FAQ
Q: Where
is the color Brown?
A: Brown (and I'm not referring to Seal Brown) is a somewhat ambiguous term used to identify a
number of horse coat colors but most often refers to a dark variation
of Bay. As the genetics behind the variations of the Bay base color
become more understood, we will try to make changes to the calculator
that will incorporate these variations. But for now, selecting Bay
for the color brown will give you the most accurate calculations.
However, colors such as liver chestnut or even smoky black are sometimes
misidentified as brown. In which case Bay would obviously not be
the correct selection.
Q: How
do I select Gray for my Sire or Dam? A: The Gray gene causes the progressive loss of pigment throughout
the horses coat and will affect any color horse. Even though the
horse is gray, it still has all the genetics of the color it was
before going gray. To determine the possible offspring colors that
the gray horse can produce, it is necessary to know what color the
horse was before going gray. To select Gray on the calculator, you
must enter the color and pattern of the horse before going gray
and check the box labeled "Gray".
Q: Where
is Chocolate? Where is Taffy? A: Some horse colors are given different names depending
on the breed of horse or what region of the world the horse is in.
This is the case for Silver Blacks (a black horse with the
silver gene). The most widely accepted name for a silver black is
Silver Dapple but in the Rocky Mountain Horse breed, the color is
often referred to as Chocolate. In Australia, a Silver Black is
referred to as a Taffy. We like to refer to the color as Silver
Black since it best indicated the genetics of the color. A Chocolate Palomino is a dark palomino (a dark red horse with the cream gene) and does not involve the silver gene.
UPGRADES
2/1/13: Added Appaloosa (LP) to the list of patterns. This only accounts for the master Appaloosa gene, the "Leopard Complex (LP)" gene. The calculator does not account for the variations of the Appaloosa pattern which is most likely controlled by the interaction of the LP gene and other yet to be identified patterning genes.
6/12/10: We have changed the calculator to take into account
that Roan, Tobiano and Sabino are mutations of the KIT gene found
on horse chromosome 3 and thus will not occur on the same branch
of a horses chromosome pair. This means that a horse that carries
any two of the Roan, Tobiano or Sabino genes can only be heterozygous
for each gene and will pass one or the other to its offspring and
never both or none. This also means a horse cannot carry more than
two different KIT mutations or be homozygous for any if two of the
genes are present.
In the future, we also plan to have the calculator consider linkage
between KIT mutations and the Extension (Red/Black Factor) gene
which is also found on horse chromosome 3.
Tell us what you think of the coat calculator!
Send any comments or suggestions to
contact@animalgenetics.us
