I know there's been a couple threads on color genetics, and even a few threads where color genetics have been brought up. Just recently I was reading a thread that mentioned the greying gene.
Which really, really got me curious.
We adopted my mustang mare as a weanling from the BLM. Me and both my parents were there and could verify - and even her BLM papers say - that her dam was a grey mare. More white than anything else, but since that's not really a "color" (whatever, I don't want to start that), let's just call it grey. In any event, we first saw her and her herd when she was 3 or 4 months old, and she always stuck close to a big boned grey mare. Each foal stuck close to his or her own dam... So it was pretty obvious as to who belonged to who.
Anyway... My mare is dun. Not even buckskin. Dorsal stripe, zebra/leg stripes, even a faint wither stripe, black tipped ears, multi-colored mane, everything. None of her dark points fade. Ever.
The only gray/white part of her is a little roaned-looking left rear fetlock (all other fetlocks are "normal"). Observe.

If her dam was grey, why wasn't she? And WHAT'S the deal with her little roaning fetlock? It's never gotten any more or less roaned (I've owned her for 5 or 6 years), and it's definitely not from an injury (i.e. scar).
I'm expecting somebody to fight me on the buckskin/dun issue... OK, go ahead. I haven't had her tested, so I can't technically say for sure. But if you've looked at enough horses, you can almost always identify the subtle phenotypical differences betweens buckskins and duns. But, again, I could be wrong...
So, any genetic insights, you guys? I'm pretty well stumped. Somebody enlighten me.
Which really, really got me curious.
We adopted my mustang mare as a weanling from the BLM. Me and both my parents were there and could verify - and even her BLM papers say - that her dam was a grey mare. More white than anything else, but since that's not really a "color" (whatever, I don't want to start that), let's just call it grey. In any event, we first saw her and her herd when she was 3 or 4 months old, and she always stuck close to a big boned grey mare. Each foal stuck close to his or her own dam... So it was pretty obvious as to who belonged to who.
Anyway... My mare is dun. Not even buckskin. Dorsal stripe, zebra/leg stripes, even a faint wither stripe, black tipped ears, multi-colored mane, everything. None of her dark points fade. Ever.
The only gray/white part of her is a little roaned-looking left rear fetlock (all other fetlocks are "normal"). Observe.

If her dam was grey, why wasn't she? And WHAT'S the deal with her little roaning fetlock? It's never gotten any more or less roaned (I've owned her for 5 or 6 years), and it's definitely not from an injury (i.e. scar).
I'm expecting somebody to fight me on the buckskin/dun issue... OK, go ahead. I haven't had her tested, so I can't technically say for sure. But if you've looked at enough horses, you can almost always identify the subtle phenotypical differences betweens buckskins and duns. But, again, I could be wrong...
So, any genetic insights, you guys? I'm pretty well stumped. Somebody enlighten me.
