Horse suit

For horses since the time of Hippocrates, it is customary to distinguish four main suits:

• bay ( Czech Hnědá : brown ), bay ^{[3] [4]} ;
• redhead ;
• gray ;
• crow .

The remaining suits are considered to be derivatives of these basic four suits. Recently, however, it is customary to base the classification of stripes on genetics abroad. The American scientist Dr. Phillip Sponenberg ^[5] distinguishes as the main colors:

• black;
• bay;
• redhead.

According to the classification of Ann Bowling ^[6] , the main colors of horses are:

• black;
• redhead.

These colors are characteristic of factory breeds obtained by artificial selection. The fewer breeds experienced this selection, the more varied the color of the horses.

Raven

Black - completely black :

• Crow in a tan - a variety of black color, which burns out in the sun in the summer. The black and tan horse’s tan, burnt-out ends of hair. With special instability of black pigment and prolonged exposure to bright sun, such a horse can become almost dirty brown in color. In winter, these horses again become black.
• Ash-black - the mention of this suit is sometimes found in domestic literature on the inheritance of suits. Genetically, this color is associated with saline, bulan and isabella (see below). Ash-black in appearance is difficult to distinguish from ordinary black, although the color of the coat of such a horse - the “bearer” of the “Isabella” gene - is slightly less saturated and has a specific dark brown or chestnut tint.
• Silver-black - the body is lightened from sepia color with pronounced apples to almost light gray in apples with a silver tint. The latter option differs from the real gray in apples with a head color that is darker than the body. Very rarely found black body color with a silver-white mane and tail.

Baying

A bay is a horse whose body is brown in various shades, from fiery red to almost black, similar to carapace, and the mane, tail and lower legs, to the hocks and carpal joints, inclusive, are black. Occasionally, the so-called “wild” bay color occurs, in which the black hair on the horse’s legs is partially mixed with brown, as a result of which the distal extremities are not coal-black, and the black hair does not reach the carpal and hock joints ^[7] :

• Karakova , Karakova ^[8] - the darkest blind span of bay suit. The body, mane and tail are black, but from the black suit the caracas is distinguished by the presence of pronounced brown (or red / golden) tan marks on the muzzle, around the eyes, under the armpits and in the groins.
• Silver bay - body color like a bay horse, but the mane and tail are lightened from dark brown to almost white. Sometimes the tail is much brighter than the mane, and vice versa. You can distinguish a silver-bay suit from a play one by the legs: a silver-bay horse will have dark legs (black or faded brown).
• Bulanaya , Bulaniy ^[9] - yellowish-sandy or golden with black mane, tail and lower parts of the legs to the hocks and carpal joints inclusive. Shades from almost cream (light) to close to dark bay, dirty yellow-gray-brown “jackal” tone (dark). Unusually dark-brown in apples: it looks as if a contrast-dark grid has been thrown over a golden background. Some reddish hues approach light bay. A black belt is sometimes noticeable.
• Silver-Bulan - the color of the body is like a bulan horse, but in the mane and tail a large proportion of blond hair. It is extremely rare.

Redhead

Red - entirely red color; It has different shades from light apricot and yellow to dark chestnut, bordering light brown. The mane and tail can be darker in comparison with the body (for example, brown with a light golden shade of hair) or lighter (with an admixture of whitish hair). In some red horses, the mane and tail turn white depending on the time of year. The legs of a red horse are always the same shade as the torso. This is its main difference from the bay suit:

• Brown - color is derived from red. In fact, this is a very dark red color. Brown horse wholly brown, chocolate or roasted coffee. The darkest version of the brown suit can be confused with the dark bay: the body is dark brown in color, the mane and tail are so dark that they appear black. You can distinguish a dark brown suit from a dark bay suit by the color of the lower legs: in a brown horse they will be about the same shade as the hull.
• Playroom - red or brown with white or smoky (mixed with gray hair) mane and tail. Unlike a redhead with a lightened mane and tail, a long horse has the same color in a playful horse throughout the year. A horse of a playful suit is Igren , in another source, red-haired with a light mane and tail.
• Solovaya , Solovoy ^[10] - yellowish-golden with a white mane and tail. Light and medium shades are close to a bulan, dark have a rich reddish-yellow color. Sometimes the mane and tail are not white, but yellow, the same shade as the coat, or somewhat lighter.
• Isabella , Isabella ^[11] - cream-colored wool, or the color of baked milk , the skin on the whole body is pink, eyes are blue. A rare suit genetically associated with saline and bulan. In other stripes, with the exception of spotted (piebald and brown) and white-born, the skin has a gray color.

Gray

Gray is gray. On any of the above suits an admixture of white hair, which increases with each molt. A gray foal can be born, for example, as a black foal, but already at the age of several months it will have white hairs, which will become more and more with age. By its "coming of age" this foal will already have a fairly light gray color, and after a few years it may turn white. The head and belly turn gray and look the lightest, the colored hair remains for a long time on the croup and legs, especially on the hock and carpal joints. The gray suit is characterized by “apples” - round lighter spots that repeat the network of subcutaneous blood vessels. But there are, although quite rarely, gray horses with no “apples” at all. The gray-haired horses may appear small colored spots - this is a gray suit in buckwheat. The speed of graying gray horses is individual, some become completely white by the age of three or four, and some remain quite dark right up to old age. The white-haired horse is called light gray, despite the almost pure white hair color. The gray suit refers to suits of two mixed colors of both integumentary hair and mane with a tail. This is a mixture of black hair and white. Their combinations in different proportions and configurations give both a dark gray and a light gray suit, or ermine (almost black tail and mane with a light body), or “in apples”. By old age, gray horses become completely white with small dark spots scattered throughout the body - “buckwheat”.

Whiteborn

White-born (or white dominant ) - a horse that has already been born completely white (unlike light gray, which is born dark and brightens with age). It has white coat and pink skin (rather than gray, unlike light gray), there may be blue eyes. Extremely rare suit. There is a misconception that white-born horses are albinos, but this is not so. Albinism is created by a specific genetic mechanism that horses do not have.

Wild suits

Wild suits are the ancestors of modern suits. For “wild” suits, the so-called “wild” marks are characteristic: a clear black-brown strip along the ridge - “belt”, on the legs there are often weakly marked transverse stripes - “zebroidity”, sometimes there are “wings” - a blurry dark transverse strip on the shoulders, a clear dark fringing of the ears and “hoarfrost” - whitish locks in the mane and tail, mainly along the edges.

• Kaurai is the ancestor of modern redhead. The body color is reddish, the mane and tail are reddish brown, darker than the body, and the legs are the same color as the body, with the highest color intensity in the area of ​​the carpal and hock joints. Mandatory red-red "belt", often "zebroid". Kauruy is also called red-savras.
• Savrasaya is the ancestor of the modern bay. The suit of Przewalski's horse. The body color is faded, uneven, with a brightening on the stomach. The mane, tail and lower parts of the legs are black, but often not entirely, and their color is often unclean.
• Mouse - the ancestor of modern gray. The coat is ash-gray, sometimes with a brownish tint, the mane, tail and legs are black, like Savras. The coloring of the body is uneven, like that of Savras and Kara. “Strap”, “zebroidity”.

Spotted and Other

• Piebald - large white spots of irregular shape are scattered along any of the above suits. The location of the white spots is very diverse, in accordance with it several types of pies are distinguished.
• Chubaray - in small oval spots, is formed on the basis of red, bay, black, bulan, salt and other "background" suits. The spots have the color of this base coat, and the background for them is formed by an admixture of this coat of white wool and a white symmetrical spot in the sacral region. This white spot can cover almost the entire body of the horse, then you get a white horse in the “leopard” spots. The skin is in pink dots, the hooves are “striped”: longitudinal stripes of a dark and unpainted horn alternate on them.
• The roan is a strong admixture of white hair against the background of any of the above suits. The head and lower parts of the legs often have the least white hair and retain the color of the “base” suit. The roan suit does not change with age.

A striking feature of horses are markings. They have their own names: “belt” - stripes on the ridge, “zebroidity” - stripes on the legs. There are marks on the head. Depending on the amount of white hair, they are called differently. When there are few white hairs, they are only slightly scattered - this is a gray hair, or gray hair, gray hair; crowded into a small speck - an asterisk; the big spot is a star; a narrow strip descending from a star down, or a strip without a star - a hole. If the strip comes from the nostrils or captures them and at the same time is quite wide, then this is a bald spot. A very wide bald head, reaching the eyes and exciting the nose, upper and even lower lips, is called a lantern.

Marks on the legs are not only in the form of narrow and wide uneven stripes, but also gray hair, spots. White spots on the legs can reach the wrists and hocks, and even higher, and then they say that the horse is “in socks”, “stockings” and even “pants”. Dark marks on the legs are usually found in the form of speckles and spots on a white background in the area of ​​the corolla (place above the hoof under the headstock, put), heels, and on the body are on the shoulders, croup. The Arabs used to call the dark spot on the horse’s croup “the seal of Mohammed” and considered such a horse marked by Allah. The “belt” on the top line of the hull is characteristic of mice, savras, and bulan suits, while “zebroidity” on the legs distinguishes horses of many native breeds , for example, Bashkir.

Gray hair is found not only on the head or limbs, but also on the neck, trunk, groin, and tail of the tail. It is customary to talk about such horses "in gray hair" - black in gray hair, red in gray hair, etc.

A feature of some horses are tanning and sub-bashing. Tanning is quite common - it is lightening the color of the hair on a bay, crow, red "shirt" at the end of the muzzle ("fox nose"), as well as around the eyes, in the groin, on the back and inside of the hips. The sub-slats are the brightening of the lower abdomen. They are characteristic for horses of native breeds.

Many suits (bay, red, nightingale, bulanic) can have a bright golden hue. It is especially characteristic of the Akhal-Teke, Karabakh, Don and Budyonnovsk breeds. The horse has a whitish tan on the nose, stomach, inside of the legs and around the eyes. Coddling is possible against the background of any suit, but is most often observed in bay, carapace, red or gameren horses. Often the extremities turn out to be more lightened than the body - in gray, brown and red.

Pure white strands grow on some Savras and micey horses along the edges of the black mane and tail. This is especially noticeable in the Norwegian fjord breed.

Stripes are usually associated with “zonar” (“wild”) stripes (savras, kaur, mice), occasionally with a bulan and saline; it is usually found on the horse’s legs and is called “zebroidity”. This feature is the inheritance of wild ancestors, tarpan .

Each breed has its own “set” of stripes - this is natural, since the stripes are inherited, and in any breed the horses are connected by a common origin. In some breeds, the suit is an important breeding trait (for example, in the Friesian breed a black horse will not be allowed for breeding), in others, on the contrary, breeders act on the principle of “a good horse does not have a suit”. There are breeds in which there is only one suit (for example, all black races, red donchaks, almost all playful gafflingers) or one suit is predominant (up to 80% in the Budyonnovsky breed of red horses, in the Andalusian the same percentage is gray, most Russians horsemen have a black suit). At the same time, there are breeds with a very rich "palette" of suits, for which, on the contrary, it is difficult to name a suit that could not be found in this breed. Aboriginal breeds are especially “heterogeneous”. For example, except Icelandic horses are not exceptionally sharp, and among the Mongolian almost all existing suits are common.

• The gray color prevails in the Lippitsian breed , in the French heavy trucks of the Percheron and Boulogne breeds , in horses of the Shagia breed, Lusitano from Portugal, and is also widespread in Arabian horses (more than a third of all horses), Orlov trotters (about half of the livestock) and Andalusian from Spain. Always gray suits Camargue horses from France, Tersk horses from Russia. Extremely rare are gray purebred riding horses , standard- bred (American trotters), Karachai and Kabardian breeds from Russia. The gray suit of the French trotters is not found.
• The black color is often found in Kabardian and Karachai breeds of horses. Always the black suit have the Dutch friezes and the French Aryoguazes. Quite often, shires, perchers, Oryol trotters, Cladrub horses, German half-breeds (Trakenen, Hanover, etc.) have a black suit. In smaller quantities, black horses are found in other trotting breeds (Russian, American, French), as well as in purebred horse.
• Cleveland bay horses from Great Britain are famous for their coat colors - there are no other stripes in this breed. In general, bay color is one of the most common and is found everywhere, both in factory breeding horses and in native and outbred horses.
• The red suit also belongs to one of the most common and, like bay, is characteristic of many breeds of various types, from the world's fastest purebred horse to the Soviet heavy truck and from the "star" of the classic equestrian sport of Hanover to the Kazakh "steppes" and Mezen and Pechora horses from the northern forests. Almost completely red horses of the Don breed (the most characteristic shade is a bright golden-red, with a contrastingly darker mane and tail); the Budennovskaya breed inherited this suit from the Donets (however, bay horses are found in it, and in rare cases even black horses). The most common red and brown suits are in a number of heavy truck species: Russian and Soviet (Russia), Breton (France), Suffolk (England), and Belgian. There are numerous red horses in the breeds related to each other, the French horse (sel france) and the French trotter, as well as in the half-breeds of Germany. Red horses also prevail in the Fredericksborg breed from Denmark, akin to the knuckle knabs group.
• A rare isabella color is found in all breeds and populations where there are volcanic or saline horses - the fact is that these colors are genetically related. There are Isabella among Akhal-Teke horses, Kinsky horses and some pony breeds; In addition, there are specially bred breeds of American "cream" riding horses. The name of the suit "Isabella" comes from the name of the Spanish Queen Isabella. The legend tells of her vow for three years not to change her shirt - that is, it turns out that the Isabella horse has the color of her shirt. But it is worth considering that it was under Queen Isabella that the "yellow" suits (nightingale, mulled and isabella) came into fashion. In Western European languages, “isabella” refers to where there are salt horses, where are brown horses, but we got this name already in the 20th century when, when studying genetics of suits (by the way, mainly on the example of Akhal-Teke horses), it was necessary to separate light-salt horses (having dark skin and eyes) from pink-skinned "false albinos" - isabella.
• Riding horses are also rare. True, another breed of blunt horses is much more widely known - appaloosa, which is widespread in many countries of the New and Old Worlds. She was bred in America and goes back to the horses of the non-Persian Indians; although in the breed of appaloosa there are rather stringent requirements for the origin, appearance and performance of horses, the forecoat is the most important breeding trait. Chubara color is also found in separate lines of the Norikian (Pinzgauer) breed from Austria, among American miniature horses. Of the native breeds, this exotic color suit (albeit in small quantities) is Mongolian, Altai, Kazakh, which suggests that historically a mutation giving this color could have arisen in Central Asia. In the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, the black horses were very fashionable among the nobility and the royal people of Europe.
• The pinto is in a "dual" position. On the one hand, this is a bright exotic suit that attracts attention, and as such, it was very popular in the 16th – 18th centuries, along with forelock, salty and boulan. And not without reason in the USA there is even a special breed of pinto horses - painthorse , one of the most popular and numerous. On the other hand, in the past, pinto was often considered "plebeian", "gypsy", "cow" - that is, it enjoyed a certain dislike. In most factory breeds, pinto is not found, it is mainly distributed among various breeds of ponies, native breeds and outbred work horses.
• Eagle horses are mostly heavy trucks . Jutland and Schleswig from Germany, Nori (Norikers) from Austria, Soviet heavy trucks from Russia. Finnish “cold-blooded” horses (native breed), running today at hippodromes like trotters, are of the same suit. But there are never playful relatives of the Finnish Norwegian and Swedish trotters, they are always of dark colors - black, dark bay, brown. There are game horses in the Icelandic breed.

• Leopard - Chubaray.
• White called Arabian horses of light gray color.
• In oil - wool with a greasy sheen.
• Blue - black with a bluish tint, gray with a bluish tint, micey.
• Playful - the popular name of the play suit.
• Isabella in the old days was called light-salt horses. According to the Dictionary of V.I. Dahl, this name was used to denote a coat with a reddish tint.
• Kaltaray - sib. bay with a white mane, possibly silver bay.
• Kalyunaya - east-sib. Bulan with red or Bulan-Savras.
• Hazel - black with a dark brown tint, that is, black in tan or ashen-black.
• Winged - a horse with a savras, a mouse or a kauri of a suit with a dark mantle.
• Lapti - white spots on a pinto.
• Mukhorty , Mukhortaya - bay (bay), with yellowish tan marks at the muzzle, legs and groins.
• Sex-gray - gray on the basis of a red or bay suit, looks like gray with an admixture of yellowish wool, the tail and mane are sometimes dark gray, striated.
• Pink - red-gray, gray suit on the basis of bay.
• Pockmarked - a horse with white spots on the head, possibly Birdcatcher's marks.
• Gray in mustard - gray in small buckwheat.
• Gray in flies - gray in dark large buckwheat.
• Gray or gray-roan - gray with a pronounced reddish tint or gray with a dark tail and mane.
• Gray-iron , or steel - dark gray.
• Sivaya - black with gray hair (perhaps a weakly expressed sabine or dark gray).
• Gray-iron - gray with a reddish tint.
• Porcelain - gray on the basis of pinto, pinto.
• Halzanaya - sib. dark suit, with a white bald spot.
• Chagrava - dark ashen, possibly micey.
• Chankirai - sib. isabella horse.

Many names of horse suits in the Russian language in ancient times were borrowed from the Turkic languages: these are bulanaya, roan, karaka, kaurai, savrasai:

• Bay - the word is found in most Slavic languages. The origin is unclear; according to P. Ya. Chernykh, it can be associated with such words as Latin nidor (“cinder”, “child”, smoke “), ancient Greek knissa (“ smell of burning victims ”,“ child of burning fat ”,“ smell of fried ” ) The meaning of “the smell of burnt / fried” on Slavic soil could be transformed into “the appearance of something burnt”, compare with the word “tan” (brightenings or crusty areas on the skin of horses and dogs, for example, karakova - black in tan tan). A bay horse differs, for example, from a red horse by black (as if singed?) Mane, tail and legs.
• Bulanaya - either from "bulan" / "bolan" - "deer", "moose", or from "bolan (-mak)" - "darken" (for example, from sweat), "become muddy." In favor of the “deer” version, the resemblance to the color of a deer in a dark-bulan suit in apples can serve (for comparison: in American English, the name of a bulan suit is buckskin, that is, literally “deer”). At the same time, the dark shades of the mint color without apples really have a rather "muddy", dirty yellow-brownish color.
• Karakova ^[12] - from the Turkic "Kara Kula" ("black-brown").
• The roan is from the Turkic “chal” (“gray hair”).

• Yakut horse
• Inheritance of colors and marks of horses

• Color // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Gnedoy // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Red // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Gray // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Solovoy // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Isabella // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Karakova // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Kaury // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Savrasiy // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Bulany // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Color // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Bulany // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Gnedoy // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• "The Book of the Horse", edited by S. M. Budyonny , vol. 1, M. , 1952.
• Livanova T.K., Livanova M.A. , Everything about the horse. - M.: AST-PRESS SKD, 2002 .-- 384 pp., Ill. - (Series of 1000 Tips)

• The Book of the Horse S. P. Urusov
• Equestrian forum "Reiter" - a collection of materials about horses (breeds, gait, genetics, livestock)
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