What is a blagdon horse?
Blagdon is the British name for the pattern known elsewhere as sabino: irregular splashes of white, often roaned at the edges.
Blagdon is the British name for the pattern known internationally as sabino. If you’ve seen the two words used as though they were different things, they aren’t. The CHAPS (UK) handbook lists it under both names at once, “SABINO (Sa-bee-no) aka Blagdon”, and defines it as “the generic description for a group of white splash patches of irregular shape, on the body, legs, belly and face; often with extensive roaning”.
How to recognise a blagdon
Two details separate it from the other coloured patterns. The edges are soft: “the outer edges of the white patches can be roaned”, so white blurs into colour instead of stopping at a line. And the amount varies enormously: the society describes markings ranging “from minimal to loud”, from as little as white on the chin or lower lip to a horse that’s entirely white.
That minimal end is why the word is useful. A horse with a bold face, high white legs and a belly splash may be a blagdon and not a well-marked bay, and it’s often the pattern people are describing when they say a horse is “nearly coloured”.
Blagdon or roan?
| Blagdon | Roan | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the white is | In patches: belly, legs, face | Mixed evenly through the body coat |
| Head and legs | Often the whitest parts | Usually stay solid and dark |
| Edges | Speckled where white meets colour | No patches to have edges |
What causes it
Sabino is a description, not one gene. UC Davis’s Veterinary Genetics Laboratory tests for one variant, Sabino 1, but many horses with the pattern do not carry it, and the other causes are still being worked out. The heavy horses show it most clearly: the wide white face and tall white legs on a Clydesdale or a Shire are the same kind of white.
Living with a lot of white
White hair grows over pink skin, and pink skin needs more care than dark. Owners of blagdons and other horses with a lot of white keep an eye on the legs in wet winters, when white legs are prone to mud fever, and on pink noses in summer sun, which burn. A fly mask with a nose flap and a barrier cream are the usual answers; your vet is the person to ask if the skin breaks.
Photographing the pattern
Blagdon white is hard to photograph because the roaned edges disappear in bright sun. A side-on photo on an overcast day, with the horse standing square, shows both the patches and the speckled edges, and it's the shot to use for a sale advert or a portrait.
Related colour words
The neighbouring terms are piebald and skewbald, and the qualifying rules are in what makes a horse coloured. Blagdon belongs to the same set of old British colour words as wall-eyed, which describes a pale or odd eye, not a coat. And for an owner who wants the markings exactly as they are, a portrait is made from your own photograph.
