My unicorn from the tutorial was a gorgeous red color. When she came into the stable she was white.... O_O Maybe she saw a ghost, I don't know. But when I picked her she was a redish colored mare.

The creature you see is not always the creature you get. Unfortunately, this was something placed in suggestions, but no word on it changing was given. It isn't really a bug, so there's nothing to 'fix' per say. Unless something has changed, you get a White Unicorn instead of the pretty red one you were looking at. Once you get to know the mechanics of the site better, you'll be able to either breed for, buy or catch the colors you want. Also, because this site offers custom skins, this will appear less of an issue with you later on, probably.

We can't show the actual color of the pet which doesn't exist yet. The first player's pet is created only after the species and gender is chosen and "Create" button was clicked. The images in the tutorial are static and illustrate only the general species appearence.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Maybe putting that explanation in the tutorial? I can see where it would upset some new players. 

RedRarebit, thanks for suggestion! I added a notice about randomly chosen color to the first tutorial step.