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Equine Base Colors
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NAPA MUSTANG DAYS

This is a non-commercial, independent website, owned and written by Nancy Kerson, for the benefit of actual and potential adopters of BLM Mustangs and Burros and similar animals.

Mustang T-Shirt

$19.95

Sizes & Style

 

Working With Wild Horses, Second Edition
Working With Wild Horses
(book)
Second Edition 
Printed Book $23
 or
$7.50 Download

This website is owned and created
by Nancy Kerson, a private
citizen - I am not the BLM or anyother branch of  government!

Information about BLM adoptions
is offered as a service, to help
mustangs find homes and to
promote public appreciation of
wild horses and burros.

For information about the BLM
Wild Horse & Burro Program,
please call (866) 4MUSTANGS
or Click HERE

Please direct adoption questions
to the BLM, not to me.

And I sure as heck am not a
Mustang car dealership!

I have NO horses or burros for
sale and am not interested in
buying or listing or otherwise
promoting your sale animals!

This website:
Copyright 2001, 2002, 2003,
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008,
2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
All Rights Reserved.
I am happy to share, but please
give me a credit when you
"borrow" things off my website!
Thanks!

VIDEOS OF INTEREST TO MUSTANG & BURRO ADOPTERS:


Kitty Lauman:
From Wild to Willing:
Using the Bamboo Pole to Gentle Mustangs
More from Lauman Training available now!

DVD or VHS
(2-DVD or 2-VHS set) almost 3 hours of instruction!

$39.95 plus $5 shipping/handling = $44.95 total

BUY 2 DVD Set:

Can't Order Online?
No Problem!
Just email us and we'll tell you
how to mail order


Lesley Neuman:
The First Touch
Gentling Your Mustang
$45.00

Lesley works with 3 wild horses at a BLM adoption, and very clearly explains what is happening, what she is doing, & what she sees in each horse as it progresses. Study this video and you can learn "pressure and release" gentling techniques to gentle your own new mustang!

Format:


Help for Burro adopters!
Crystal Ward
Donkey Training

All the basics of gentling, handling, and training. A MUST for new burro adopters! Good for domestic donkeys, too!

FORMAT


 

 


Phaetomelanin, which is RED, and recessive.  


Eumelanin, which is BLACK
(or brown, depending upon environmental or genetic modifications) and is Dominant

Chemically, all horse colors are made up of two chemicals:  Phaeomelanin or Eumelanin.

Genetic modifiers work on these two pigments (eumelanin and phaeomelanin) to create all the variety of colors and patterns that we see in horses.
See HOW GENES WORK

WHAT ABOUT WHITE? 

There MAY be a third base color - Dominant White, but this is very rare if it exists at all. Recent research throws the existence of a separate White gene in doubt, although many textbooks still include it.

Most White is the result of genetic modification that blocks or removes the base color.

Most White horses are, genetically:

  • Maximum Sabino or Tovero
  • The end result of Greying
  • One-spot Appaloosas (where the "spot" is small and not obvious)
  • or very pale Cremellos
     

    Gretchen, a dark-eyed, pink-skinned white mustang adopted by Gwilda Byrd. Dominant White? Maximum Sabino? Few Spot Appaloosa? No one knows for sure. With dark eyes, she is not a cremello.

What About ALBINOS?

In horses, no true Albino (an individual lacking any pigmentation) has ever been found. If you stand a so-called Albino horse next to a pinto, you will see the difference. The "Albino" is usually the pale cream of Cremello, whereas the white on a pinto is pure white.

Maximum Sabinos or Maximum Toveros are true white and can have blue eyes and mostly light skin, but they are not albinos. Usually there will be at least one small dark spot in the skin or at the tip of the ears. And their eyes are blue or brown, not red or pink.

Dominant White horses are also pure white, but they, too, are not albinos.

A true albino would have no pigmentation at all - uniform light pink skin, white hooves, red/pink eyes.


Left: "White" horse at a BLM adoption - probably a Maximum Sabino
Right: Cremello mustang (blue eyes reflecting the camera's flash)

Science: HOW BASE COLORS ARE DETERMINED

The Base Color is determined at the "Extension" locus (locus means, literally, "place") on the DNA strand. The dominant form of the Extension locus, "E"  allows both black and red, although in reality (unless other genetic factors, such as Agouti are present) a horse with "E" will have a black base color, since black is dominant. The recessive extension "e" allows only red.

Is BAY a BASE COLOR?

Many people speak of BAY as a base color.

Bay can be considered a base color in that it is the foundation for a variety of other colors, such as buckskin and dun and red roan.

But since Bay is Black modified by an additional gene - Agouti - it is not a "BASE COLOR" from a genetic point of view.
 

photo by Joy Hartman

Other Pages In the Color Section of this Website:

Major Headings:
A Quick Overview of Horse Genetics | Horse Color Genetics Charts 2 | Equine Base Colors | Dominant Horse Color Genes | The Dilution Genes | Recessive Color Genes | Miscellaneous Color Issues

The Base Colors:
Base Coat: Red | Base Coat: Black

The Single Dominant Genes:
Agouti | Appaloosa |
Brindle | Dun | Grey | Pangare | Pintos Rabicano | Roans & Roaning | Silver | Sooty |

The Pinto / Paint Patterns:
Tobiano | The Overo Complex: Frame | Sabino | Splash | Tovero

The Incomplete Dominant Genes:
Champagne | Creme

The Recessive Genes:
Red | Flaxen

Colors with multiple genetic bases:
Blue | Brown | White | Roan-like Effects

Other pages in this section:

A Quick Overview of Color GeneticsGenetic Notation SystemsHow to Tell the Various Pinto Patterns Apart
Palomino or Flaxen Chestnut? Overo Lethal White SyndromeSorraia Mustangs

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Up | A Quick Overview of Horse Genetics | Horse Color Genetics Charts 2 | Equine Base Colors | Dominant Horse Color Genes | The Dilution Genes | Recessive Color Genes | Miscellaneous Color Issues

Up | Base Coat: Red | Base Coat: Black

Adopt A Mustang (Wild Horse) | Gentling & Training Wild Horses | Herd Management Areas | Mustang Wild Horse History | Wild Horse & Burro Watching | Burros | Mustang Mules | Family Equines | Helpful Videos | Free to Good Home | Mustang (Wild Horse) Products | Mustang * Horse Colors | Mustang Links

Color genetics are the same for all horses, regardless of breed or ancestry.

Since this is a Mustang website,
I use and prefer pictures of wild, or formerly-wild horses wherever possible.

copyright 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Nancy Kerson, all rights reserved - I'm happy to share, just need to be asked and have credit given where due.

Disclaimer: Horses are inherently dangerous. Use the information contained within this website at your own risk.