Would you consider Kody a palomino?

Definitely chestnut/sorrel (depends which term you use, both are genetically the same).

This horse is chestnut, but for all the world looks like a palomino:


It's a Haflinger, though, so can't be palomino as the cream gene does not exist in the breed. Pali being chestnut + cream. Haflingers HAVE to be chestnut, there is no such thing as a black or bay haffie and like I said no cream in the breed, meaning no palomino.

Very interesting about the Halfinger. I never knew that about the breed. Thanks for all the info, very helpful :)

You know, I am going to have be the minority here I guess but I think he is palomino or perhaps there is another gene at work here. He does not look like a chestnut to me.
I used to ride a grade GH gelding that was an odd shade of palomino like this. He was not sooty but more yellow everywhere . . . Like musty straw lol his mane and tail matched his coat color too - very uniform in shade all over his body. He looked very much like your hosrse in the winter. Here is in the Summer:

This horse is also supposedly palomino:

And this Morgan stallion used to look like a typical "golden" pally, however, his sooty genes kicked and BAM! He looks like a darm bay, even black:


Palomino is funny sometimes lol

See that second horse definitely looks chestnut , your horse has that yellow tone(can still tell his mane is slightly lighter looking) where here horse has more of a red tone to it as the horse below yours does as well. I'd also like to see that last ones supposed pally look as I doubt it is possbile for a black mane and tail to have been that light he looks like if he is sooty he is a sooty buckskin not sooty pally.

Agree with the above ^

Morgan stallion born palomino? Seriously doubt it - though I HAVE seen photos of palominos with black manes online before (odd expression of the sooty gene), I see no reason to believe that he is an extensively sooty Pali. HOWEVER, buckskin foals sometimes come out looking for all the world like palominos (because black legs don't shed in dark to begin with, and they don't have their manes/tails properly yet)... so sooty buckskin is possible.

DO NOT LIKE the open, evasive mouth :/ jeez people, learn to ride, or at least use a gentler bit if you're going to actually touch your horse's mouth. I have nothing against Western curbs for TRUE Western (ie neck reining with loose/loopy reins) but they are NOT bits in which you take up a contact!

Well, to your point, the internet can lie to us sometimes -- After all, I read on the internet Obama was Muslim . . .

But anyway, just like the gray gene, sooty may not show its full affects for quite sometime after foaling -- even years -- just like Silver Dapple.

Look here at this: Morgan Colors- Palomino Morgan Horses
That's where I found the extensively sooty morgan stallion that you don't believe to be palomino apparently :/

But anyway, even if her horse is not palomino, there is something else at play to make his coat more golden than normal.

Did you not see the Haflinger I posted? For ALL the world that horse looks like a Pali even down to the golden coat, but it CANNOT be a Pali because the gene for it doesn't exist in the breed.

So yes, there ARE other genes that will make a chestnut horse look golden.

Edit; and I still don't believe that that Morgan is a palomino. I would have to see the results of genetic testing before you could change my mind. Could be two totally different horses for all we know!

OK, so I have PM'd HF's colour guru, who should be on in a few hours (they are same timezone as me and it's 4am here) to weigh in :)

I'd have no problems accepting the dark coat as pali if it weren't for the mane and tail as my pali's sire is just as dark and throws pali's on chestnut mares but was still tested and is Crcr. He does have black in his mane and tail just not his entire mane and tail. It'll be interesting to hear from others. Has he been bred and what color colts does he throw?

This horse has been tested, and is ee Crcr, so yes, a palomino. However, he is also a Morgan, a breed known in colour-interested circles for particularly heavy expression of sooty in particular. The OP's horse is not showing any other signs of sooty, so I doubt very much that this is the case.




This horse may or may not be palomino. However, it looks like a yearling, or around there, which may also mean that it is not done shedding through foal coats, which do not always show a horse's true colour. The OP's horse is definitely not a foal or yearling or even a two year old. The colour is set by about two in the vast majority of horses.

The OP's horse is chestnut. The reason the colour looks off is because he is in winter coat. I am beyond 100% certain that he is chestnut.