Horse Genetics

[ALACAZAM]

Let me know if this is in the wrong place, staffers.

Now I'm no expert by a long shot, but I do know a thing or two about equine genes. The basics, anyway. I'm going to attempt to write it out as simply as possible, because I know most genetics guides you just look at and go "...what." So here goes!

So get this: every single horse on earth is either black or chestnut. All of them. That is the simplest gene, and it is represented with an E or an e. As I'm sure you've learned in any intro biology class, all genes are either dominant (capital letter) or recessive (lowercase letter), and the dominant gene will always "trump" the recessive one. With horses, black is dominant and chestnut is recessive.

So a horse who is EE or Ee is black, and a horse who is ee is chestnut. Easy right?

Now, modifier genes are what give horses all their pretty colors. I'm only doing the basics so I'll just talk about two of those: bay and gray.

Bay horses are actually just black horses with the dominant agouti gene (represented by an A.) So if a horse is EE, AA, it's a bay. It's also a bay if it's Ee, Aa because the dominant gene "wins," so to speak. The agouti gene doesn't show on chestnuts, so an ee AA horse will still be chestnut, but it can have bay babies if bred to a black or bay.

Gray is a bit different. It's sort of like the king of horse genes and blocks out basically everything else. All foals are born one color but if they've got the gray gene (G) they will "gray out" as they age. Even if a horse is EE, AA, but it's Gg, it will be gray (but born bay). So foals are not born gray, they actually change, and different shades of gray (50 shades of gray BAHAH) are just different stages. It is also important to note that white and gray are different. White is a totally separate gene, and white horses look different from "white" gray horses.

I hope this helps people a bit. I'm sure a lot of you already knew this but I figured I'd post it anyway. I love me some horsey genes <3 And let me know if you want me to continue!

I can also "DNA test" your horses for you, so you know realistically what kind of babies they can have! Just reply here or pm me!

[Tatiannista]

I'm actually taking Equine Genetics in college, since I'm a bit obsessed with genes. Mainly the Cream Dilutes and the True White (Lethal White gene). One of my favorite horses is Yukichan a true white Thoroughbred whose mother was true white and whose second foal was also true white. My favorite breed is the Akhal-Teke because it is one of the only breeds that can genetically produce almost all of the cream dilutes, as well as what some consider the White Dun (which is basically a gray that expresses dun attributes.)

[Enchantress]

*bookmarks this*