Wild Bay

Looks Like (Phenotype)

Wild bays usually have a reddish coat with black points. The mane, tail, lower legs and the tips of the ears have black ends. Different from a regular bay, the black points on a wild bay only reach up to the pasterns or fetlocks, and rather than pitch black, the points are often a more muted black colour. The base coat is often lighter than that of a standard bay horse.

Variations

Bay horses come in many shades, but there are three types commonly used to describe their looks. All are bay-based with the E-allele and A-allele present.

• Wild bay: very light or golden body; black on the legs is limited to the lower part.
• Bay: reddish or brown body with black points; black on the legs reaches roughly to the knees and hocks.
• Seal Brown: very dark bay that can resemble black; the softer areas, such as the muzzle, eye area, flanks and inside upper parts of the legs stay tan, reddish or yellowish. Sometimes genetic testing is needed to confirm whether a very dark horse is black or seal brown.

Behind the Colour (Genotype)

Just like with seal brown, wild bay is a variation of the colour "bay". Just like them, you need at least one E-allele and one A-allele for a horse to display this coat colour.

There was speculation of wild bay being caused by a different allele, but that's not been proven yet. When it does, we'll update this page.

Related Colours

Bay | Black | Chestnut | Seal Brown