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# Sooty chestnut
- URL: https://equinecolors.com/sooty-chestnut/
- Published: 2025-12-17T13:22:26.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-10T10:51:14.000Z
- Description: Sooty chestnut, also called liver, chocolate or "black" chestnut, is caused by a chestnut base coat darkened by sooty.
- Author: Hannelore Roodhooft
- Tags: Colors, Modifiers, #Import 2026-08-12 09:42

## Appearance

| Foals | ![Sooty chestnut foal](https://equinecolors.com/content/images/2025/11/chestnutfoal-2.png) | Foals look the same as **regular [chestnut](https://equinecolors.com/chestnut/)** 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 chestnut-based horses, especially[**palominos**](https://equinecolors.com/palomino/), it often mostly darkens the**legs or lower body**. It can also darken the**entire coat** and cause prominent **dapples**.Sooty can also darken the mane and tail, sometimes making them darker than thebody. | ![](https://equinecolors.com/content/images/2025/12/sootychestnut.png) | Adults |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------ |

### Chestnut variations

| Sootyflaxen | ![Flaxen sooty chestnut](https://equinecolors.com/content/images/2025/12/flaxensootychestnut.png) |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

**Note:** although sooty chestnuts can look very dark or even "black" in color, no black pigment is present - it's very concentrated red pigment!

### Mimics

Dark sooty chestnuts can look like (sunfaded) [black](https://equinecolors.com/black/) horses, [flaxen](https://equinecolors.com/flaxen/) sooty chestnuts can look similar to [silver black](https://equinecolors.com/silver-bay/), [silver bay](https://equinecolors.com/silver-bay/) or sooty palominos.

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

Look at the points of the horse.Look at the coronet bands (area right above the hooves).These 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:**  
[Chestnut](https://equinecolors.com/base-colors-chestnut/) | [Sooty bay](https://equinecolors.com/sooty-bay/) | [Flaxen chestnut](https://equinecolors.com/flaxen/) | [Chestnut pangaré](https://equinecolors.com/chestnut-pangare/)

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

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[![CTA Image](https://equinecolors.com/content/images/2025/10/Image-5.png)](https://www.horsereality.com/?ref=equinecolors.com) 

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