Which Colours Look Best on a Buckskin/Dun?

December 20, 2025

Saddle pad shopping and wondering what colour would look good on your horse? Here is a whole collection of inspiration photos of buckskin and dun horses and ponies in different coloured Punk Ponies saddle pads and halters to help you decide.

In New Zealand a lot of people use "buckskin" and "dun" as descriptive terms for different shades of buckskin. Technically a buckskin is a bay horse with a single cope of the cream gene, while duns are a separate dilution gene - the duns pictured here are all bay duns, but the dun gene can dilute any colour so there are also red duns, black duns (sometimes called grulla/grullo), and many others, even including buckskin duns (called dunskins)! However the dun gene is very rare in NZ, and brown duns can sometimes look very similar to buckskins, so I have grouped them together here just to be easier.

I personally think buckskins look good in pretty much every colour. Red, Purple, and Royal Blue are beautiful options that compliment a golden buckskin coat, or stand out against a creamy lighter buckskin. Pastel shades like mint, lavender, and baby blue are always a great option too. For something more unique look at colours that share the same tones as your buckskin's coat - Gold, Rose Gold, or Brown saddle pads can be a nice tone-on-tone effect.

There are many other colours that suit them though, and if a colour isn't pictured here it is not because it will look bad, its only because I haven't photographed it yet!

At the end of the day you need to choose a colour that you like, not necessarily what everyone else likes. Hopefully this post will help you with your decision.