What Color is a Buckskin Horse?
A Buckskin horse has a golden coat, ranging from a very light beige/golden coat to a darker smoky black golden color. What the various colors of Buckskin horses all have in common is a cream-colored body, black mane, tail, and lower legs without a dorsal stripe. If the golden horse has a distinctive dorsal stripe, it is not a buckskin horse but very likely a dun color horse. A buckskin horse is technically a bay horse with a cream gene, resulting in the golden coat color, black mane, and tail.
Types of Colors on Buckskin Horses:
Buckskin horses come in a variety of colors. Here are some of the most common:
- Standard Buckskin - true colored buckskin
- Sooty Buckskin
- Golden Buckskin
- Buttermilk Buckskin (Like the famous stallion Zapphire)
- Yellow Buckskin
- Silver Buckskins (pretty uncommon for buckskin coloring)
- Tan Buckskin
- Smoky Black Buckskin
Buckskin horses can also have white face masking and other white markings. Due to their cream gene, they are more prone to having blue eyes.
Why Are Buckskin Horses So Popular?
Buckskin horses are not a breed, but a golden color of their coat. These golden horses are fairly unusual (especially in warmblood breeds). They are more common in other horse breeds such as Spanish mustang or quarter horses. Many wild horses in the United States are buckskin. The popularity for golden coat color (buckskin, palomino, cremello, etc) has increased in English disciplines over the last 10 years, with the stallion Zafferano being the second most used breeding stallion in Scandinavia in 2024. He is also the sire to the stallion: Zapphire (one of the most famous Buckskin stallions in the world).
How Can I Breed a Buckskin Colored Horse?
See the table below on how a buckskin horse can be bred from: palomino horses, buckskin horses, bay horses, black horses, and cremello horses. If the owner values color, it's essential to perform genetic testing on the mare and the stallion before you breed to calculate the different possibilities for the foal's color. The equine coat color test can be done with Etalon for only $149 for their standard package.
A buckskin horse holds a single copy of cream, so for a 50% chance of producing another buckskin, it could be bred with a bay base coat or a cremello.
| Parent 1 | Parent 2 | Possible Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Bay (no cream) | Palomino (chestnut + 1 cream) | 50% chance of a Buckskin foal |
| Bay (no cream) | Cremello (double cream) | 100% Buckskin or Palomino |
| Black | Palomino | Could produce Buckskin if Agouti is present |
| Buckskin | Bay | 50% Buckskin, 25% Bay, 25% non-cream variants |
| Buckskin | Cremello | 50% Buckskin, 50% Perlino |
Common Buckskin Coloring in breeds of horses
We generally see the most buckskins in the following horse breeds: Andalusian, Mustang, Lusitano, Quarter horses, Tennessee walking horse, Australian stock horses, Peruvian Paso, Akhal Teke, and Morgan horses.
