I just caught up with the last episode (175) after falling behind a bit, and this might be more a comment than a question, and perhaps not too important, but, being a horse nerd, it was important to me.
On the question of Shadowfax's name, Cory Olsen commented that Shadowfax is grey, not white. And that is correct. But "grey" in horse colours can be anything from a dark grey to a coat that anyone other than an equestrian would call white. A grey horse is a horse that turns grey early in life - just like som people get grey hair earlier than others. And like the grey hair of human being can become all white, so does the hair of grey horses. It is true that some greys are constant -- that is, they don't get lighter with the years-- but most turn lighter the older they get.
The difference between a true white horse and a grey is the the color of their skin. A grey will have dark skin under the hairs while a white horse will have pink skin. It is easiest to see around the mouth and eyes. You can see it in the horses that played Shadowfax in Jackson's movies; both have dark skin around the eyes and mouth (though one has some pink, a sign that it has a white marking) and are therefore greys.
I have tried to search to see if later decsriptions of Shadowfax gave any more hints as to how light or dark is coat is, but did not find any. There is a horse colour called silver, it is a dilution gene which affects the black colour, but it will typically give a black horse a chocolate colour, not grey, so I don't think that is what Gandalf meant when he describes him shining as silver.
Horses can get a metalic gleam to their coates (I know one Chessnut who looks like pollished bronze in the sun, though it is most often seen in the Akhal-Teke breed), so while I do agree that Shadowfax is meant to be special and mythic, the description is not of anything that can't be seen in horses today, however rarely. As a horse lover, it actually makes Shadowfax seem greater to me than if his colouring had been unrealistic. Rather than detracting from the mythic status of the horse, it adds to it that the colour is possible.
On the question of Shadowfax's name, Cory Olsen commented that Shadowfax is grey, not white. And that is correct. But "grey" in horse colours can be anything from a dark grey to a coat that anyone other than an equestrian would call white. A grey horse is a horse that turns grey early in life - just like som people get grey hair earlier than others. And like the grey hair of human being can become all white, so does the hair of grey horses. It is true that some greys are constant -- that is, they don't get lighter with the years-- but most turn lighter the older they get.
The difference between a true white horse and a grey is the the color of their skin. A grey will have dark skin under the hairs while a white horse will have pink skin. It is easiest to see around the mouth and eyes. You can see it in the horses that played Shadowfax in Jackson's movies; both have dark skin around the eyes and mouth (though one has some pink, a sign that it has a white marking) and are therefore greys.
I have tried to search to see if later decsriptions of Shadowfax gave any more hints as to how light or dark is coat is, but did not find any. There is a horse colour called silver, it is a dilution gene which affects the black colour, but it will typically give a black horse a chocolate colour, not grey, so I don't think that is what Gandalf meant when he describes him shining as silver.
Horses can get a metalic gleam to their coates (I know one Chessnut who looks like pollished bronze in the sun, though it is most often seen in the Akhal-Teke breed), so while I do agree that Shadowfax is meant to be special and mythic, the description is not of anything that can't be seen in horses today, however rarely. As a horse lover, it actually makes Shadowfax seem greater to me than if his colouring had been unrealistic. Rather than detracting from the mythic status of the horse, it adds to it that the colour is possible.