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# Sooty bay
- URL: https://equinecolors.com/sooty-bay/
- Published: 2025-12-18T10:30:47.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-10T10:52:17.000Z
- Description: Sooty bay is caused by a bay base coat darkened by sooty.
- Author: Hannelore Roodhooft
- Tags: Colors, Modifiers, #Import 2026-08-12 09:42

## Appearance

| Foals | ![Sooty bay foal](https://equinecolors.com/content/images/2025/11/bayfoal.png) | Foals look the same as regular [**bay**](https://equinecolors.com/bay/) foals.It can take years for the coat to start darkening. |
| ----- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

| Sooty can be expressed in different ways, tends to **increase** as the **horse ages** and may show **seasonal/diet** changes as well.On bay-based horses, it often mostlydarkens the **topline** of the horse, like sootwas dropped over it. This can cause abroad fake “dorsal stripe”, which is called**countershading**. Some sooty horses show a darker ”face mask". Sooty can also darken the **entire coat** and cause prominent**dapples**. | ![](https://equinecolors.com/content/images/2025/12/sootybay.png) | Adults |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ------ |

### Bay shade variations

| Sootysealbrown | ![Sooty seal brown](https://equinecolors.com/content/images/2025/12/sootysealbrown.png) |
| -------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

### Mimics

Sooty bay horses can look similar to [seal brown](https://equinecolors.com/bay/#:~:text=Bay%20shade%20variations) horses. Dark (seal) sooty bays can look like [black](https://equinecolors.com/black/) horses.

![CTA Image](https://equinecolors.com/content/images/2025/12/Equinecolors_Icon_MagnifyingGlass.png) 

****Seal brown** horses are ****born** with their darker color. Sooty horses develop it over time.  
Look at the ****points** of the horse. These should be ****black** in color.  
Look at the ****soft parts** of the horse. These parts should be ****reddish** in color.

## Genetics

The genetics behind sooty haven't been discovered yet.

> *In our game,* [***Horse Reality***](https://www.horsereality.com/?ref=equinecolors.com)*, sooty is caused by the sty-allele of the hidden sooty gene. This allele acts recessive on chestnut bases, and dominant on bay bases. For any color we *don't know the genetics* of yet, we have to come up with something to make it work in-game. Which means working with just *observations and theories*. Since sooty isn't testable yet in real life, it also isn't testable in game.*

  
**Read more:**  
[Bay](https://equinecolors.com/bay/) | [Sooty chestnut](https://equinecolors.com/sooty-chestnut/) | [Bay pangaré](https://equinecolors.com/bay-pangare/)

[Back to Sooty](https://equinecolors.com/sooty/)

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