Bay foals have the brown body color and black mane and tail. The black mane and tail may have brown hairs mixed in. Bay foals will have black along the edges of their ears. They can also fade in the sun as the foal ages resulting in highlights. The first shed of the foal coat will always be darker than the adult color. While a foal may actually be a dark bay, wait a bit to see if it actually is or if it's just the first shed.
Bay foals will be missing the characteristic black legs. They're born with greyish looking legs that later disappear when the foal sheds out when they're older. The black legs will often start appearing with black "anklets".
Foals in general will often have primitive markings and mealy shading as a form of camouflage. Primitive markings are things like dorsal stripes and leg barring. Sometimes the pony keeps them and sometimes they disappear. Mealy is lighter hair generally on the nose and flanks. On bays this lighter hair is a light brown to an off white. Sometimes the pony keeps the mealy, other times it disappears with the foal coat shed.
|
Newborn bay with mealy and grey legs.
Jean Bonde's Bayside Angel (Sockett To Me x Leah's Bayside Angel) Pedigree |
|
Bay foal starting to shed with black anklets.
2010 foal. |
|
Bay tobiano foal.
2007 colt. |
|
Bay foal with bay legs starting to shed. Mane and tail are mixed bay and black hair.
2018 colt (Ajax x Unforgettable) Pedigree |
|
|