Paint Headshots and TBs

[Ronnie Dee]

Didn't see her linked, but she definitely belongs in this thread!

Very distinctive head shot!
I had to double check that she was a TB.

[Ronnie Dee]

There seems to be a few different head shot "poses". How many are there? Do they have specific pose names?

[Ronnie Dee]

I just noticed that Freak Out is a gray with a blaze. I was also very surprised to see that he has 50+% allowance runners from his first crop. How do I donate $2.5M to get him one of those special head shots that are on sale?

[The Steward]

There seems to be a few different head shot "poses". How many are there? Do they have specific pose names?

Since all the images come from real photos (mostly taken by me at the track), the answer is - however many ways a horse can hold its head! Every headshot is a different image from the past 15 years of photography. Sometimes I pay other photographers to "donate" their work to us too so that it's not just horses I've seen, but horses in other places as well.

[The Steward]

I just noticed that Freak Out is a gray with a blaze. I was also very surprised to see that he has 50+% allowance runners from his first crop. How do I donate $2.5M to get him one of those special head shots that are on sale?

Contact the Steward

[Flizan Hambletonian]

here is a roan TB with blaze, Owl Bet It All

I also looked at her (roan) dam:



And her (roan) grand dam:



The coloring of the 3 generations of roans looks considerably different. But when I looked at RL roan images, I saw even more variance.

Well, I don't see a roan when I'm watching theese headshots. A roan has a base color (bay, chestnut, black...) on the head and legs, and the rest of the body is gray/white hairs mixed.



I know I've shown him earlier, but this is my horse. A roan standardbred trotter.



Yes, a roan can be gray as base color. But it's more common to be bay, chestnut or black.

[Rochelle Bos]

here is a roan TB with blaze, Owl Bet It All

I also looked at her (roan) dam:



And her (roan) grand dam:



The coloring of the 3 generations of roans looks considerably different. But when I looked at RL roan images, I saw even more variance.

Well, I don't see a roan when I'm watching theese headshots. A roan has a base color (bay, chestnut, black...) on the head and legs, and the rest of the body is gray/white hairs mixed.



I know I've shown him earlier, but this is my horse. A roan standardbred trotter.



Yes, a roan can be gray as base color. But it's more common to be bay, chestnut or black.

I *believe* in TBs roan refers to red based grey? I’m not 100% sure on that though

[Rochelle Bos]

“ Roan: The majority of the coat of the horse is a mixture of red and white hairs or brown and white hairs. The mane, tail and legs may be black, chestnut or roan, unless white markings are present.”
https://www.registry.jockeyclub.com/reg ... oroughbred

My Roan TBs






My Grey’s







You get the idea

[Mara Jade Vess]

Yes, a roan can be gray as base color. But it's more common to be bay, chestnut or black.

I *believe* in TBs roan refers to red based grey? I’m not 100% sure on that though

The Jockey Club refers to grey on a red base (chestnut or classic bay) as "roan". However, because of how grey works, the red pigment can grey first, resulting in a steel grey, which is what TJC refers to as "grey". Hence why all grey horses are registered as "grey or roan".

Like Flizan said, actual roan is a horse with dark points and head with white hairs mixed on the body. Unlike a grey "roan", they do not change or get lighters as they age. There is a point, usually as yearlings, when a true roan and a grey "roan" may look similar phenotypically, but because the grey gene is a progressive gene, a grey "roan" will always turn white as they age.

There is a line of true roan thoroughbreds caused by Catch a Bird. It was a freak one-in-several-million genetic mutation. He produced 4 confirmed roan horses. However, they are not racehorses. The line almost died out after they were neglected. However, I believe Winning Colours Farm in Australia currently houses them.

Returning to the topic at hand, there. Overo exists in pure thoroughbreds (best example is likely Silvery Moon who was G3 placed in Germany). Tobiano is registered by the UK Jockey Club, though they are only about 70% "pure" and exist through the Angrove line. Dominant white also has a wide range of expression which is based on the strain. W5 is Puchilingui, who looks sabino-esque, and horses like Talismanic are likely to be W20. Sodashi (MG1W in Japan) is completely white and is W14, while her dam expressed a spotted variation.

In addition, thoroughbreds have been confirmed to have cream, flaxen chestnut, splashed white, and rabicano. There are also tons of horses with interesting chrome or loud markings that have not been identified (Oxbow, for example: they have no idea what causes his white ticking).

Rare coloured thoroughbreds and equine genetics in general is a bit of a passion project for me, if you couldn't tell!

[The Steward]

Awww I just came here to basically regurgitate all this info and you've done it for me! MUCH appreciated!

TLDR; the Jockey Club uses an archaic, never updated system of gray/roan, and so we use the same system on our TBs.

[Cleo Patra]

Not sure if you’ll be able to see this video or not, but Australia has a slightly different but similar conundrum with listing colours for unusual horses: https://fb.watch/75edR_HGXL/

That trainer has several “paint” Thoroughbreds and she always has them beautifully presented!

[The Steward]

Speaking of this very topic, Barbara got this shot this morning at Saratoga:

https://twitter.com/DRFLivingston/statu ... 79522?s=20

[Sara Julin]

Speaking of this very topic, Barbara got this shot this morning at Saratoga:

https://twitter.com/DRFLivingston/statu ... 79522?s=20

oooh, so when will the tb in the sims be able to get programmed with fancy markings? ^^

[The Steward]

Speaking of this very topic, Barbara got this shot this morning at Saratoga:

https://twitter.com/DRFLivingston/statu ... 79522?s=20

oooh, so when will the tb in the sims be able to get programmed with fancy markings? ^^

What's that? I can't hear you... too much static on the line...

[Sara Julin]

Speaking of this very topic, Barbara got this shot this morning at Saratoga:

https://twitter.com/DRFLivingston/statu ... 79522?s=20

oooh, so when will the tb in the sims be able to get programmed with fancy markings? ^^

What's that? I can't hear you... too much static on the line...