Merle

Merle is a variation of body-silvering effect filled with holes where the horse's base coat shows through. Body silvering from merle can optionally affect the entire body, or just the black points.

The mane and tail can take on a 'streaked' appearance where the merle's holes touch, otherwise they should remain a uniform silver (lighter or white). Any streak created by a merle patch must still look like a normal silver mane/tail color, and body-silvering streaks should simply lighten the hair closer to the roots so the mane and tail still transition into roughly the same light shade toward the tips.

Lighter streaks in the mane/tail on silver bays are allowed even if the merle isn't affecting the red-pigmented area, as seen on the bay example below.

Merle 'spots' should never darken the coat or cause darker streaking in the mane/tail, it's simply an absence of body-silvering, showing the coat underneath.