Sabino, Rabicano, or Roan

Oh the joys of interspersed white hairs! I purchased a new mare this weekend who displays some lovely collections of colors. She is a Shire, a breed known for rabicano traits, but through the 1950s, heavy mixing with the clydesdale also threw some sabino genes into the mix. Most people call her roan, but roan is not a trait I have heard of in the Shire breed, and her coloring is not even enough for a roan. Her grandsire has a silver tail, a definite rabicano trait. I'll try to get pictures Tuesday, but until then, we're going off of description and what photos I can find online. My question is, is she sabino or rabicano?

Her base coat is a deep bay; while her entire body, other than head and legs, has interspersed white hairs, the degree varies by location. Her right flank and on to her hindquarters is heavily roaned, I'd say almost half of the hairs are white. She has some white hairs in the top of her tail (but not a stand-out amount), as well as an entire section of white in the center of her tail. She also has concentrated white specks on her chest and throat. She does have high stockings on her hind legs, almost to her flank. Her front legs are white at the bottom, but the white becomes streaks up to her knees. Her face has a blaze/apron, not over her eyes, but pitching off the side of her jaw mid-nose, and then the white goes up under her jaws to her throat, though the side of her cheeks is solid bay. I generally associate sabino with jagged markings, and although she has a lot of chrome, her face and leg markings are all smooth. She has roaning all across her neck, including her mane, which is not common for rabicano, especially since she doesn't have a heavy "silver-tail." She also has a small speck (about the size of a pencil eraser) of blue in one eye.

The "roan" is more than likely sabino caused. Sabino can and does cause white hair to be dispersed through out the horse's coat mimicking true roan.

I'll wait to say more until we actually see more of the horse in question.

The description of the way the white is on her face, combined with the blue in her eyes, makes me think splash could be a possibility. I'm not sure if that's commonly found in Shires, though.

I would say no roan, but certainly sabino and splash.

Love Shires!

Lizzie

Okay, so they're not the best pictures in the world, but here are some close ups of some of her most obvious sections, as well as 2 full bodied shots.



As you can see, her right side is significantly more speckled than her left

She does appear almost to have barring on her right side, which is rabicano... of course there's always the possibility she carries both traits.

I'm leaning more towards the rabicano side. She has the darker roaning in the flank area on the one side, in the armpits, insides of the legs, and throat latch.

She has both the Sabino caused "roan" and the rabicano cause "roan" IMPO.