Flashy Gray for Jorge

[Kari]

http://www.eisamanequine.com/horses/min ... tml#hipsee

Enjoy!

[Jorge]

http://www.eisamanequine.com/horses/mint-landing-2009-1541.html#hipsee

Enjoy!

Thank you very much for the valuable watch. Certainly
Vice Regent and Medaille D'Or are two powerful sources. Really impressed, especially coming from a plain jane case like Giacomo.
Thanks again!

[Jorge]

GIACOMO (sire) http://www.pedigreequery.com/giacomo2
MINT LANDING (dam) http://www.pedigreequery.com/mint+landing

[Jorge]

SEE HIS CATALOG PEDIGREE AT: http://obssales.com/aprcatalog/2011/1185.PDF

GIACOMO (sire) http://www.pedigreequery.com/giacomo2
MINT LANDING (dam) http://www.pedigreequery.com/mint+landing

[erhrdt3]

Is it just me or is that colt really looooong and low to the ground? Like a Lowrider? Maybe its the photo.

I like Giacomo, and am interested in possibly purchasing an offspring of his in the future, that is, after I get a Grasshopper one first!!

If only the greys would stay that color. Love the steel greys, like Eight Belles was, she looked almost a blue grey. Unbridled's Song seems to throw that color but the risk of fragility is way too much to overcome for sheer color.

Jorge, why DO they turn color as they age and the other colors do not?

Kari, I totally LOVE that avatar of Personal Ensign beating Winning Colors, where did you get that???

[Crystal]

Did you pick him in the EE facebook contest? I picked the Broken Vow x Bali Pie #520. I think I picked him twice actually!

[r3b3l]

erhrdt3, as far as I have read and studied about gray, it is not really a colour, as bay or chestnut could be...it is considered an "erasing" gene. It takes pigmentation away (but only from hair, not from skin or eyes like the cream gene does).

All grays are born with some base colour... bay, chestnut, palomino, black, buckskin..whatever.. but if they have inherited a gray allele it makes that base colour dissappear. Some horses loose their colour earlier, and others will remain dark gray for a long time. It depends, but eventually they will all end up the same, as "white phase grays".

[Kari]

Haha! It's been so long since I put that picture up as my avatar, I have no idea where it came from! I think it was a print by Celeste Susany.

Haven't made a pick for the EE Facebook contest yet. I have commitment issues.

[RiddleMeThis]

Gray causes the pigment in the hair follicles to speed up production. It causes the hair follicles to go through pigment MUCH faster than normal. It then burns out the pigment much faster than normal which causes the graying. This is also why most grays are born their "adult" color.

[Jorge]

Jorge, why DO they turn color as they age and the other colors do not?

Or why do in some extreme rare instances a genetic gray ("G" gene) equine is born practically all white like was the case of VIGORS
( [incorrectly so called] "roan" H 1973)?

The answer is that I really don't know. Even in the case of Vigors I don't remember him siring an extremely white-out gray horse like himself.
The rate in which a gray equine whites-out is really some sort of mystery.

But I consider that in spite of the fact that all gray equines change their shade with age, that shouldn't deter coat color breeders from crossing grays to flamboyant colored Thoroughbreds. Alas we don't witness these kind of crossess in large numbers.

[xfactor fan]

There is some reason to believe that a horse that carries a double dose of the gray gene will gray out faster than a single dose. And there have been a few case where the foal was born gray, then turned white fast.

As for crossing grays with colorful TB's, there is no genetic reason not to, but a very strong economic reason why it isn't done more often. Can you imagine anything more heartbreaking to have your flashy palomino turn white? And with a gray parent you run either a 50% chance of the offspring turning white, or a 100% chance of turning white, and losing the color you were breeding for in the first place.