Smoky Silver?

This colt is a mystery to me. Sire is Silver Dunskin (EE Aa Crncr Znz - one dun gene, not DNA tested but proven with non-dun mares), Dam is Black (Ee ???).

When he was born I thought smoky blue dun, but he had odd skin color (purplish) and blue eyes that later changed to hazel. No white eyelashes and no striped hooved (but sire doesn't have striped hooves either). His mane and tail were black which told me "not silver."

Now at 3.5 months old, he is shedding out all shades of tan and chocolate. I have another silver dunskin colt from this year (same sire) and he is a super light buttermilk shade compared to this guy. The roots of his mane are silver like his sire's. His legs are chocolate, not black. All traces of black are gone.

I have more pictures on Flickr under Twisted E Ranch, the horse's name is Jolfur from Twisted E, but I'm not sure I'm pasting the link correctly. The link is also on my website twisted-e-ranch dot com. What do you all think?

Well he's most definitely a black base with dun. What else is there I really can't tell. I'm not at all convinced of silver. Maybe smokey grullo?

That was my original thought too, but it threw me when he started shedding out tan/brown. I admit I'm not real familiar with smoky grulla, I haven't found many good pictures that didn't look just like a really light grulla. Thanks for the input .

PS. This is the one I am sure is silver dunskin. Not the best picture to show color though!

I agree. But I'm certain dun is there and about 90% certain it's a black base. The only question is silver. The more i think about it the more I suppose that's probably what it is, I'm just confused as to why it didn't show earlier.

This colt's sheath and surrounding areas are purplish, is that common in silver? I thought it was extremely odd that he had the black hair at birth, that's why I discounted silver right off the bat.

Sire is homozygous for black so he has to be a black base ;o).

Oh when I said black base I meant black base without agouti.

To be honest, I've only seen the purplish skin 2 or 3 times. It's NOT common. At this particular moment I can not recall what the reasons for it were in those cases but I'm going to dwell on it and report back if I remember. It was definitely on a black based dilute and I know it wasn't champagne or pearl and I don't think it was cream... so I'm thinking maybe it IS a silver sign. I'm going to have to look back.

Thanks for your input, I do appreciate the conversation!