Coat colours
The colours used in the records, with the Iradi names breeders use. Iradi names a horse by its look, so one word can cover two colours: kula is both buckskin and dun.
| Colour | Iradi | What it looks like | Akyel | Chongtor | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| palomino | sary | Gold body, white or flaxen mane and tail: a chestnut with one cream gene. The colour Akyel breeders want most, and the one with the strongest doran sheen. | 335 | 0 | Sary-Ay 1990 | |
| golden bay | altyn toru | A light, bright bay with a gold cast and black points. | 117 | 0 | Jaynak 1921 | |
| bay | toru | Brown to red-brown body with black mane, tail and lower legs. The commonest colour in both breeds. | 796 | 919 | Chagylgan 2006 | |
| dark bay | kara toru | A bay so dark it looks black at a distance; the muzzle and flanks show brown. | 0 | 0 | ||
| chestnut | kyzyl | Red-gold to liver body with a mane and tail of the same shade or lighter, and no black points. Sorrel in the American records. | 611 | 93 | Uchkun 1959 | |
| buckskin | kula | A bay with one cream gene: tan to gold body, black points. Iradi uses kula for it as for the dun, so the books add the colour in Russian. | 423 | 0 | Jel-Kayyk 1968 | |
| cream | ak sary | Very pale cream body with blue or pale eyes: two cream genes. Cream Akyels show silver in the sun. | 185 | 0 | Kara-Kanat 1995 | |
| dun | kula | Sandy to yellow body with a dark stripe down the back and often bars on the legs. The old colour of the Chongtor. Includes red dun. | 92 | 701 | Almanbet 2003 | |
| golden dun | altyn kula | A palomino or chestnut with the dun gene: pale gold with a darker back stripe. Zharkyn's colour. | 13 | 0 | Zharkyn 2010 | |
| mouse-dun | sur | Slate grey-brown with a black back stripe: a black horse with the dun gene. | 0 | 71 | Kara-Agyn 2009 | |
| black | kara | Black all over, with no brown in the muzzle. Some blacks carry a hidden cream gene. | 192 | 183 | Kara-Jal 1917 | |
| grey | boz | Born dark and greying with age until white. Any colour can go grey, and a grey always has a grey parent. | 166 | 466 | Kökjal 1919 | |
| blue roan | kök | White hairs through a black body, with a dark head and legs. | 0 | 223 | Kula-Yel 2006 | |
| red roan | kyzyl ala | White hairs through a bay or chestnut body. Bay roans are entered as red roans in both books. | 0 | 160 | Kara-Jyldyz 2010 |
Counts are horses in Tukum. Sorrel (American records) is counted as chestnut. Other words for markings and shades are in the glossary.
What colour will the foal be?
Sire x Dam
A rough guide. It knows only the parents' colours, not the genes they carry hidden, so it assumes the usual mix of genes in Iradi horses: a bay may carry chestnut, a black may carry a cream gene, and so on. A colour DNA test of the parents gives exact odds. Golden bay and dark bay count as bay. Dun includes red dun. Dun, roan and grey are dominant: a foal can only have them if a parent does.