Odd greying almost?

[Winona Ryder]

• So this guy has me stumped. Hes 20+ years old and hes only gotten darker on the bottom portion of him as hes aged? Saved are pictures of him as a 3yo and then him now
  
  odd greying?
  

[HallOfFame 2]

• So this guy has me stumped. Hes 20+ years old and hes only gotten darker on the bottom portion of him as hes aged? Saved are pictures of him as a 3yo and then him now
  
  odd greying?
  

From the little knowledge I know about this, it is happening because he has Varnishing Genes (from his Dam's side) which cause the horse to "grey out" and "darken" in a way. In the many horses classified as "Varnish" they usually start getting little Snowflakes either on their face, neck, or rump and sometimes their mane and tail will turn to a silvery color, which indicate Varnishing. He also probably carries some sort of Leopard (Lp) gene as well because of the Spotted Snowcap. I would classify the horse's coloring as Silver Buckskin Spotted Snowcap Varnish. But I could be wrong.

~ HOF 2

I have also linked another horse who contains the Lp and Varnish genes below, his current photo isn't up to date, but if you click on his picture it will bring you his profile where you can see his coat:
Saltwater Vixen

I would classify him as being Bay Spotted Blanket Varnish. (But that's my guess, the horses is really on here for reference to show how Varnishing works)

[Winona Ryder]

alright thank you! I've had others varnish out as most of my lines are heavily lp/patn influenced, ive just never had them varnish dark like he has before. Thank you so much!

[BlackOak2]

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HallOfFame is correct. What's happening to your horse is from the varnish gene and is directly related to Lp.

As a side note, the unusual appearance of the dark underside is appearing because of the combination of the varnish gene and most likely sooty.

Varnish does offer some rather unique expressions to appear, some in conjunction with other genes and some not. It doesn't appear your horse was affected by pangare, so I would conclude that it's a varnish and sooty combination and not a varnish and pangare or just a varnish.

However, it could also be straight varnish.

[Winona Ryder]

Awesome! Thank you both so much!