Genetics Help

[Diru]

Ok, genetics is a vast and confusing subject but I'm going to try and explain it, and even give some combos for some colors. By the way, here's a fun little site to help you actually SEE colors and genetics at the same time! XxX

Ok, first the thing there are three classifications for genes, and I'll be using the simple gene for black which is E
Homozygous- has two capital letters, (EE), will ALWAYS pass to foal
Heterozygous- one lower case one upper, (Ee), may pass to the foal
Recessive- two lower case (ee), will never be expressed on the foal. However flaxen and pearl are exceptions to this rule.


Some genes: (These are NOT the color themselves, but the letters that represent them being shown)
Black- EE or Ee
Chestnut- ee
Flaxen- ff (note: can be carried by ANY color but it MUST be ff for it to show on red based horses )
Agouti- AA or Aa
Cream- CrCr, nCr
Champagne- ChCh, nCh
Sabino- SbSb, nSb
Tobiano- TT, nT
Overo- OO, nO (note: OO results in LWO {lethal white overo} aka, a dead horse)
Dun- DD, Dd
Appaloosa- LpLp, Lplp (this is just the gene to SHOW the appy spots although they will be varnish roan if they don't have a patn gene)
Pattern-PATN1PATN1, PATN1patn1, PATN2PATN2, PATN2patn2 (see explanation below for clarifiying pattern)
Splash- SplSpl, nSpl
Roan- RnRn, Rnrn
Sooty- StySty, Stysty
Rabicano- RbRb, Rbrb
Silver- ZZ, nZ
Grey- GG, Gg
Pearl- prlprl, Prlprl

Ok, now to some colors, and combinations that get them...I'm not bothering with paints or appaloosas, those are simple tacked on at the end. Same goes for the sooty and rabicano genes. Grey also overrides every other gene in the end and can therefore be attached to any color.

Greys are normally grey over black (dapple/steel/fleabitten), grey over chestnut (rose grey), but can be over any other color.

Black: one of the two base colors for horses
-EE/aa (E will always be dominant in any variation, but A will never be dominant

Chestnut: the other base color for horses
-ee/AA (ee will remain, A can variate to anything)

Flaxen Chesnut: same exact thing as the chestnut except for one thing!
-ee/AA/ff (ee and ff will remain the same, A can variate to anything)

Bay: any agouti on black
-EE/AA (will be variations of this but E or A will NEVER both be lower case)

Seal Brown: not really different from bay, except for one thing
-EE/AtAt

Wild Bay: again a variation of bay
-EE/A+A+

Dun: dun factor applied over bay or chestnut (red dun, see below)
-EE/AA/DD (again, variations but the horse MUST have a dominant black, agouti and dun gene)

Red dun: dun over chestnut
-ee/AA/DD (E will ALWAYS be lowercase, but variations of A, and D must have one dominant gene)

Grulla: dun factor over black
-EE/DD (variations, agouti is never present but black and dun are always present)

Palomino: cream over chestnut
-ee/nCr (will ALWAYS be ee, and ALWAYS one cream gene (see cremello for why)

Buckskin: cream over bay
-EE/AA/nCr (will always have some sort of black, and agouti, and only ONE cream (see perlino)

Cremello: two cream over chestnut
-ee/CrCr (no variations except for silver carriers....two creams take the chestnut to cremello)

Perlino: two cream over bay
-EE/AA/CrCr (black and agouti may variate, but there will always be TWO cream over bay, so black and agouti MUST be present)

Dunskin: dun over buckskin
-EE/AA/nCr/DD (will always have one cream, one dominant D, one dominant E, and one dominant A)

Dunalino: dun over palomino
-ee/AA/nCr/DD (will always have ee, A will vary, one cream, and D will vary)

Blue Roan: roan over black
-EE/RnRn (will NEVER have agouti or ee, roan and black can vary otherwise)

Strawberry/red roan: roan over chestnut
-ee/RnRn (will always have ee, may carry agouti, Roan will vary but will always have one dominant)

Palomino roan: palomino with roan over it
-ee/AA/nCr/RnRn (I think it's pretty obvious if you go back to palomino and figure out what can or cannot work)

Bay roan: hey look! bay with the roan gene!
-EE/AA/RnRn (remember no, ee )

Dun roan: Omg! I bet this is just a dun with roan over it!
-EE/AA/DD/RnRn

Smoky Black: now here's a fun one, black with cream
-EE/aa/nCr (note: there is NEVER any agouti present otherwise you'd have a buckskin)

Amber champagne: and this is where it'll get fun..., bay with champagne
-EE/AA/ChCh (will always express the black, agouti, and champange genes though doesn't have to be homozygous)

Sable champagne: ok, this one is a pain....(champagne over seal bay)
-EE/Ata/ChCh (ok, will always express the black, seal bay, and the champagne)

Classic champagne: champagne over black
-EE/ChCh (agouti will never be present and E will never be ee)

Gold champagne: champagne over chestnut
-ee/ChCh (ee will never change)

Gold Cream: cream and champagne over chestnut
-ee/CrCr/ChCh (cream and champagne can vary as long as it's present, ee will never change)

Sable Cream: cream and champagne over seal brown
-EE/AtAt/CrCr/ChCh (black must be present, At must be present, cream and champagne may vary as long as they are present)

Classic Cream: cream and champagne over black
-EE/aa/CrCr/ChCh (agouti never present, black will vary but will never be ee, Cream and champagne may vary as well)

Amber Cream: cream and champagne over bay
-EE/AA/CrCr/ChCh (again, all will vary as long as there's at least one dominant of each gene)

Apricot: chestnut with a double dose of pearl
-ee/prlprl (cannot have Prlprl or PrlPrl as it would be a chestnut)



Note about Silvers: they may have a special names but it's mostly simple colors with the silver gene thrown on...and for the most part, I'm pretending every combo does NOT have the silver gene. Oh, the silver gene NEVER shows up on red based horses.

Alright, to clear up the pattern gene. PATN1 expresses the leopard and fewspot pattern, however leopards are Lplp/PATN1patn1 and fewspot are LpLp/PATN1patn1. PATN2 expresses blanket and snowcap in a similar way where a horse that is heterozygous (Lplp) for the appaloosa gene will be blanket and one that is homozygous (LpLp) for the appaloosa gene will be a snowcap.

Also a note about pearls, they will never show on a non-cream if they only have one copy of the gene (Prlprl). However if they have at least one cream gene and are heterzygous for pearl it will show! If a horse is a non-cream and has two copies of pearl (prlprl) it will show though!

You guys better love me because I've given possible codes (minus the paint/silver/rabicano/sooty genes) for EVERY horse on this site. And if you have any more questions, please PM me with what you need help with!

If you have any questions regarding these please shoot me a pm, I'm on a lot so you'll get a pretty quick response!

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