bays.

How do they know that it will be a grey?

Say I want a grey arabian, do they guarantee it will later turn grey if this is the case?

Answer 1

You can generally tell early on if a baby will grey out. The foal coat is darker than it should be (but not always bay or black!), the horse will start to get "goggles" - rings of white hair around the eyes, you'll see flecks of white in the coat. And of course the foal has to have at least one grey parent. If one parent is homozygous grey it's really easy - every one of their foals will be grey.

Answer 2

Because they are bay when they are young... I have a connemara who was bay, nearly black as a foal and now she is grey.

http://www.bebo.com/PhotoAlbumBig.jsp?Me...

Shae was boen darker but is starting to change colour in the pic.

Do you see the way the front end is still darker

Answer 3

My grey connemara was born bay, but now she is really grey.  She is pregnant now, and the sire is also grey but started out bay.  Odds are, her baby is going to be born bay, but end up grey.  Most likely the horse will turn grey if they say it will because of it's parents history.  There is that chance though that they might not, like the Lipizzaner that stays black.

Answer 4

They typically start out as a bay or a black...they can most likely tell because grey is a fairly dominant color. They probley know my the dam and/or sire whether it will be gret or not. They can also tell if it starts turining grey around the eyes, nose, and ears :)

I am sure if it DIDN'T turn grey, and you wanted it to turn grey you wiould probley get a refund (but I doubt that would happen)

I know my grey Arabian must have been bay/black because on his registration papers it says he has all theses sock and like a star and a strip (you can see his snip because his nose is pink hehehe) but he is WAY to white to see if he has all those markings...so when he was registered he HAD TO have been darker.

I hope this helped you out some.

Oh, here is an example this horse was balck when he was bor and you can see him starting to change to a grey :)

http://www.cyberemporium.com/wildwindand...

Answer 5

Greys aren't born grey but they aren't necessarily born black either.  When they are born, they often have quite a few scattered grey hairs throughout their mane and tail.

Filly from last year May 16:

http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f147/l...

Same filly 7 months later:

http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f147/l...

Born Chesnut... she will be a very light grey by the time she is two.

Answer 6

They probably know it is going to turn out gray cause of its parents or something

look at this baby and then when it is about 3

http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e346/H...

http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e346/H...

Answer 7

You can usually tell that a dark horse will turn grey when he has some grey hair on his head. The owners also might be able to see some other gray areas or some areas that are lightening since they see the horse in real life every day. That's probably difficult to see in photos.

I doubt a seller will 'guarantee' that a horse will turn grey. Remember that grey horses are born dark and turn grey.

Answer 8

color can turn gray as horses get older

Answer 9

Grey horses are generally born bay or black. If they say it's going to be gray, I would believe them. I'm not sure how they know, but it's probably b/c of the parents.  

Answer 10

You can tell if the horse will turn grey later on because even though the horse may be born dark (bay, brown, black, etc.), the base of the hairs are usually white (grey), even at birth.  As the foal sheds its "baby coat," this gray will become more obvious.

So from a distance, like in a photo, it is hard to tell, but if you could see that horse in person you could tell.