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So I'm about to start painting up some brets, but now that I think of it I'm not sure how to paint the horse. Any solid color across the board sounds boring. However, some brets have the purebred horse ruling, and with this in mind I'm wondering what could constitute a pure bred and what would not.

For example, I've always liked how black and white pinto horses looked, but I'm not seeing anything on google stating that there is a bloodline that has pinto horses. At least nothing concrete.

So in regards to horse colors, what can you NOT do regarding purebred?

Look up some actual horse breeds from the middle ages and their various color lines.

Here is a Shire, Clydsdale, and Percheron.

all can come in multiple colors(bottom 2 are both Percherons)

I posed this question to an equestrian lover friend of mine who is also in the SCA and has done research on medieval horses. This was her response:

Oh I could write you half a book on this, but I'll try to keep it manageable. Horse breeding is usually more a matter of conformation and temperament than color, but depending on the breed you're looking at, color can be an indication of the bloodline, and hence the quality.

I know that at different times and places, pintos have been considered "unlucky", so have solid black horses. Blacks have also been sought after in other circumstances, because that is a rare color to have breed true. Most "black" horses are actually dark brown, they're only considered black if the highlights off the coat are bluish.

Generally speaking, primitive colors, like dun, buckskin, grullo, and sometimes roan, are an indication of less careful breeding, those are throwback colors though, and they can show up in even the best bloodlines. If you look at footage of mustangs or brumbys, those are what horses look like when they breed back to natural without human interference for a few generations.

People tend to breed for flashy dramatic markings on dark horses, blazes and socks, but too much white is usually considered undesirable. White above the knee/hock, or coming back past the eyes is generally not looked on favorably except in Paint horses.

Dapples are an odd thing. They show up in a lot of grays, it's a natural part of their lightening, but it can show up on other colors, and more often in certain breeds (the South American descendants of Iberian lines for example). Generally it's considered a sign of good breeding, and also of good condition. A horse's coat can develop dapples when they're out on new spring grass that they don't have the rest of the year.

For Arabians (the type you'd expect for a knight's courser) chestnut, sorrel, bright bay, and gray are the most common colors, with blood bays showing up very often in the better Egyptian lines.

Baroque breeds like Lusitanos, Andalusians and the like (a destrier), tend toward gray, though they show up in other colors too. Usually these lighten in color later in life than lighter breeds too, and often don't go all gray until they're 12-15 years old.

Wikipedia actually has a pretty good breakdown of horse coat colors and markings, even with some discussion of the genetic causes, what's related to what.
..

Mammals are funny in that they are rarely bred specifically for color patterns but for more practical traits(like strength, stamina, or food) and can show massive variation in color.

Whereas other species tend to be set in their color patterns. Chickens will hold to their color pattern for their breed very rigidly, at least compared to mammals(I raise show poultry and it can be agonizing to find a single white feather on a blackbird and try to breed it out)

Grey Templar wrote:Mammals are funny in that they are rarely bred specifically for color patterns but for more practical traits(like strength, stamina, or food) and can show massive variation in color.

Whereas other species tend to be set in their color patterns. Chickens will hold to their color pattern for their breed very rigidly, at least compared to mammals(I raise show poultry and it can be agonizing to find a single white feather on a blackbird and try to breed it out)

I feel your pain. I bred Chocobos in FFVII.

Grey Templar wrote:Mammals are funny in that they are rarely bred specifically for color patterns but for more practical traits(like strength, stamina, or food) and can show massive variation in color.

I could be wrong, but I believe when I was watching animal planet awhile back it talked about how female lions usually looked for darker skinned males to mate with. This was funny because the darker skinned one have trouble coping with the heat.

I did a little online research, gathered a bunch of horse pictures, and did some test painting to get my horses colored properly - and wrote it all down so I wouldn't forget it, I'm terrible that way.

Fantastic resource

Now, I know what you're going to say.
"Kaaaaan, that's on GW's website!".

So? This is one of those cases where they had someone who felt strongly enough about a subject to explain it in-depth.
I, personally, have gotten quite a bit of use out of this link. So much so that it's a bookmark in my "Painting and Modeling Resources" folder, alongside of websites detailing various camouflage methodologies, airbrush maintenance, etc.

Kanluwen wrote:Fantastic resource

Now, I know what you're going to say.
"Kaaaaan, that's on GW's website!".

So? This is one of those cases where they had someone who felt strongly enough about a subject to explain it in-depth.
I, personally, have gotten quite a bit of use out of this link. So much so that it's a bookmark in my "Painting and Modeling Resources" folder, alongside of websites detailing various camouflage methodologies, airbrush maintenance, etc.

but...but...it's on a GW website! WTF KAN?

Joking aside, wow. That's a pretty extensive take on painting horses. Exactly what I was looking for, kudos!