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"Light Black"
 This color name refers only to horses that have been DNA color tested and "should
look black", but don't.
This picture is of the purebred Arabian, Ali-Zeus, who is genetically black.
There is a link to an entire page about him, below.
We know of at least 3 kinds types of "black color behavior" in horses that test E_, aa
(solid black with no dilution genes) but don't "look black":
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Some look brown all over, all of the time (not the agouti color "seal
brown" but the "Crayola" color brown.) This is the
phenomenon we are looking at most closely as "light black".
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Others have black points, but their bodies never look black, even
when they first grow a new coat; rather
they always look like bays, buckskins or duns. These MAY be a form of
"light black".
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Then there
is the "fading black" classification where the horse grows every coat
(seasonally) pure black, but within weeks or months it fades drastically to
brown, reddish, or even tan. Not as likely to be related to the the first
type of black (light black).
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The leopard complex genes (appaloosa) often cause true black to appear
slightly diluted. Not believed to be the same phenomenon as the first
type of light black.
Some have dark blue eyes at birth, but in many, if not all, cases, the irises turn
a golden or tan color. Some have pinkish skin at birth.
Links to pages about individual "light black"
horses
on NewDilutions.com :
And one page located here:
Here is one picture of a PRE foal, provided by Celeste Plitz.
 No further details are
available.
Click to see full size.This colt has not yet been DNA tested to eliminate all known
dilution genes. Until I find out whether there's any hope of learning more
about him, I'll leave him here. However, he may well "just be a bay with a
splash gene", which would be rare enough, in a PRE.
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