This post first appeared on August 26, 2014

I am still sorting through some of the old photos I have, trying to remember what has been posted (as opposed to “meant to post but never did”). If I repeat something, please forgive me – though I would imagine that if after three years I cannot remember posting about a subject, maybe readers have forgotten it, too!

Recent conversations about flaxen-maned bays reminded me that I had meant to post these pictures of buckskins with frosted manes and tails. As the photo above shows, the hairs are pale flaxen or white. It is harder to tell because the pulled mane on this Paint gelding is so short, but most of the time the pale hairs are short, which gives the mane a frosted look. Pale hairs are also seen at the tailhead. This next picture shows the distinctive “V” shape that is typical of the frosting on a buckskin’s tail. This shot also shows more clearly how the white on the mane is concentrated at the base of the neck.

The frosting on the tail looks quite different from that kind often seen on duns. With a dun, the paler hairs are usually found on the sides of the tailhead, in part because the dark pigment of the dorsal usually runs down the core of the tail.

Both frosting on buckskins and on duns looks a bit different from the white “coon tail” seen on some of the white ticking and sabino patterns. With this picture you can see both the paler hairs to the sides of the tail (relative to the deep red dorsal stripe) and the white hairs that are part of the patterning.

Frosting is more common in duns than in buckskins, but it is not always pronounced. This dun mare has very little contrast – just a few paler hairs – between the core of her tail and the sides.

So what causes frosting on a buckskin? Most likely it is the Cream (Cr) gene turning what would be paler red guard hairs to a pale flaxen or white. This photo shows the similarity between the arrangement of the pale hairs on a light bay and those on a frosted buckskin.

Here is the same bay Paint Horse mare that is pictured above. She has the reduced intensity at the points that is often seen on bays with paler hairs at the base of the mane and tail. If you look closely, you can see the lighter hairs at the base of her mane, too. (Unfortunately she was always on the wrong side for the sun, so none of the photos taken from her other side turned out.)