The woolly undercoat is overlaid with fairly long, straight, coarse, pithy, and brittle guard hairs. By flexing certain skin muscles, the pronghorn can maintain its pelage at different angles. Cold air is excluded when the hairs lie smooth and flat, but the hairs may be erected in the desert sun to allow air movement to cool the skin. The upper parts are reddish brown to tan, the neck has a black mane, and the underparts, the rump, and two bands across the neck are white. In the male, the face and a patch on the side of the neck are black, the horns are longer than the ears, and the nose is pointed downward slightly when it runs.
Females have four mammae.
Males, and most females, carry horns that consist of a permanent, laterally flattened bone core covered with a keratinous sheath that is shed annually after each breeding season. The new sheath grows upward under the old sheath. The horns of Antilocapra are erect, curving backward at the tips. Those of males are about 250 mm long and have a forward-directed prong arising from the upper half. Those of females, if present, are seldom over 120 mm long and seldom have prongs.