Is this a special Gene or just normal?

[KaiCrow]

I have this young stallion that I bred a long time ago, and he was a surprise to say the least.
Both his parents were light foals, his sire being a palomino at birth and his dam being a pale brown at birth.
I raised his dam from birth and she went from that pale brown, to what I can only call a purple roan, and now she's a very light red roan. You can tell from her photos that she definitely lightened up from when she was younger.

So with the stallion in question, it was a shocker when this dark blue roan foal came out of my lightXlight breeding project! I know that his Grand-dam was a blue roan, but I didn't think that it would be that recessive.

Anywho, he was born rather dark, and stayed that way until about the age of 3 years, where now hes starting to lighten up like his mother did, but a lot later. He's developing more red colors in his body, mane, and tail, but he's still technically a blue roan.. right?
Heres the colt right now

And here is him at 2 years

and him again at 1 year

[Madpony2.0]

He's normal! Beautiful blue roan

[h0rsey]

I have this young stallion that I bred a long time ago, and he was a surprise to say the least.
Both his parents were light foals, his sire being a palomino at birth and his dam being a pale brown at birth.
I raised his dam from birth and she went from that pale brown, to what I can only call a purple roan, and now she's a very light red roan. You can tell from her photos that she definitely lightened up from when she was younger.

So with the stallion in question, it was a shocker when this dark blue roan foal came out of my lightXlight breeding project! I know that his Grand-dam was a blue roan, but I didn't think that it would be that recessive.

Anywho, he was born rather dark, and stayed that way until about the age of 3 years, where now hes starting to lighten up like his mother did, but a lot later. He's developing more red colors in his body, mane, and tail, but he's still technically a blue roan.. right?
Heres the colt right now

And here is him at 2 years

and him again at 1 year

He's roan, it's normal

[BlackOak2]

I have this young stallion that I bred a long time ago, and he was a surprise to say the least.
Both his parents were light foals, his sire being a palomino at birth and his dam being a pale brown at birth.
I raised his dam from birth and she went from that pale brown, to what I can only call a purple roan, and now she's a very light red roan. You can tell from her photos that she definitely lightened up from when she was younger.

So with the stallion in question, it was a shocker when this dark blue roan foal came out of my lightXlight breeding project! I know that his Grand-dam was a blue roan, but I didn't think that it would be that recessive.

Anywho, he was born rather dark, and stayed that way until about the age of 3 years, where now hes starting to lighten up like his mother did, but a lot later. He's developing more red colors in his body, mane, and tail, but he's still technically a blue roan.. right?
Heres the colt right now

Not exactly a rarity, but definitely rare if you've been able to gather together what I think you've been able to.

He is definitely a blue roan. The reason he's changing colors to the red spectrum is because of the Leopard Complex gene that controls 'Bronzing' which is the 'reddening of black-pigmented hairs'. I don't see any apparent snowflakes on him and he does appear to be a much slower 'varnisher' which is another trait of Leopard Complex that will happen to any horse if they have the Lp switch (even if there are no pattern genes at all). However, I am suspicious of the area on his rear leg, in the shadow of the muscles. There does appear to be a 'spotting' there that could be snowflakes or it could just be the roaning.

So he is a blue roan, with a bronzing attribute.

His dame is a classic champagne roan. On black, but paired also with the champagne gene, those freckles are your key.
His sire is a palomino pangare roan and also carries Leopard Complex, but in his case, it appears just the varnishing aspect. Hmm... he might also have flaxen, though that's a difficult conclusion.