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Extensive spotting on a tobiano but not homozygous

Is there any research currently being done as to what causes extensive 'ink spots' on a tobiano who has tested heterozygous tobiano? I recently acquired this little miniature mare and had her tested for tobiano, but she tested only heterozygous which was surprising to me. I have had some tobiano/sabino horses that had spots down on the lower abdomen, but never the extensive spotting all over as this little mare has. [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/redrock/GG5-8-09002.jpg[/img] [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/redrock/GG5-8-09003.jpg[/img] [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/redrock/GG5-8-09005.jpg[/img] [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/redrock/GG5-8-09001.jpg[/img]

lipigirl Wed, 05/13/2009 - 09:00

Welcome Becky !

Congrats on your new mini mare, she looks lovely although it would be nice to have a head shot too if poss ! I understand what you are saying, those spots do look suspicious but they are not what I would call classic paw prints that you do see on homozygous pintos. Has she got any facial white? I would suspect that it is Sabino that is causing the haloed spots.

Head shot please ?? :D

rabbitsfizz Wed, 05/13/2009 - 11:38

I have a yearling gelding who is definitely h/Z and he has spots...not as many as your mare but they are there.
The "paw prints" are not a reliable indicator of the status of the horses zygosity.

Oh, Welcome, BTW, glad you found your way here!!! :newbie

accphotography Wed, 05/13/2009 - 12:43

Actually, IMO that isn't many spots at all. In fact, I wouldn't even call those ink spots. IMO ink spots are not truly ink spots unless they ave the haloing around them. While your mare does have haloing, it's only visible when she's wet. On the homozygotes I've seen with these, the haloing is always visible. Your mare's just look like random spots to me (and only a few of them to boot). Also, true pawprints (on a homozygote) tend to cluster together rather than space out like your mare's are.

Check out this guy to see what I mean:
[img]http://www.imaswitchhitter.com/images/i…]

One thing of note on your mare (and not really on the stallion above) are all the spots on her legs. Those are an indication of a white suppression gene IMO. Horses with those types of markings tend to either produce louder than themselves, or really erase the white coming from their mates. Just my observations (and Sara's theory) of course.

Becky Fri, 05/15/2009 - 06:48

Thanks for your responses. This mare has more spots than either of my homozygous tobiano stallions, however, they have what I call paw prints (clusters of spots) and this mare doesn't. I've found in miniatures, just a spot or two can mean homozygous tobiano, but not always.

That is an interesting theory about the spotting on legs. I guess time will tell as to what this little mare does with her offspring. :D

rabbitsfizz Fri, 05/15/2009 - 10:37

Well, she tested h/Z did she not??
So she will have at least 50% patterned offspring, and if the theory about the spots on the legs is true, the patterned ones will be louder than her, so I think investing in earplugs might be a good idea if you intend breeding her to already loud stallions!!! :rofl

accphotography Sat, 05/16/2009 - 14:49

They take some digging sometimes. There's only three on his site, but I've found lots of others online, when I dig.

I warn you, the photos are straight out of their camera (obviously a nice one too) and are MASSIVE. I'm on extremely high speed and they still take *forever* to load.
http://www.lazygperformancehorses.com/p…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;