A seal brown warmblood sport horse with English riding style bridle. (Copyright and website text will NOT appear on prints and products)
Bay is a common horse coat color characterized by a brown body color with black mane, tail, and legs. Seal brown is often confused with bay because seal brown horses also have a brown body color with black mane, tail, and legs. But the genetics behind the coloration are a little different. Visually, seal brown horses can be distinguished from bay horses by the tan patches that are present around the muzzle (as you can see in this painting), girth, and flanks. Bays do not have these tan areas. If the horse in the painting were a bay the muzzle would be the same chocolate brown as the rest of the face. Seal brown horse body colors are usually chocolate brown to nearly black. Bay horse body colors have a wider range of shades, from a dark tan, to blood red, to nearly black. On nearly black seal brown horses the tan patches stand out even more, making them easy to distinguish from the nearly-black bay horse. Read more about the seal brown coat color here.