I played way back when the horse pictures were all the same, and have recently returned to the game. Just looking to see what color variants and markings have been added since I was away. TIA!

There's a pattern library in the genetics section that shows most of the variations for the patterns. Some of the newest ones haven't been added since the player who made it hasn't been active lately.

Oh my goodness, another returnee from the 2-D horse cutout days when SPP was the bane of every breeder on their way to PPP. There are lots of variants and markings now, but rarity is only stated on the horse's page as 1/however many horses with that color.

As for color and pattern variations, a chestnut is a chestnut and a black tobiano is a black tobiano in the rarity calculations no matter which coat pattern shows on the picture, so the frequency of variations fluctuates by how many people prefer certain shades of chestnut or types of tobiano markings and are willing to use rerolls to get the one they want. You can extrapolate that to splash white, sabino or frame or any coat color or pattern. So there's no real way to quantify rarity of variants, because they don't count as separate colors. It's a pretty safe bet that certain variants go in and out of fashion.

In reality there are only the colors and modifiers you see in the genetics section of the game guide, but there are a multitude of variations of all colors and patterns with more being added all the time. We just got 3 new homozygous tobiano variants added in October (Oct 23 news).

I'm one of those weirdos who thinks that whatever color the horse comes out is fine with me, but I do think some of my shiny geldings are pretty. I've found that looking at the breed you prefer in the search, narrowing by color if you wish and scrolling down to see all the different horses is better than liking a certain color/pattern on a different breed with a different pose or opposite side showing and then being disappointed in how it looks on your breed.