Sorrel (horse)
Encyclopedia
Equine coat color
Horses exhibit a diverse array of coat colors and distinctive markings. A specialized vocabulary has evolved to describe them.While most horses remain the same color throughout life, a few, over the course of several years, will develop a different coat color from that with which they were born...
s in horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s. While the term is usually used to refer to a copper-red shade of chestnut
Chestnut (coat)
Chestnut is a hair coat color of horses consisting of a reddish-to-brown coat with a mane and tail the same or lighter in color than the coat. Genetically and visually, chestnut is characterized by the absolute absence of true black hairs...
, in some places it is used generically in place of "chestnut" to refer to any reddish horse with a same-color or lighter mane and tail, ranging from reddish-gold to a deep burgundy or chocolate shade. The term probably comes from the color of the flower spike of the sorrel
Sorrel
Common sorrel or garden sorrel , often simply called sorrel, is a perennial herb that is cultivated as a garden herb or leaf vegetable...
herb.
The term "chestnut
Chestnut (coat)
Chestnut is a hair coat color of horses consisting of a reddish-to-brown coat with a mane and tail the same or lighter in color than the coat. Genetically and visually, chestnut is characterized by the absolute absence of true black hairs...
" is the more common term used to describe horses of a reddish-brown color. Chestnut is more often used to describe this color in England and on the east coast of the USA, while the term "sorrel" is more common in the Western United States. Some horse enthusiasts insist that chestnut and sorrel are two distinct colorations, but there is no known genetic difference between the two and no clear consensus on what the distinction is. Some argue that "sorrel" should be used to describe only lighter shades, or shades with a very clear reddish tint, while "chestnut" denotes darker shades or shades with more brown in them. The American Quarter Horse Association
American Quarter Horse Association
The American Quarter Horse Association , based in Amarillo, Texas, is an international organization dedicated to the preservation, improvement and record-keeping of the American Quarter Horse. The association sanctions many competitive events and maintains the official registry...
, which uses both terms, describes a sorrel as a type of copper-red chestnut, but allows that chestnut is also a correct term.
In terms of equine coat color genetics
Equine coat color genetics
Equine coat color genetics determine a horse's coat color. There are many different coat colors possible, but all colors are produced by the action of only a few different genes. The simplest genetic default color of all domesticated horses can be described as either "red" or "non-red", depending...
there is no difference at all. Solid reddish-brown color is a base color of horses, caused by the recessive "e" gene.
Sorrel or chestnut coloration can be distinguished from dun by the fact that a dun horse has a gene
Gene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
that causes slightly washed-out yellowish color, with a darker mane and tail than the rest of its coat, may have areas of darker color on the shoulder and forelegs, and also possesses a narrow, dark line down the middle of the back.
A sorrel and a bay
Bay (color)
Bay is a hair coat color of horses, characterized by a reddish brown body color with a black mane, tail, ear edges, and lower legs. Bay is one of the most common coat colors in many horse breeds....
, especially a "blood bay," may be confused with one another. However, all bays have "black points" - a black mane, tail and lower legs. Light-colored sorrels, sometimes called "blond
Blond
Blond or blonde or fair-hair is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some sort of yellowish color...
sorrels," especially if they have flaxen manes and tails, may resemble a palomino
Palomino
Palomino is a coat color in horses, consisting of a gold coat and white mane and tail. Genetically, the palomino color is created by a single allele of a dilution gene called the cream gene working on a "red" base coat...
. However, true palomino coloration is the result of a horse's being heterozygous for the cream dilution gene
Cream gene
The cream gene is responsible for a number of horse coat colors. Horses that have the cream gene in addition to a base coat color that is chestnut will become palomino if they are heterozygous, having one copy of the cream gene, or cremello, if they are homozygous. Similarly, horses with a bay...
.
Some definitions list sorrel as a self color, used to describe only horses whose mane, tail, and legs are the same color as the rest of the coat, with the exception of white markings
Horse markings
Markings on horses usually are distinctive white areas on an otherwise dark base coat color. Most horses have some markings, and they help to identify the horse as a unique individual. Markings are present at birth and do not change over the course of the horse's life...
. Other definitions are broader and include reddish-brown horses with flaxen manes and tails.
More often than not, the practical difference is usually not in color, but in usage: horses ridden in the Western tradition are more often referred to as sorrel and horses ridden in the English tradition are chestnut. Many organizations simply avoid the whole fuss and choose one of the two terms to denote all reddish or brown colorations that are not bay.