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The dun gene is a dilution gene that affects both red and black pigments in the coat color of a horse. The dun gene lightens most of the body while leaving the mane, tail, legs, and primitive markings the shade of the undiluted base coat color. A dun horse always has a dark dorsal stripe down the middle of its back, usually has a darker face ...
The dun gene lightens some areas of the horse's coat, while leaving a darker dorsal stripe, mane, tail, face, and legs. Depending on whether it acts on a bay, black, or chestnut base coat, the dun gene produces the colors known as bay dun, grullo, and red dun.
Grulla, or Blue Dun: A horse with a black base color and the dun gene. Coat is a solid "mouse-colored" gray or silver (can also be almost brownish-gray) with black or dark gray primitive markings. Red Dun: A chestnut base coat with dun factors. Coat is usually pale yellow or tan with chestnut (red) primitive markings.
Every dun horse has a dorsal stripe, and some dun horses also have additional primitive markings. Some non-dun horses may also show primitive markings, namely newborn foals and horses with the non-dun 1 gene. [1] [4] Primitive markings in horses are an example of atavism: preservation of or reversion to ancestral type.
A Heck horse. In terms of equine coat color genetics, all of these shades are based on the dun gene acting as a dilution gene over the black gene. Because the grulla color is not due to the gray gene, a grulla horse remains the same basic color from birth, though some minor shade variation may occur from summer to winter coats. If a grulla also ...
Cream dun, cremello dun or linebacked cremello: a blue-eyed cream horse also carrying the dun gene. The primitive markings associated with the dun color are usually quite visible, especially on horses with a bay or black base coat.
Rarely, a horse may be born with a reddish color similar to bay foals and darken over a few years to a solid brownish black or sometimes jet-black appearance. This is sometimes seen in Arabians, and rarely in other breeds such as Appaloosas. Sponenberg & Bellone call this trait "dominant black" and discuss it in a separate chapter from sooty.
Buckskin occurs as a result of the cream dilution gene acting on a bay horse. Therefore, a buckskin has the Extension , or "black base coat" (E) gene, the agouti gene (A) gene (see bay for more on the agouti gene), which restricts the black base coat to the points, and one copy of the cream gene (CCr), which lightens the red/brown color of the ...