My 5 year miniature stallion is a solid bay. I noticed he had a big, but faint oval of roaning on his back after I body clipped him for the first time. Over the years he has grown more and more of these ovals of roaning. The first one has gotten much whiter in color. I have noticed they start out with just a few white hairs but grow larger. In the winter, they don't show up enless he is body clipped. They once there done "growing" they don't move or change shape like bird catcher spots. The spots come in the most random places too, most are on his sides but he has a few small ones on his ears and one starting on his nose. I have also noticed that when he is body clipped, the back side of his lower legs are nearly white. Its a silver color with black hairs mixed in. When the hair is natural, it is black. I don't know about the legs but a while ago someone told me the spots where from sabino traits. Is that true? He has no appaloosa breeding in him. Both his grandsires where tobianos, but I was unable to find any sabinos in his pedigree.
Sabino can and often does have roaning associated with it. A horse can even have just the roaning expression of Sabino without the white markings. A sabino roan will have roaning on the face and legs, unlike "true roan."
A horse with sabino markings often has roaning around or near those white markings, but can also have random roaning on other parts of the body.
That said, the op's roaning sounds more like Rabicano. Can you post some pictures? Any roaning around the tail or on the ribs?
alot of people and registeries are color retarded... they say that the horse looks like. so if his ancestors were tobianos they EASILY could have been hiding the sabino gene without anyone knowing it unless they had them tested. but i'm not sure if you can test of the sabino gene yet? but it's very well possible he is sabino. and you said there is no appy breading so he can't be varnishing. does he have tall white stockings?
None of the registries (that I know of) HAVE a "sabino" designation to put on papers. And sabino can "hide" in a normally marked horse that has only small signs, like a pointed sock, a small white/pink dot on the lower lip, or roaning around a face stripe. A sabino horse does not have to have tall white stockings or otherwise "pinto" markings.
There is one test for sabino, but that test does not pick up all the variations of sabino. So a horse can very well test negative for SB1 but still be sabino. Confusing isn't it? lol
^^ Exactly. While my colt is primarily solid colored I firmly believe he is sabino (although I have not had him tested). He has no obvious roaning or stray whites at this point (although his mother does, and I'm inclined to think he will develop them). But he has high pointed socks, a white belly spot, and a multi-colored tail. Since Shires and Clydes usually carry sabino it's no surprise on my colt's part, but it can manifest in very mild ways.
This stud has been proven a sabino. You can see the faint white smattering along his flanks, the tall white stockings and bold blaze. Quillane Apollo : Welsh Cob Sport Stallion
You might want to look up primitive bay as well. My Belgian cross is bay with roaning on his lower legs belly and sides. He does not get any whiter with age. We had him from a foal and this confused us very much. His mother was a gray so we thought he was graying out. Then he never did. Primitive Bays often are mealy around the eyes and muzzle and have roaning especially on their lower legs. I'm sure my horse got this from the more primitive Belgian. It might not be this color at all in your case, but it's always worth checking out.
Thanks for all the info, I will take pictures after I BC him and post them here.
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