What color is he? Color critique!

So I think my horse is a black bay...he was sold to me as a black...but he bleaches out way to much in the summer to be a true black in my opinion. He literally looks bay in the summer. Ive seen a few true black horses that were left out pastured all the time. they would bleach but never this much...my only discretion with calling him a bay it his main an tail...they have a few bleached out brown hairs...his tail litterally looks almost orange around the top... i thought that it took alot for a bay horses main an tail to bleach out...they are usually solid black...so im highly confused...he just changes color all the time...he is black head to foot in the fall an spring...he looks black but slightly faded in the winter...accept this year cause ive rugged him up the entire time...he looks bay in the summer...cause his tail changes so much by the end of summer he looks sorta half bay half chestnut...anyway like I said I think Black Bay...but i would like opinions...ill post the best pictures i have from different times of the year.

the first three are mid summer, fourth end of summer, fifth winter, sixth spring.

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I would say dark bay.

yeah i think dark bay too :), pretty colour, looks dappled in places.
he almost looks brown because his mane is light in places too but that might be the light shining on it :)
i think i will go with dark bay

He definately doesn't look black. Even the picture where he's extremely dark (last one), you can see the hint of mahogany coloring on his flank area. Shay-las bay filly is like that, she goes almost completely black in winter, but you can tell she's a bay from certain points.

Do you have any information on his parents? Sometimes that can be very helpful. He almost looks brown to me from the pics, and would explain the odd bleaching in summer. His color seems more universal to me, as opposed to strong black points but it can be extremely difficult to differentiate bay from brown as they both come from the Agouti family.

I agree with dark bay as well. Brown body with black points - ears, mane, tail, legs.

Dark bay. My horse is the same. If by chance you don't want him to bleach out, add Black as Knight to his diet in March before the sun starts to get strong. He'll still bleach out a little, but not as much as with nothing.

Brown? My horse is nearly black in winter (apart from his nose), and half light bay, half dark bay in summer. I love it, he looks so different :)

Definitely dark bay. Sometimes darker colored horses have slight issues with copper deficiency...you might try making sure he is getting an adequate amount of vitamin\mineral content daily, especially with a higher copper ppu content. My last black bay was alot like your boy(I think he was genetically black), and he got severely bleached the first summer I had him, and then his tail head turned orange. The vet I worked with at the time, suggested copper deficiency and sure enough, I upped the amount of copper in his diet, and the orange in his tail head disappeared AND his bleached coat started being replaced by darker coat; each summer he got darker, and stayed dark.

Thanks everyone! and mom2pride....its is creepy how you horse sounds exactly like mine...with the oragne tail head an everything... Ive got him on a few different coat/hoof enhancers...i sorta rotate them around...some have the extra cooper and the orange is fading...so is alot of the brown...since ive had him blanketed all winter he is jet black all over his body...plan on putting a fly sheet on to maybe help keep the sun off this summer as well as the bugs lol.

Also..as for the black points...he does have black points...even when he is super bleached out his legs do not have any brown in them...that might be hard to see in the pictures...sorry they were the best I had.

So the conclusion is a dark/black bay? just as I guessed then? the only thing that threw me was his tail bleaching...

and no i dont have any clue as to his parents/lines/breed/anything MacabreMikolaj... i bought him for $800 back when the horse market was good and horses were going for a bit more...no papers no nothing...the previous owner got him from a friend and she didnt know anything about his parents...so my boy is a mystery...all i know is he is a dang good trail horse lol

The thing that changed my boy for the better was senior horse feed, believe it or not...I had tried a few different supplements, and he still had minerals free choice, but one friend suggested a senior feed because it generally has more of everything in it, because senior horses can have problems absorbing nutrients from their other sources. So I got him on it, and the change was unbelievable, and because it's designed as a 'full feed' type feed, he didn't get hot or goofy on it, even though he was getting alot of it.