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The tiger colour is a very various colour, everything from totally white horses and different spotted markings to self-colours. Here are some examples of the different variations. Principally, the spots and the white spread from the hind quarters of the horse.
  
Picture 1-3
The different types are divided into leopard tigered, schabrak tigered, mottled tigered, snowflake tigered and minimal tigered. Of course there exist mixed variations as well. All of the types exist in heterozygote and homozygote form, which means if the individual horse has the tiger gene either once or twice. Sometimes it is difficult to see the difference.
The leopard tigered is white with spots all over but it can have dark mottled head, neck, shoulder and legs. Picture 1 and 2 are examples of leopard tigered horses, they can either be spotted all over the body, or as in picture 2, have dark or mottled head-neck-legs. The spots can vary from a few square centimetres to the sizes on picture 1-3 or sometimes even larger.
  
Picture 4-6
The schabrak tigered horse is self-coloured, born with white back, with or without spots. The white spreads from the hind quarters in a more or less continuous field in both skin and coat. The smallest spread is a small continuous white spread on the hind quarters. The border between leopard and schabrak tigered i.e. the spread of the white colour, is defined by an imaginary line between the middle of the withers and the armpit. If the white spread crosses the line, it is a leopard tigered horse. Picture 3 is a typically schabrak tigered horse, with a mottled front, while picture 4 shows a very small spread of the white on an otherwise dark brown horse. Picture 5 is also a typically schabrak tigered horse, but with a self-coloured front. The mottled parts are mottled, are often self-coloured at the birth, but become mottled within a couple of years.
  
Picture 7-9
There are other genes that control the spread of the white, and those genes are rare in other breeds.
The snowflake tigered horse is a self-coloured horse with distinctive and only white spots. This is a rare variation, but it shows up from time to time. It often has a mottled ground colour. They are often born self-coloured (as minimal tigered) and becomes more spotted and mottled as time goes. Picture 6 and 7, show the snowflake tigered horse with white spots on a dark ground colour. Usually they become more mottled as time passes.
  
Picture 10-12
The mottled tigered horse has mixed coloured and white hair. The amount of white hair varies a lot. It can have coloured spots, coloured and white spots or no spots at all. The foals are often born dark without mottling. Picture 8 and 9 are examples of mottled tigered horses, picture 8 without spots and picture 9 with some spots on the hind quarters.
The minimal tigered horse, shown in picture 10, has white sclerotic coats in the eyes, it can have striped hooves and be dotted in the skin around the natural openings, but does not have any white except for the normal markings. The minimal tigered horse probably lacks the genes for the spreading white.
  
Picture 13-15
The homozygote tigered horse has no or few irregular placed spots. The homozygote, the so called “white born”, in pictures 11-13 are all leopard tigered. The homozygote always has two tigered parents. The homozygote schabrak tigered horse can look like the horses in pictures 3-5, but without the spots. When the horse is mottled, it can be difficult to tell whither the horse is homozygote or not. Sometimes the parents of the horse can give a hint; if one of them is self-coloured, as in pictures 14 and 15, the horse is heterozygote.
Two heterozygote parents give 25 % self-coloured horses. These do not have the tiger gene but they can have the spreading (of the white) gene, this gene does not show without the tiger gene. If the parents are self-coloured and homozygote tigered, you will get a heterozygote tigered each time.
The self-coloured horses in pictures 14 and 15 both have two tigered parents, but have not inherited the tiger gene from any of the parents, and therefore their colour does not expose their breed.
THE TIGER GENE
The following charts show how the tiger gene works. The heterozygote LPlp have the tiger gene LP in single set. Pictures 1-10 all show heterozygote tigered horses. The homozygote LPLP has the tiger gene LP in double set. Pictures 11-13 show homozygote tigered horses. The single coloured lplp has no tiger gene. Pictures 14 and 15 show single coloured horses.
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If you mate two heterozygote tigered LPlp, the outcome will be 25% homozygote LPLP, 50% heterozygote LPlp and 25% solid coloured lplp. .
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If you mate one homozygote LPLP and one solid coloured lplp, the outcome will be 100% heterozygote LPlp.
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If you mate one homozygote LPLP and one heterozygote LPlp, the outcome will be 50% homozygote LPLP and 50% heterozygote LPlp.
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If you mate one heterozygote LPlp and one solid coloured lplp, the outcome will be 50% heterozygote LPlp and 50% solid coloured lplp.
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