Color Question

Talk about equine color, markings, genetics, etc. Post pictures of flashy Thoroughbreds!

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MINNOW
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Postby MINNOW » Tue May 17, 2011 4:10 pm

How long before they turn gray,the foal we just had is jet black his dad is gray his mum was bay,he is a month old now.
Thanks.
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aethervox
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Postby aethervox » Tue May 17, 2011 4:22 pm

karenkarenn wrote::D :D --- Thanks

Im slow! I really am.. I have more...
Karen


I'm glad it helped!

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RiddleMeThis
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Postby RiddleMeThis » Tue May 17, 2011 4:51 pm

MINNOW wrote:How long before they turn gray,the foal we just had is jet black his dad is gray his mum was bay,he is a month old now.
Thanks.
Could be immediately, could be years from now.

It varies.

Oh and I meant to post this earlier.

In the gray study it was found that homozygous grays do tend to gray faster than heterozygous grays. They are also more likely to develop melanomas. Either AA or aa are also more likely to get melanomas. Cant remember which it is at this point.

Heterozygous grays are more likely to be fleabitten.
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accphotography
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Postby accphotography » Tue May 17, 2011 5:28 pm

'aa' is more prone to melanomas.
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xfactor fan
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Postby xfactor fan » Tue May 17, 2011 6:08 pm

More gene geek speak:

homozygous = the same. Think Homosexual = same sex pairs.
heterozygous = unlike. Think Heterosexual = different sex pairs.

(simple, but it works to keep the two terms sorted out)

So your foal with one grey parent and one non-grey parent is heterozygous for the grey gene. (only one copy)

Often the first thing that greys out is around the eyes. Giving the foal "goggles" If the foal is very dark, you might have a grey in the making.

Isn't keeping a dark mane and tail also a marker for the grey gene? Can't remember if it is a sign of one copy or two. (Would guess it is one copy)

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madelyn
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Postby madelyn » Tue May 17, 2011 6:09 pm

So my stallion, who is a very dark bay/brown horse (black all over except a bit of brown on his muzzle) is not A, but a? He is very likely EE since he has never had a chestnut foal, even though he was bred to several chestnut mares. Where does the brown muzzle step in? Is there another gene, yet another vest over the parka that lays black back down over the agouti?
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accphotography
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Postby accphotography » Tue May 17, 2011 7:21 pm

No, no, he's likely still not 'aa'. There is a difference between a full on brown muzzle and just some brownish tinge to a muzzle (like sun fading).

I doesn't lay over the agouti parka to put black back... it's a DIFFERENT agouti parka. So instead of having your red safety vest over your black parka, you would actually have a brown hunting vest over your black parka (and no red vest at all).

Brown is denoted by 'At'. Agouti is a multiple allelic series holding 'A+' (wild bay), 'A' (red bay), 'At' (seal brown) and 'a' ("self", black). Every brown will test "red bay" at most testing facilities (all but one), but that's not actually, technically true. There IS NO TEST for red bay. Period. There is no test for wild bay either. There are only tests for black ('a') and brown ('At', only offered at Pet DNA Services at this time). So if you have a horse who looks very red bay and you test it for agouti at UC Davis you will get a result of 'Aa' or 'AA'. They are not actually testing for the 'A' allele at all. They are testing for the 'a' allele. If they get a result of 'n' and 'a' they know the horse has only one self agouti allele and thus must have a dominant agouti allele. What they don't tell you is that it could be wild bay, red bay or brown. If they get a result of 'nn' for self agouti than the horse is actually 'AA' of some sort. If you send the hair of a brown to UC Davis you will get a result of 'Aa' or 'AA', but in reality it would actually be 'Ata' or 'AtAt'.
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madelyn
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Postby madelyn » Wed May 18, 2011 6:03 am

:lol: Well that explains a lot! So he is, in fact, EAt? That is one of his favorite pastimes!! :lol:

Seriously, thanks very much for the explanation.
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accphotography
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Postby accphotography » Wed May 18, 2011 11:10 am

ROFL!! I love that!!

Yes, he's either 'EE At/a' or 'EE At/At'. Has he ever had a black foal? That question is like pulling teeth around here because no one here believes black exists it seems. LOL
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Postby xfactor fan » Wed May 18, 2011 5:12 pm

To keep to the wardrobe imagery. The four genes for Agouti are like socks in a drawer.

Black ones, Brown ones, Tan socks with a narrow black stripe and Red brown socks with black toes.

You can reach in a pull out any two.


At or Brown seems to be pretty common in the gene pool. Anyone want to start a list of true genetic brown horses?

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accphotography
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Postby accphotography » Wed May 18, 2011 7:16 pm

I can only find two color pics of him and both are distorted. I *think* brown. Definitely not bay and probably not black.
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Postby summerhorse » Sun May 29, 2011 6:28 pm

Halo was definitely BLACK. He sired another black, Sunday Silence. I have a picture of another black son somewhere, forget his name Answer Lively? Something lively. Pretty sure he was black but I'd have to see his pic. again!! ETA; LIVELY ONE!!! Blacks often sun fade to look brown (NOT bay A, brown At)so you have to catch them when their nw coat comes in and there are many photos of Halo before he faded out and he was black.

To answer the original question Halo was sabino/DW as was SS. SS sired the white mare Snow White (??) although that is not her registered name which is Japanese. She produced white foals too. I'm not sure but I almost think SS sired another white? Although the white filly (if his only white or really loud foal) could be the original mutation of DW in this case, unrelated to her sire's markings.
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accphotography
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Postby accphotography » Sun May 29, 2011 7:30 pm

Halo has sired a large number of blacks who have in turn sired many more.

Sunday Silence was black as night and I personally believe was DW as he has several different lines of DW that trace to him.
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