How did my horse go from being a chestnut to being a what ever color he is now?!

[Ivy Stables Holding]

I have a horse named liberty (https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/2694890) that I bought as a foal because I liked his color, and his build. He was a bright chestnut, as you'll see in his gallery, with a blaze, and two socks. Then, slowly he began to turn into an interesting color where he was silver on top, and chestnut on the bottom. I began too lose interest in him, and mainly just kept flipping through the days, just trying to get mares to foal. Very recently I looked back and saw that his color had turned into this:

Liberty

I thought that I would look back at his parents too see if it was something genetic, and what I found made this even more confusing. His sire was a dark bay paint (I think) and his dam was a silvery color. I'm

[AltNazarach]

I have a horse named liberty (https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/2694890) that I bought as a foal because I liked his color, and his build. He was a bright chestnut, as you'll see in his gallery, with a blaze, and two socks. Then, slowly he began to turn into an interesting color where he was silver on top, and chestnut on the bottom. I began too lose interest in him, and mainly just kept flipping through the days, just trying to get mares to foal. Very recently I looked back and saw that his color had turned into this:

Liberty

I thought that I would look back at his parents too see if it was something genetic, and what I found made this even more confusing. His sire was a dark bay paint (I think) and his dam was a silvery color. I'm

Hi there, liberty is carrying a gray gene (from his dam - she is gray as well, though with the training sheen it looks what you called silver ).
Liberty seems to me a Gray/Fleabitten Chestnut - with either a case of pangaré or varnish (from leopard complex) from his sires side :/ though for varnish it seems a bit to regular in its coverage... and i don't know how varnish/lp interacts with the gray gene - gray horses are always born with a solid adult coat and begin to gray out over the years. Might need a second opinion on this... ^^'

But the gray is easy to name if you know its signs

[Ivy Stables Holding]

Thanks

[Malakai10]

I have a horse named liberty (https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/2694890) that I bought as a foal because I liked his color, and his build. He was a bright chestnut, as you'll see in his gallery, with a blaze, and two socks. Then, slowly he began to turn into an interesting color where he was silver on top, and chestnut on the bottom. I began too lose interest in him, and mainly just kept flipping through the days, just trying to get mares to foal. Very recently I looked back and saw that his color had turned into this:

Liberty

I thought that I would look back at his parents too see if it was something genetic, and what I found made this even more confusing. His sire was a dark bay paint (I think) and his dam was a silvery color. I'm

Hi there, liberty is carrying a gray gene (from his dam - she is gray as well, though with the training sheen it looks what you called silver ).
Liberty seems to me a Gray/Fleabitten Chestnut - with either a case of pangaré or varnish (from leopard complex) from his sires side :/ though for varnish it seems a bit to regular in its coverage... and i don't know how varnish/lp interacts with the gray gene - gray horses are always born with a solid adult coat and begin to gray out over the years. Might need a second opinion on this... ^^'

But the gray is easy to name if you know its signs

It's easy to tell between a grey foal and a non-grey foal - even from birth.

Non-grey foals will always look like they have pangaré and their foal coat is slightly 'dustier' than their adult coat.

For example, observe these horses:

Tiger eye metallic chestnut

Newborn:



Almost 5-years-old:



Tiger eye chestnut

Newborn



Almost 4-years-old:



Tiger eye grey on metallic chestnut

Newborn:



Nearly 5-years-old:



Just over 13-years:



Tiger eye grey on chestnut

Newborn:



Just over 3:



Almost 11: