Is my foal color "silver" ?

How do you tell if a foal will be silver? We have had weanlings that definitely look sorrel (which doesn't carry the silver gene) and appear to have a flaxen mane and tail, but by the time they are 2 years old they are confirmed bay silver. We in Canada find it expensive to do coat color testing on all foals, and until now we've used the test only to confirm our visual determination so the registration at AQHA can be noted as carrying silver. The foals we think are 'just sorrel' do not get tested. Are there any tips to tell if the foal is likely to carry silver?

Are there any tips to tell if the foal is likely to carry silver?

Last year we had a couple foals born that were very hard to tell. Their mane was the indicator for me. Although very slight the color was neither black nor red. It was, for lack of a better word, a mushroom brown/grey color. Just not a normal color.
I post some mane photos from just after they foals were born tomorrow.

Khepri TDS - She looks like a wild blood bay silver. She was very hard to tell if she was a silver or not as a foal.





Below is Khepri's mane at 9+ months old. It's certainly not black, flaxen or silver just an odd mocha, mushroom brown color. She does seem to be getting more silver now. I will have to take some new photos of her mane color in the sunlight.



Andretti MVF - Bay Silver. His mane has the color I am talking about. The was taken just after he foaled and dried off.



Amelia MVF - Brown silver like her daddy
He was also hard to tell but again her mane had that odd color. Wasn't black like a bay would be and really too dark to be a chestnut. * Also I knew that chestnut wasn't a possibility.


Hope this helps

Sometimes it can be hard to tell.Sometimes the "silver" appearence appears later on and then you can tell or you can look at the horses eyelashes,mane,legs etc.If you can't tell with any of these you just have to do the DNA testing.

Maybe the eyelashes could help?