Colors for a bay?

I have a medium/dark bay horse. What color scheme do you think would look good on him? I'm thinking for our western get up; saddle blanket, my clothes...any ideas?
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If it's Ace (probably brown by the way - mine is too, the lighter muzzle gives it away *shrug* my boy is registered as bay, silly JC), he's a VERY similar color to my Reno. I know my boy looks good in black, blues, and red. I'd probably go with a shade of blue to offset the warmth of his color.

My best friend puts her "dark bay" (actually brown, but whatever) in royal blue and it looks stunning.
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I have a bay morgan, and have everything for her in a deep 'viking purple'- very complimentary! If not that, I agree with Drafty about the royal blue.
(halter off her in this avatar - will have another soon I'm sure)

You two just brought up an interesting point...the brown or bay thing. I never thought of that before. I thought since he had the black mane, tail, and legs that he's a bay. What's a brown? What's a dark bay? What's my horse?
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I was really confused too. I had always thought brown was always "seal brown" (black/really dark with light muzzle, flanks, etc). They can actually range in shades

Bay and brown are both agouti genes, restricting the black pigment of the horse in different ways. Bay is A, brown is At (bay is dominant over brown, so an AAt horse is bay that can potentially throw brown).

A bay horse will stay generally the same color throughout the year. Shades can range from light to dark, but they will not have the lighter muzzle/flanks/thighs. Always have their black points.

Browns are variable as well. "Seal" browns, such as one mare at the farm I work at are very dark with obvious mealing of the soft body parts. Lighter browns, such as my horse, can basically chameleon as bay during the summer and show the signs of brown in winter (darker coat, mealing). Reno only lightens up in the muzzle area. Others will look bay all year round, except for the light fleshy parts.

I'm terrible at explaining.

Interesting. My horse looks more bay in summer, and he gets much darker with a lighter muzzle in the winter.
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Browns generally don't stay the same shade/color from season to season. For example, my friend's gelding was a medium mahogany when she got him. That winter, he looked almost black. The following summer, he shed out a darker shade of mahogany. This winter he was almost maroon. Another sign of brown is a lighter muzzle, even if the extremity of it is black, it will be edged in brown. Also, browns are lighter/look sun faded on the flank, under the tail...places that a horse wouldn't normal sun fade.
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Then he would be brown. I was a tad disappointed when I realized my dream bay was brown...but then I figured hey, they're part of the same general gene group and he's sexy anyway XD

In my pictures you can see the difference between winter and summer. Case and point, winter in the middle picture second row and summer in any of the kissy pictures XD

Neat...I guess my horse is technically brown then. So is that the only difference between a bay and a brown? The fading and lighter muzzle?
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