Some have small, soft chestnuts. They are alert, have a proud carriage and most move at a running walk or foxtrot. The hooves are black and hard, almost perfectly round in shape. Curly horses have an exceptionally high concentration of red blood cells, stout, round cannon bones and straight legs. The knees are flat.
Foals arrive with thick, curly coats, curls inside their ears and curly eyelashes.
One odd feature of Curlies is that they often completely shed out the mane hair and sometimes the tail in the summer, growing it back in the winter. The hair of the mane and tail is fine and silky but often quite kinky. The summer coat is often wavy or rather straight with the curls returning in the winter coat. The American Bashkir Curly transmits the curly characteristics to offspring approximately half of the time even when mated to horses without the curly coat. The American Bashkir Curly has a gentle nature and is easy to train.