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Examples of grey horses.

Icelandic: Grár. In Iceland we usually don't call a horse white, all shades of grey and white are called grár.
Description: The horse is usually born coal black, red or in any other colour, becomes grey-dappled when around 2 years old, and is often snow-white at the age of 10. Back to previous page

A 2 year old grey, born jet black with blaze, will become white.
C: Lukka.

Grey dapple.
Kólga from Svaðastöðum at Langhús, when 6 years old.
C: Lukka.

Light grey dapple.
Fáni from Keldulandi, showing the "circles" clearly.
C: Lukka.

Light grey dapple in wintercoat.
Þytur from Starrastöðum.
C: Lukka.

Our broodmare Héla from Halldórsstöðum, born bay but has gotten white.
C: Lukka.

Héla's daugther, only 5 years old, so she's not white yet. She's born chestnut.
Líf from Langhúsum.
C: Lukka.

A very light grey horse walking.
Kola from Fet.

Flea-bitten grey.

Example of white horses.

White horses are born black, become grey and then white.

A snow-white mare.
Saga from Grindavík.
C: Lukka.

Tolting white horses.
Svalur and Haukur from Hofsstaðir.

A trotting white horse.

Something different.

In extremely rare cases it can happen that a horse greys out, but leaves a part of it's body without greying. This horse (Kári from Icelandic Horse Farm, BC) is born chestnut pinto, then most of his body greyed out, leaving one chestnut spot.
C: Terry Albert.

Some genetics:

The grey colour is on the G-locus. You need one dominant gene G in the horse so it becomes grey. A grey horse has at least one grey parent.

The color in different languages:

Norway: Avblekbar skimmel.
Denmark: Skimmel.
USA: Gray.
UK: Grey.
Germany: Schimmel.
Dutch: Grijs/schimmel (it is the same word as for roan, which is confusing).
Swedish: Avblekbar skimmel .

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