warm Coats
Horses with golden, red, or yellow-toned coats
- Bay (classic reddish-brown with black points)
- Chestnut (solid reddish)
- Sorrel (lighter orange chestnut)
- Palomino (gold with white mane and tail)
- Buckskin (tan/gold body with black points)
- Red Dun (light tan with red points, primitive markings)
- Flaxen Chestnut (chestnut body with lighter mane/tail)
- Copper Bay (bright, vibrant bay)
- Sooty Palomino (slightly shaded golden palomino)
- Sooty Buckskin (shaded/darker buckskin)
dark coats
Deep, dark-toned horses — blacks, very dark bays, chocolates
- Black (true black)
- Smoky Black (black but genetically diluted)
- Dark Bay (almost black bay, “mahogany bay”)
- Seal Brown (very dark brown, almost black)
- Liver Chestnut (very dark brownish chestnut)
- Sooty Black (slightly shaded or faded black)
- Dark Grullo (almost black-based grullo)
light coats
Light-colored, pale, or pastel-toned horses
- Grey (all shades: light grey, dapple grey, flea-bitten grey, almost white)
- White (true white horses — rare but possible)
- Cremello (cream-colored, pink skin, blue eyes)
- Perlino (slightly darker cream, pink skin, blue eyes)
- Champagne (gold or amber champagne — light skin, diluted color)
- Dun (classic yellowish-tan with black points and dorsal stripe)
- Grullo (bluish or smoky dun — note: grullo can almost swing dark but looks light in photos often)
- Light Roan (strawberry roan, blue roan, bay roan — mostly roaned out)
- Silver Dapple (light silvery mane over dark coats — visually lighter)
Spirit 'N Grace Style Guide Library
Choosing the perfect look for your equine session just got easier.
Explore my curated style guides — designed around coat color, setting, and time of day — to help you create beautiful, cohesive portraits.
Select the guide that fits your session best, download it, and start planning!
What About Patterned horses?
Have a Paint, Pinto, Appaloosa, Roan, or other uniquely marked horse?
Patterns like Tobiano, Overo, Sabino, Roan, and Appaloosa are called modifiers — they change how the coat looks but not the horse's true base color.
Simply choose the base coat color that makes up the majority of your horse’s coat.
For example:
- A Bay Tobiano would select Warm Coats.
- A Black Overo would select Dark Coats.
- A Blue Roan would select Light Coats.
Inside each guide, you’ll also find special tips for styling patterned horses!