a dispute

[GrayGray]

Hello experts! =))))

We had a dispute:
Does this horse have a silver?
Is it Palomino?
Is it zonal darkening?
If so, how did you figure it out?
Zonal darkening - sotty. Why is it not indicated in its color, if so?

[GoldenCenter]

Hello experts! =))))

We had a dispute:
Does this horse have a silver? NO!!!
Is it Palomino? It is a chocolate palomino.
Is it zonal darkening? Maybe a little....
If so, how did you figure it out?The white mane gives it the palomino part of it's color. The dark (really dark) sooty with a hint of yellow makes it a chocolate palomino.
Zonal darkening - sotty. Why is it not indicated in its color, if so?

[GrayGray]

Does this horse have a silver? NO!!!
Is it Palomino? It is a chocolate palomino.
Zonal darkening - sotty. Why is it not indicated in its color, if so?

What if it's not palomino after all, but buckskin? Silver Dapple Buckskin+Sty
Tell me the genotype of the chocolate palomino please.

[Jockey's Holding]

What if it's not palomino after all, but buckskin? Silver Dapple Buckskin+Sty
Tell me the genotype of the chocolate palomino please.

It may help if you have pictures of the parents. It can be difficult to determine a genotype without them.

[BlackOak2]

Though real life horse colors can differ a bit from HWO genetics, this horse does appear to be a palomino with sooty overlay.

Silver (according to HWO, and I think also extends to real life) simply cannot appear on the red-based coats. So unless a genetics test was done proving silver, there is no way to tell if this horse has it or not.

And although flaxen does lighten red-based horses' manes and tails, because this horse is already diluted by a cream gene (assuming it is not a new mutation or unknown gene) and the mane and tail is already lightened from that, there is also no way (beyond a gene test) to know for certain if this horse is flaxen as well.

So a 'chocolate palomino' is, in my opinion, an acceptable enough description.

I assume when you mean 'zonal darkening - sotty' you mean the darkening in 'zoned' areas of the horse, i.e. the flank, the rump, the shoulder, etc, 'darkening - sotty', is the sooty black.

Spelling does help.
sotty = The feeling one comes to terms with when first waking from sleep and realizing that he or she does not want to go to work even though the person is physically and mentally able and has the ways and means to work. - Urban Dictionary
Not an 'actual word'.
sooty = the color of soot (meaning very dark in color, i.e. black-like)

If that is not what you meant, then I don't understand what 'zonal darkening - sotty' means in relation to horses.

And as for the very last question you have: 'Why is it not indicated in its color, if so?'
It is indicated, it would be the word 'chocolate'. However, it appears it's a tag-word and that the people themselves that made the post may be as unsure of the horse color as many generally are.

I don't believe this is a buckskin. It simply lacks the bay markers for a buckskin (black-tipped ears, black nose, black lower legs). Though this horse appears to have these, it's a 'dusted on the hair' look and not actually the entire hair from follicle to tip black.

[Ritazuki]

Silver only affects black pigment, So I don't think that's the case. From the "yellow" base (on the dapples) and the light mane, I'd say it's a palomino. The body gets darker because of the sooty gene - I don't know if it always happens, but I've seen sooty causing dapples on a lot of horses (or at least making them more apparent, since some horses without sooty seem to be dappled as well).
Here are some sooty palomino horses:

Morgan

Miniature horse

Quarter horse

As you can see, the coat shade can vary a lot depending on the base palomino shade + the intensity of the sooty expression.