Coat Colour Roan – Horse

Roan coat colour is a white patterning with a mixture of white and colored hairs over the body while the head, lower legs, mane and tail remain colored. In horses that inherit the classic Roan gene, the white and colored hairs are evenly mixed in comparison to horses that have an uneven distribution of white hairs called Roaning pattern. For this roaning pattern, the inheritance has not been defined.

In literature it is suggested that coat colour Roan is homozygous lethal, but evidence from studies with the Quarter horse breed indicate otherwise. Roan Quarter horses that produce 100% Roan foals exist in the population.