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The two basic pigment colors of horse hairs are pheomelanin ("red") which produces a reddish brown color, and eumelanin, which produces black. These two hair pigment genes create two base colors: chestnut, which is fully red, and black, which is fully black. All other coat colors are created by additional genes that modify these two base colors.
Equine coat color genetics determine a horse's coat color. Many colors are possible, but all variations are produced by changes in only a few genes . Bay is the most common color of horse, [ 2 ] followed by black and chestnut.
Chestnut is a hair coat color of horses consisting of a reddish-to-brown coat with a mane and tail the same or lighter in color than the coat. Chestnut is characterized by the absolute absence of true black hairs. It is one of the most common horse coat colors, seen in almost every breed of horse.
Bay is a hair coat color of horses, characterized by a reddish-brown or brown body color with a black point coloration on the mane, tail, ear edges, and lower legs. Bay is one of the most common coat colors in many horse breeds. The black areas of a bay horse's hair coat are called "black points", and without them, a horse is not a bay horse.
A horse with dark skin and dark eyes under a white hair coat is gray. However, a gray horse with an underlying homozygous cream base coat color may be born with rosy-pink skin, blue eyes and near-white hair. In such cases, DNA testing may clarify the genetics of the horse.
Genetically, the horse has an underlying bay coat color, acted upon by the dun gene. [6] [7] Red dun, also called claybank, is a light tan coat with reddish instead of black points and primitive markings. Genetically, the horse has an underlying chestnut coat color, acted upon by the dun gene. Thus, as there is no black on the horse to be ...
Dun: A horse coat color that features primitive markings: a slightly darker hair shade from the base coat located in a dorsal stripe along the horse's backbone, horizontal striping on the upper legs and sometimes transverse striping across the shoulders. These markings identify a horse as a dun as opposed to a buckskin or a bay.
Roan is a horse coat color pattern characterized by an even mixture of colored and white hairs on the body, while the head and "points"—lower legs, mane, and tail—are mostly solid-colored. Horses with roan coats have white hairs evenly intermingled throughout any other color.