October 05th, 2023

​Rabicanos, Sabinos, and Roans! Oh my!
All three types can have “roaning” or “white ticking”. But they are all produced by different genes. And to make it even more difficult to determine which a horse is they can carry multiple genes and show traits of both.
The term “rabicano” comes from two Spanish words combined. “Rabo” meaning “tail” and “cano” meaning white. So rabicanos have white hairs in their tails, particularly at the base of the tail. Depending on how the gene expresses itself a rabicano may or may not have "roaning" which is white hairs mixed in with the coat base color. Minimally expressed roaning can show up on their flanks and around the chest area/inside tops of their front legs. In a medium expression the white hairs can also appear on the barrel of the horse. Some rabicanos have such a high roan expression that they can be mistaken for a true roan.
Sabinos also have “roaning” but it comes from a different gene than that of a rabicano. Sabinos can have "roaning" over their flanks and body. They don’t often have the white hairs at the base of their tail. But they almost always have white face markings with a white chin spot. White socks on sabinos is also a common trait.
Roans have white hairs intermixed over their base hair color. The head, legs, tail, and mane have little to no white hairs. The color of their base hair determines whether they are a red roan, a blue roan, or a bay roan. Although any color can be a roan it is more difficult to see the roaning on a lighter colored horse such as a palomino due to lack of color contrast. True roans can also have spots of solid colored hair in roaned areas. These solid spots are called “corn spots” or “corn marks”. Corn spots can appear after an injury or even in areas where there was no visible injury.