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What Causes Richness Of Coat Color?

Aside from good care, nutrition, grooming, etc.--there has to be something genetic that causes it? Like sandy bay to medium bay to blood bay to those nearly black bays....they all test the same genetically...so what is it that makes them vary in hue/richness?

Equidae Wed, 11/18/2009 - 12:45

is there any noticed pattern of how it is passed...example...two light bays will always produce light bays...or a light bay crossed with a dark bay can produce either...or a light bay crossed with dark bay produces middle of the road bays?

A cat person I was talking to earlier in the day asked me if hues in horses were caused by rufus genes (I had to hunt her down and ask her again just a bit ago)...which is what ultimately led to this question.

accphotography Wed, 11/18/2009 - 13:56

Well there is genetic coding "between the genes" that can account for various expressions. There is also a belief that some of the more extreme variances will eventually (in about a hundred years :rofl ) will prove to be modifying genes, like a "liver chestnut" gene, etc.

It does appear to be, to some extent, inheritable.

Dogrose Wed, 11/18/2009 - 14:08

In the small animal world its called rufous polygenes. You can select for richness, look at the difference in colour between a show Belgian Hare and a wild agouti rabbit, both are black agouti in genotype. Its easy to select for colour in animals that can breed at three months and will have many babies in a litter. I guess in horses there are so many more important factors to consider when choosing breeding stock than richness of colour.

NZ Appaloosas Thu, 11/19/2009 - 03:22

We bred a black to a "black" bay, and got a definite browny bay. We bred a black bay to a black bay and got a black bay. We bred a bright red bay to a black bay and got a mahogany bay...the same sire was used for all three. So no, I'm not sure what exactly what is going on, but I believe that there are a lot more genes involved with coat colour than we currently realise.

Diane

critterkeeper Fri, 11/20/2009 - 17:41

[quote="hoofpick"]And what about palomino with the deep rich orange or the light cream color..[/quote]

Which reminds me, new pixs of Goldie in her winter woolies -her "top line" and barrel have lightened up a lot, but is still darker than Arthur's winter woolies (he would go nearly white in winter). However, but her flanks, legs and chest are still a deep golden color (same as her summer coat).

taken this morning (sun was very bright after it decided to make an appearance, so the color seems a bit off, but is unaltered - only resized to fit on here)
[img]http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i99/j…]

this shot was taken before the sun popped out, but you can still see how dark her flanks and legs are.

[img]http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i99/j…]

[b]EDITED TO ADD: Don't shoot me on the lack of quality, it's the best I can do with a 1 pixal cell phone...[/b] I broke down and bought d-i-l a 10.5 pix/4x zoom camera for Christmas out of self defense - I want my Kodak back.