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????Rarest and newest colors and genes????

Hey everyone, I have been invited to write an article about color genetics. While I know my fair share and have my own opinions, I would like to know other people's as well. What do you think the rarest colors and color genes are? What are the newest genes found or that are being researched? I know someone at UC Davis but I have been told they don't keep any type of statistics. Statisticly I don't know where else I can look. I think brindle is the absolute rarest. I have recently found that "wild bay" is pretty rare - but I have to read up on that more. Feel free to offer info. The pearl gene is fairly new and rare at the moment. What about the ever present debate true black versus fading black - and is fading black actually brown or dark bay...? Albino, fatal - but can SOME live? How rare and new is silver - I've only read about that in the last few days since researching my gelding. There is no test complete for the dun zygosity, you can only visually see if they have it - not sure if I'll include this because dun isn't rare - just good research info. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. I have to get my notes together and I'll add more as I do that. Let's hear what you have to say :)

Sara Mon, 06/01/2009 - 12:47

I do not believe wild bay is rare. I own a wild bay and an old student of mine had one as well.

"Albino" as you are probably thinking if it does not really exist in horses. Foals may be born all white for a variety of reasons and the only one that is lethal is homozygous frame.

Silver is quite rare in some breeds and incredibly common in others.

Fading blacks test as black but can be difficult to distinguish from dark bays or even liver chestnuts in some cases. This is all pretty simple to work out with genetic testing though.

Shawneen Mon, 06/01/2009 - 12:53

Thanks for the input. I know lethal white - but is there not a such thing as albino, though also fatal?

PS I assumed wild bay was rare, as I just read about it yesterday and have not heard of it before. The articles I read said it is the rarest type of bay, but that isn't saying much with so many bays out there.

rabbitsfizz Mon, 06/01/2009 - 13:43

Some of those are "colours", some are patterns.
I am assuming that you know that as far as colour goes there are actually only two?? Red and Black??
And that everything else is a dilution or a modification of these two base colours, or a pattern thereon??
I don't think any "colour" or pattern is actually rare within the species, but they can be rare to unknown in some breeds.
For example Tobiano does not exist in TBs and Arabs ( and probably a few other breeds??) and Sabino is unknown in real Shetland, as is Frame and Appy.
Appy is unknown in Welsh, Silver is rare or non existent depending on how you define "Welsh" ( :laugh1 ) and Tobiano is unknown in Welsh as is Frame....so you see it is really a matter of which breed you are looking at.

Oh and Welcome, BTW :newbie

Shawneen Mon, 06/01/2009 - 13:59

Yeah patterns and colors, my apologies.
I know how the color scheme works. I guess it is kind of hard to pinpoint what I am getting after, and you are correct it does depend on what breeds you are looking at. Maybe I will have to include that - it is going to be a long article if so!!!

Thanks for the input and the welcome - great forum here :)

lipigirl Mon, 06/01/2009 - 15:03

I agree with ACC, Pearl is probably the rarest although Champagne and Dominant White are also quite rare, the rarest of all would probably be Brindle and a Chimera (where a horse has 2 types of DNA ) I'm sure ACC will post a picture of one and also a description.

accphotography Mon, 06/01/2009 - 15:16

Dominant White is somewhat rare... we think. They're still finding more of them so I don't know. It's a bit more complicated since it has 11+ mutations too.

Brindle is definitely rare, but there just isn't much, if anything, really known about it. Chimera has been covered but it's nto so much a color as ... well I wouldn't even know what to call it. :laugh1

Heather Tue, 06/02/2009 - 06:06

While pearl might be rare/rather "uncommon" due to being linked to certian bloodlines(Barlink) and a certian breed, I dont think its new. My personal fav :love I got a friend with a Barlink zip code mare and I hope she is pos, might talk her in to being tested someday.

Gander Tue, 06/02/2009 - 12:29

[quote="accphotography"]

Brindle is definitely rare, but there just isn't much, if anything, really known about it. Chimera has been covered but it's nto so much a color as ... well I wouldn't even know what to call it. :laugh1[/quote]

OK, with brindles, I know it's been discussed (somewhere, although I have no idea where) that some brindles might be Chimeras (I've never seen that pluralized, so please forgive the fact that it's probably wrong, ha ha). In such cases, they would be incredibly unlikely to pass on the brindle pattern. Yes? No?

This is a fun thread. I wish I knew more!

accphotography Tue, 06/02/2009 - 12:52

Some brindles are indeed proven chimeric. (FWIW I think the word you were looking for might be chimerae, but I'm not sure.) Catch A Bird was one of them. Those horses have about as much chance of producing another brindle (or chimera) as two non brindles do. Some brindles are proven (well I'm not sure that is even truly provable, but) not chimeric. Those brindles have been proven to pass on their brindling with enough frequency to believe the reason for their brindling is indeed somehow genetic and not just am embryonic mistake like chimeras.

Sara Tue, 06/02/2009 - 12:57

I can ask my son about the plural for chimera BUT I believe that it is acceptable to put an s on the end of Latin words to make them plural in English even if it would not be correct in Latin. Latin is very confusing with all the different rules for different declensions and I think when we pulled their words into English we mostly gave up on that.

CheyAut Fri, 06/05/2009 - 14:28

Silver is not rare and not new, but it's not found in all breeds. There are a ton of gaited horses and miniature horses that are silver. "chocolate" rockies are silvers. I LOOOOVE silver :) (oh and the filly in my avatar is a silver bay)

Sara Fri, 06/05/2009 - 14:57

Where's my head these days?? Of course the word chimera is Greek, not Latin... :oops:

The plural forms listed above still stand, however. It is most correctly pluralized chimarae but adding an s is acceptable for English speakers.