What is the difference between dun and buckskin horse coats?

Question

There is a pony at my barn who looks exactly like the pictures of Lundy ponies I see (I was never sure what breed he was). At my barn we always call him a buckskin, but the sites I looked at about Lundy ponies said they can be dun (and other colors), but not buckskin. What is the difference? Is buckskin splotchier, or what?

Answer 1

buckskin =yellow or gold body w/ a black mane and tail. the lower legs are usually black.

dun = gold body color and black or brown mane or tail. dorsal stripe.

Answer 2

According to AQHA: duns have the dorsal stripe and / or the cruz mark across the shoulders and 'zebra' markings on the legs.

Buckskins are similarly colored but have NO dorsal stripe.

Both Duns and buckskin have black 'points' on the legs

Grullos (masculine) and Grullas (feminine) are similar but seperate as they carry the black gene as well as the dun gene.  (black dun)   Grullo/grulla display primitive markings ( some intensely so) on the neck, legs, face and ears.

Lundy ponies:

"They typically are dun, roan, palomino, bay, or liver chestnut in color, and rarely exceed 13.2 hh in height"  (wiki)

Answer 3

Buckskin and dun are both caused by dilution genes that fade the base color of the horse.  Dun is a dominant gene.  One copy of the gene gives all characteristics which are known as primitive markings. This always includes a dorsal stripe, and may also show zebra striping on the legs, cobwebbing on the face, a transverse stripe on the wither and darker tipped ears.   A red horse with dun is known as a red dun,  a bay horse with dun is often mistaken for a buckskin, and a black horse with dun is known as a grulla.

Buckskin is caused by the Cream gene which is an incomplete dominant.  One copy of the cream gene will turn a red horse into a palomino.  Two copies of the gene will turn it into a cremello.  One copy on bay will make it a buckskin, two copies on bay makes it a perlino. One cream on black is known as smoky black and two is known as smoky cream.

Answer 4

A dun is the buckskin coloring but with a dorsal stripe and usually the zebra stipes on the legs. Also, a dun horse must carry the dun gene.

A buckskin is that same coloring with no markings. This colored horse must carry the creme gene.

Answer 5

Duns have dorsal stripes.

Answer 6

Buckskin and Dun are caused be two separate genes. Buckskin is a creme gene (which also makes cremellos, perlinos, palominos, and smoky blacks) on a bay base. Dun is given by the dun gene.

Dun horses have dorsal stripes and typically have horizontal stripes up their legs. They may also have striping on their shoulders. Dun can be on basically any color horse. A horse called a bay dun, red dun, dunalino, grulla, or grullo is a dun, with the name depending on what base coat the gene is on.

Some buckskins can have dorsal stripes without the dun gene, though that might cause registry problems with some breeds.

Answer 7

:). A dun is a horse that has a dorsal stripe running down it's back and into it's tail. We've always known the duns as the dorsal striped horses, sometimes with zebra stripes along the legs.

The buckskin is a golden coated horse with a black mane and tale, almost as though you slammed a black tale on a darker skinned palomino. Not a bay, but not a palomino because of the black points/black mane and tail. The buckskin does not have a dorsal stripe.

Dun horses can come in various other shades, such as cherry dun, etc. If they are a redish color with a dorsal stripe they are a dun. Duns can look just like a chestnut horse - except they have the dorsal stripe that runs along the back.

So dun = dorsal stripe :)

Answer 8

Dun horses have dorsal stripes (a dark stripe going down their back) and buskskins do not. Otherwise, they are about the same.

Answer 9

Duns and buckskins are the same thing. Duns, buckskins, grulla are a diluted black color. It is a recessive gene. Palomino's, cramello's and prellino are a dilution of the chestnut/sorrel gene. The duns have a more prominent dorsal stripe, where as a buckskin the dorsal stripe is there but harder to see many times. You can call a buckskin a dun but people get upset when you call a dun a buck. Duns and buckskins will vary in their color, from lighter to darker. Duns usually will have the zebra stripes.