True Bay?

[Shannon]

I have had several people comment on my geldings colouring over the last white, about how different he looks from other bays. He's a bay, no doubt about it...however he has some odd colour "blending" on his lower legs. He has never had solid black points, more of a reddish/blonde/black mixture. His coat colour is a light reddish colour, and his mane/forelock and tail have always had reddish/blonde highlights, even when he was kept indoors out of the sun during sales prep and training. During the winter, the hair on the backs of his tendons is almost golden/palomino coloured.

He has white hairs mixed throughout his flank areas, and a funky, choppy star, strip, snip combo on his face, and one white sclera, no white on his legs.
His sire is a dark bay with big white blaze, and his dam is a reddish bay, solid black points on her, rather plain looking.

What forces could be at work causing this odd colouring, if any are?
I will try to post a pic of him.

[xfactor fan]

Could he be a wild bay? They tend to be lighter, with very low points which aren't very dark, more like a coppery bay color.

[accphotography]

Indeed he sounds like a wild bay.

[Linda_d]

If he were a Morgan or a Quarter Horse, he might also be carrying the silver gene, but I don't think that's found in TBs. The silver gene lightens down the black, so a bay with silver would look like a chestnut. In fact, the first proven carrier of the silver gene in the AQHA was originally registered as a chestnut.

[Jorge]

I cannot prove it but I would like to double-check if the champagne coat color has been hidden within the Thoroughbred breed in some obscure lineage. Who knows!

[accphotography]

You could prove it if you found one who fit the phenotype... there is a test for champagne.

[HeadlessHorseman]

Do we have a picture yet?????

HH

[Shannon]

About a week old

As a late yearling

Early 2 year old

Summer as a 3 year old

This past summer as a 4 year old.

Again as a 4 yo last summer

You can see some of the odd leg colouring in most of these, as well as the lighter tail hairs at the top in some. I don't have a good shot of the white eye or the roaning.

[Shannon]

Here are the stallion and mare. I know the mare looks like hell, I'd only just gotten her from a rescue.
Dam

Sire

[accphotography]

I do think I'd class that a wild bay. What color were the parents?

[Shannon]

ACC, see above photos of his parnets. I must have been loading them as you were posting.

[accphotography]

Ah, yup, apparently. Anything more current of the dam by chance?

[xfactor fan]

Actually the dam look to be wild bay too. But a somewhat dark wild bay--unless she's simply in such bad condition that her coat was affected. Sure she looks much better now.

And isn't wild bay dominant over regular bay, so that at least one parent must be wild bay to have a wild bay foal?

[accphotography]

I think it may have been condition. She doesn't strike me as wild bay.

Wild bay is SUPPOSED to be dominant, but it's NEVER been proven. I've actually been looking for proof of the opposite. Seeing this mare in a different coat might shed some light.

[xfactor fan]

I was looking at the front legs of the mare, but looking closer, they may have been shaved, which makes them look light.

Well, if the colt is wild bay and both parents are regular bay, doesn't that prove that wild bay isn't dominant?