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Dominant Horse Color Genes
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Book

BUY THE BOOK!

Working with Wild Horses

Second (Improved) Edition
A Handbook of
Gentling and Training Tips

By Nancy Kerson
Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

Paperback $22 or
Downloadable E-Book $7.50

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

This website is owned and created by Nancy Kerson, a private citizen - I am not the BLM or any other 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.

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!

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Copyright 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
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!

$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

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OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN
WILD HORSE GENTLING:

Most of the color genes are dominant.

photo: SM Jackson

Agouti/Bay | Grey | Pangare | White Spotting Patterns | Rabicano | Roan | Sooty

"Dominant" means simply that a horse needs only one gene (in a pair) for a particular trait in order to exhibit it. If the horse has one gene, it will exhibit that trait. (The extent to which the trait is exhibited can be modified by the presence of other dominant genes - but it WILL express itself!)

Technically, Genes themselves are not dominant or recessive, although we speak of them as such.

Alleles are dominant or recessive. For example, the MC1R gene (called Extension) codes for the production of eumelanin pigment, causing a horse to be black. A mutation occurred in that gene at some time long ago, such that the gene now coded for the production of phaeomelanin, which produces red pigment. If a horse carries one copy of the unmutated gene, and a second copy of the mutated gene, the unmutated gene creates enough eumelanin to mask the other copy. Therefore, we say that the unmutated copy, or allele (E) is dominant to the mutated copy, or allele (e).

The same is true for all genes: cream, tobiano, overo, dun...is the mutated allele dominant or recessive? But the gene is just a gene.

It is generally not possible to tell from appearances alone whether the horse is homozygous (both genes are the same for a trait) or heterozygous (only one gene for the trait). Exceptions to this are the Lethals, where being homozygous for a trait (Frame and White) is lethal. In these cases, the foal either dies before birth, or soon after.

The other exception occurs with the Creme dilution gene, which acts as an "Incomplete Dominant." With an "incomplete dominant", you get one effect from one gene, and an exaggerated effect from a double dose. Thus, one creme gene on a red base creates Palomino; Two creme genes create Cremello (a further diluted state)

Base ColorOne Creme GeneTwo Creme Genes
Red
Palomino
Cremello
Bay
Buckskin
Perlino
Black
Smoky Black
Smoky Creme

Both Appaloosa and Tobiano horses sometimes show visual clues to their homozygous state, although genetic testing is the only sure way to know (if you care)

A horse bearing multiple dominant genes will exhibit multiple traits.
 

Red and Flaxen are two of the very few Recessives. Flaxen only affects Red. A black horse with the Flaxen gene will show no flaxen effects. Because both are Recessive (their trait is only expressed if both allelles on the gene pair are the same) Chestnut and Flaxen Chestnut horses are able to breed true. Because Red can "hide" for generations, until bred to another horse with a hidden recessive red gene - breeders (Freisian, Percheron, etc.) who desire only black horses have a problem. UC Davis has a simple test for the red gene, which is a useful tool.

 

Other Pages In the Color Section of this Website:

The Base Colors: Red | Black

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

The Pinto 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

Buckskin vs Dun