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Appy experts please

My friend has just bought a full Leppard spot colt. Both his parents were also leppard spots. Now, as appaloosa genetics is my worst I need help here please. I presume that the colt is therefore homozygous for LP but that does not mean that he will produce a leppard spot foal, he could produce a few spot or even a solid with only facial and genital spotting and white eye scelera..is this right ? Can he also produce a varish or a blanket spot? Thanks...if you are very lucky I may be able to rangle a picture out of her too !! ;) edited to say that this is what the owner had to say about him whilst trying to get out of sending me a photo !! LOL ! "The colt has not many spots, but there are black and brown spots too, and a very good mane and tail. Snowy white background, with the hair on the spots being longer than the base hair. More spots on the face than body."

Monsterpony Sat, 03/28/2009 - 16:28

If he is a leopard, than he is only heterozygous for appy. A fewspot would be the LpLp equivalent of a leopard. Lplp have white with spots, LpLp have solid white without spots. He will pass on the appaloosa gene 50% of the time, but the extent of the pattern is a lot more difficult to predict. He could produce anywhere form only characteristic only to nose-to-toes patterns depending on what genes he carries as well as the mare.

NZ Appaloosas Sun, 03/29/2009 - 05:13

Slight clarification--fewspots are mostly white, can have "smudging" and the occasional spot (hence "fewspot"). If the foal is nose to toes white with spots all over, then he is just Lplp.

Diane

Monsterpony Sun, 03/29/2009 - 13:08

There probably isn't just one other appy gene. It is likely a polygenic trait and horses express a spectrum of pattern rather than blanketXblanket makes blanket.

NZ Appaloosas Sun, 03/29/2009 - 19:45

Lp passes on like any other gene...a heterozygous Lp mating to another heterozygous Lp has a 25% chance of producing a non-Lp carrying, 25% chance of producing a homozygous and a 50% chance of producing another heterozygous. Case in point, my Bubba--solid as they come, and out of a nose-to-toes leopard by a blanketed stallion.

[img]http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h116/…]

Casey, on the other hand, is out of the "solid" mare, by the same blanketed stallion.

[img]http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h116/…]

Diane

lipigirl Mon, 03/30/2009 - 16:13

So, my friend now asks how can she get a Leppard spot from her colt..what is the best way of going about it.......and noboady say put him to a mare !!! :laugh1

NZ Appaloosas Mon, 03/30/2009 - 20:34

Put him to another full-leopard patterned mare, or to a fewspot-patterned mare (increasing chances of whatever makes the nose-to-toes patterning being passed on, as well as the Lp). However, there is no guarantee that she'd get any particular pattern, even with the fewspot mare, as the whole patterning "mechanism" is a huge question mark, altho' the mechanism for the nose-to-toes patterning is called PATN-1. (I'm using the term "mechanism" cuz Rabbit gets unhappy when the term "gene" is used, since there is no definite proof of what gene or genes make that pattern. And I can understand that many people would latch onto the idea of PATN-1 being a specific gene, rather than a general simplification of something not quite understood yet, or located.)

The only thing that a fewspot (or snowcap for that matter) guarantees is the passing on of a copy of Lp...and as we know, that can be so minimally expressed as to not "count", at least when it comes to registration categories.

Diane