BLACK

Black is one of the two base colors (black and red).  All horses are either black or red based. 

A black horse is black with black points (lower legs, mane & tail).  There are non-fading blacks (most prevalent in Arabs and Tennessee Walking Horses) which do not fade with exposure to sun and fading blacks, which do to some degree (sometimes fading as much as they will appear bay rather than black). 

The genetic symbol for black is E.

EE = homozygous black (i.e., a black horse that has no red gene)

Ee =  heterozygous black (i.e, a black horse with a red gene)

These two types of black cannot be distinguished by their appearance.  They both will appear black with black points.  Fading black also has no bearing on whether a horse has a red gene or not.