# What age do foals change coat? (To know adult colour?)



## competitiondiva (23 May 2009)

I only ask because I have a chestnut colt (by a dark bay stallion) out of my black mare!!  Anyway did a search and found a chestnut foal by the grandsire of my colt, who is identical to my boy except in head! and that colt went very dark liver almost brown.  My boy is only 7 weeks old, I'd accepted that he was chestnut but now I'm not sure if he'll stay chestnut. He's got dard patches around his eyes (biggles!!) and a darker muzzle coming through.  When do they change coats to know what adult colour he'll be?


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## Springs (24 May 2009)

It was 2 to 2.5 years before our young boy reached his true colour - He went from dary bay to steel gray.


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## puc (24 May 2009)

Your chestnut will always be chestnut but it is possible that as the foal coat comes out it could be darker or lighter.  Your black mare obviously carries a chestnut gene as does the stallion and they have both passed the chestnut recessive gene that they have onto your foal who will have a double chestnut thus resulting in a chestnut coat colour.  If you'd have got a bay gene (dominant over chestnut) from either you would have had a bay foal as one chestnut gene is not enough to produce a chestnut coat as it is a recessive gene.  
The way to guarentee you have a bay from your mare is to put her to a stallion with a double bay gene.


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## crazycoloured (24 May 2009)

I have a 3 year old who has just recently changed coat colour. She was piebald but recently she has some roan colour coming through on her black patches. Her father was  a blue and white stallion and her mum was a tri colour. So my mare might be taking after her father.


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## competitiondiva (24 May 2009)

Thank you for that, yes I knew about the recessive chestnut gene and yes my mares dam was chestnut and the stallions sire is chestnut so knew it was on the cards, the reason I ask the question is that this other colt by my colts grandsire was born exactly the same colour but changed to a very dark liver, as my boy has dark circles around his eyes and a dark muzzle now (they were light when born!) I wondered if anyone knew if he is likely to turn liver chestnut and if so at what age they change coats?


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## teb (24 May 2009)

[ QUOTE ]
It was 2 to 2.5 years before our young boy reached his true colour - He went from dary bay to steel gray. 

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, but obviously one parent was grey so you knew you had the chance. A grey from 2 non grey parents would need to be investigated.

Gack, that sounds horribly rude and I don't mean it to be! I have a filly at the moment who is shading out bay with tons of white hairs - like everyone who has seen her says she's grey. I know she can't be grey as neither of her parents are. Also DNA parentage checked out. Her entire body is "roaning", but head and legs have no roaning what so ever. And basically TB's do not carry the roan gene so I either have a rabicano gene gone crazy or the sabino gene has gone wonky. And really just because TB people register anything grey as roan, they are wrong. Roan does not fade!

Hope now it's not so nasty sounding!

Terri


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## KarynK (24 May 2009)

They usually moult at about 2-3 months and can change shade quite considerably, I have known several foals that you would have sworn were dark chestnut moult out to bright bay! They get a kind of dunnish tinge to their legs which hides the black points, so never say never but if the mane and tail are really red then you've got two recessives together and produced a chestnut.  It might well be a darker shade after the moult.

My filly last year started out bright chestnut, turned liver after the moult and has moulted out aged 1 yr to a dark chestnut.

Have you got any pictures?


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## competitiondiva (24 May 2009)

Ok first pic is my boy (before he started to develop dark circles around eyes and a darker muzzle.  2nd picture is the foal by my colts grandsire, 3rd pic is the same foal but post moult.


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