Enumeration of the Criollo Horse Coats

[monira khatun]

“If we ask our friends how many different hair types there can be among the herds of horses, some will answer seven or eight, others ten or twelve, and some will even answer fifteen or twenty.” “But when the researcher painstakingly compiles in the country’s rural population the nearly three hundred terms used by farmers to designate all the varieties and combinations of hair types, everyone is surprised by the extraordinary quantity and quality of the existing popular vocabulary.” Guillermo Alfredo Terrera

“In a country like ours, built on horseback, it's no shop surprise that half a dozen books are few to explain the coats of horses. The terms used to distinguish them are, for the most part, traditionally old-fashioned, and the rest, the minority, originated in Argentina, deriving them from that language or from the indigenous lexicon.” “Our gaucho, endowed with great visual ability and for whom his freight was of vital importance, was able to appreciate the slight differences (in coats) and thus leave behind in the country a vocabulary, the richest among all equestrian nations.” Emilio Solanet



"It is a widespread concept in Argentina that the characteristic coat of the Creole breed is the gateado, that is, the fawn bay."

Bay Coat Variations
White or Light Bay: White with a slight yellowish tinge. Duck Egg Bay: Creamy yellow in color. Its hair, bristles, and hooves are cream-colored. It is called "duck egg" because of its resemblance to the shell color of an Argentine wild duck. Yellow Bay: Yellow, similar to the yolk of a hen's egg spread on white porcelain.