Horse colors: Horses come in a variety of colors. You may think you know them, but do you know what a brindle is? Or what makes a black, brown, or gray horse turn white? The answer may surprise you.Horse colors: Let's start with white horses. You've probably seen the gorgeous white Lippizans ridden by at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Or the brilliant white horses ridden by Cavallia. Or maybe you just remember that Shadowfax, Gandalf's horse in The Lord of the Rings, was a luminously white mount. In the horse world, white horses are called "grey" or "gray" in the horse training world. A "grey horse is born colored (black, brown or chestnut) but the greying process starts very early in life -- during its first year. These horses are normally completely white by six to eight years of age but the skin remains pigmented. Thus, the process resembles greying in humans but the process is ultrafast in these horses. What makes this happen? New research has found that white horses carry a dominant gene mutation that results in rapid greying with age. (This is not to be confused with Overo Lethal White Syndrome. a rare fatal condition that occurs in newborn Overo Paint foals.)--Science Daily, 7/23/08
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