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Adopt A Mustang Wild Horse
Mustang Link to History
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How to Gentle A Wild Horse
Our "Wild" Horse Herd
Mustang * Horse Colors
Videos from Video Mike
Mustang & Burro Events
The Future?
Mustang Links
This website is owned and created by Nancy Kerson, a private citizen. Information about BLM adoptions is offered as a service, to help mustangs find homes and to promote public appreciation of wild horses and burros.
Please direct adoption questions to the BLM, not to me. And we sure as heck are not a Mustang car dealership! | This website:
Copyright 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
All Rights Reserved.
I am happy to share, but please give me a credit when you "borrow" things off my website! Thanks! Just say, "author, Nancy Kerson www.mustangs4us.com " |
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! $49.95 plus $5 shipping/handling = $54.95 total 
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! 
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! Can't do Paypal?
No Problem!
Just Call TOLL FREE
1-877-345-6748
(1-877-FILMS4U)
____________________
Can't do Paypal?
No Problem!
Just Call TOLL FREE
1-877-345-6748
(1-877-FILMS4U)
 
If you don't want to buy online, Call TOLL FREE
1-877-345-6748
(1-877-FILMS4U)
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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)
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Science: HOW BASE COLORS ARE DETERMINEDThe 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 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: 
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 Up | Base Coat: Red | Base Coat: Black Adopt A Mustang Wild Horse | Mustang Link to History | Herd Management Areas | Burros! | Mustang Mules | Mustang History | How to Gentle A Wild Horse | Our "Wild" Horse Herd | Mustang * Horse Colors | Videos from Video Mike | Mustang & Burro Events | The Future? | Mustang Links |
