A roan is a horse with a distinctive coat pattern where white hairs are evenly mixed throughout its base color of red, brown, or black. Picture a horse that looks like someone sprinkled white paint across its body, the white hairs blending smoothly with the darker ones to create a shimmering effect.

The three main types of roan are red roan (white mixed with reddish-brown), blue roan (white mixed with black, giving a bluish-gray appearance), and bay roan (white mixed with brown). What makes roans special is that their heads and legs usually stay their original dark color, so a blue roan might have a black head and black legs with a silvery-gray body.

Roan patterns appear in many horse breeds, from Quarter Horses to Welsh ponies. Unlike gray horses, which gradually turn whiter as they age, roan horses keep their mixed coloring throughout their lives. If a roan gets a scar or injury, the hair that grows back comes in the solid base color without white hairs, creating a dark mark that horseback riders call a corn mark.