Re: RC: Surprise!...colors

[Lynn Kinsky <lkinsky@silcom.com>]

>Hi everyone!!  I told you all earlier this week that my mare had a healthy
>colt (Hakim), and I have discovered today that he is going to be BLACK!
>Now, the reason why this is so unusual is because both my mare and the sire
>are grey......So, I would almost think that she got "mistakenly" bred by the
>wrong stallion, except I was there the 3 times she was hand-bred.......
>The gal that owns the stallion came out today to see him, took one look and
>said "you have definitely got yourself a black!"  He is that mousey-looking
>color, but I thought his legs already looked like they were greying, but I
>guess I was wrong!!!  So he is going to be an awesome-colored horse, having
>the 4 white socks, big star, and snip that runs from about 2-3 inches above
>his nostril to under his chin....
>So, my question is:  How many of you have heard of a black coming out of 2
>grey's??  The stallion's sire was black, and his dam was grey.  My mare's
>sire was grey, and dam was sorrel (QH).  In my mare's background on the arab
>side, she has no black, and I don't know her dam's bloodlines.  She must
>carry a black gene because she was born solid black, and didn't start
>greying out until she was 4.  I have a full sister to Hakim, and she was
>born bay, turned grey.  1/2 brother was born solid black (sire was black
>Morgan), and is turning grey, and 1/2 sister who is chestnut (from chestnut
>stallion).
>The only horse I can think of off the top of my head that was black from two
>grey's was Hillany Mistanny, but I would like to learn more about the whole
>color-genetics thing!!!
>Betsy

Grey (G) is dominant over not grey (g), and if grey (G) is present then it
masks whatever colors are on the other alleles.  Only if one of the grey
parents were homogygous grey (have two copies of the G, ie. GG) would the
offspring be quaranteed grey.

My one grey mare has  produced two greys when mated with not-grey stallions
-- all the rest had colors consistent with the mare being base chestnut.
Both of those grey daughters have only produced colors so far -- again
consistent with each being base chestnut.  I presume all my greys are
heterogygous (Gg) and so they could produce color if mated with a Gg
stallion -- Which seems to be the situation in your case.  See
http://members.aol.com/battyatty/ for a whole bunch of links and info on
color.


Lynn Kinsky (Santa Ynez, CA)
http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky