The Color of the Horse


The Eastern types, as well as the English through blood and the half breed horses have thin skin and their connective tissue under it is very slim. The cold blood horses and the ponies have much more of the connective tissue under their skin therefore it is thicker (they can take the weather's adversity better). We can find suet and sweat glands, fur in the skin. The fur protects the animal against the weather's hardship, gives protection from the external impacts, besides the color pleases us and helps us to identify the horse. The fur is made of an external cortial substance and an internal medullary. The color comes from the different portions of the melanin which also determines the color of the iris, the skin and the cornea.

In the absence of pigment, the skin is pink, the eyes are red and the fur is white from birth (albinism). In the case of partial albinism the eyes are blue. Among the racehorse breeders there is an argument about the connection between the horse's color and its performance. According to the end of this research the "good horse (successful horse) has no color". In other words it is not the color that decides whether the horse is successful or not. Although we have to admit there is some truth to it: the skin with the absence of pigment is more sensitive and the horse's feet suffer more from eczema than normal. The whole body is covered by fur and on some points it creates fur-rotation. It is good to pay attention to these because sometimes it helps in the identification. At wintertime there are some fine, soften fluffs are placed among the covering fur. The newborn horse's foals are made of from these soft fluffs. The sucking horse baby gets rid of this fluff coat when it is separated from mother. This is the time when the permanent fur is formed and it is rare to match with the former coat. We can hurry the change of fur with warm stable, good condition (with covering, but this is not recommended because the horse can catch a cold). In a cold environment the horse grows a long fur coat which wonderfully protects it from the weather. This long fur coat cannot be cut unless the horse is in a warm stable. The change of fur brings sensitiveness and more demand of protein.

Our language to determine the color of the horse is very rich. 150-200 years ago we used a lot more terms to identify the color of a horse. Most of these are gone from usage and the identification got simpler. The genetics "discovered the horse color" and based on this science it tries to explain the appearance and inheritance of certain colors. The following sentences are dealing with the traditional names of horse colors and how it is set in system and we are only touch the genetics. The fur color - like sort of a qualitative feature- is rooted in the inheritance substance of the cells, in the chromosome threads. Based on the Mendel heritage rules we can follow it fairly good. The main principle is that the genes divide into halves in the spermatozoon and only one of them makes it to the spermatozoon. At the time of fertilization both the substances from the mother and father add up to make the main characteristics. There is a dominant color gene (like the gray), which oppress the recessive gene (like yellow). If the dominant gene is present in the heritage substance then it is going succeed. The recessive characteristic is only present when the dominant gene is not in the father's nor mother's heritage substance. We know some impending, or partial impending factors, which affects the development of certain colors (the show the most of that color). We know that there is an apistatical heritage line when the color factor is not contrasting but still can oppress other color's appearance.
The epistatic line of the horse's color is the following: diverse shades, faded, gray, bay, black, and yellow. The diverse shade is above all the colors and the yellow can be oppressed by any of the other colors. So we are going to have yellow horse if the horse did not inherit any other color. The same time, this epistatic line also shows that the oppressed shades splits out from which shade. The line of the ineffective colors called hipostatical.

Most part of the place of genes is known in the heritage of horse colors, of which the gene pairs of both the father and mother is placed. If the individual inherits the same color genes both the mother and father then we call it homozygota.
If there is an adversity between the gene heritage of the mother and father then we call it heterozygota. The genetics science discovered a lot of places of color genes and worked out the heredity of it. There are all kinds of publications about it. If someone wants to deal with the heredity of horses scientifically he can use up a lot of foreign language source. They mark the place of genes with the letters of ABC- the big letter means the dominant character. The small letters mark the opposite recessive gene pair.

The horse is white, when both it's coat color and the fluffs are white from birth. Their skin is pink, the eyes are blue but can be other color too, the hoof is wax yellow. They can be found in Germany, Denmark and America. Within this group we also have the cream colored albino horse (palonimo), this is heterozygota albino. The fertilization of two similar one can produce another yellow one. The real albino's eyes color is red and it is pure white. The observation is that in the form of homozygota is lethal (it perishes while it is embryo).

The horse is black, when both the fur color and fluff is black, the skin is darkly pigmented and the hoof is gray. Summer black at the abdomen, the inner side of the legs are brown colored. At summertime the other parts of the body are black, at wintertime the end of the fur is lightly red and brown shade.

The horse is bay, if the color gene is limited to the end of the legs and long hair, the cover fur has brown shade. Genetically the dark bay and the light bay come out based on different effect of genes. Based on the shade of the brown fur we distinguish goldbay, cherrybay, middlebay and chestnutbay colors. The horse is red leg bay if the long fur is black but not the end of the legs.

The horse is yellow if both the covering and long fur is in the shade of yellow, their skin is gray so as their hoof. The shade of colors are: lightyellow, goldyellow, redyellow, middleyellow, darkyellow, liveryellow, carbonyellow (Translated from the original Hungarian words). For some of these horses have really light yellow color, almost white. The yellow is the recessive, it only appears if the homozygota one is recessive. The yellow x yellow colored horses' descendant is always yellow.

The dun horse color is actually is a diluted mixture of the black, the bay and the yellow colors. After the black and bay version we call ordinary dun color horse if it the long hair fur and the end of the legs are black, the skin and its hoof is gray. The covering fur is some kind of lightly brown shade. We find dorsalt stripe on the spine line of the body. After the color yellow faded colored horses' long fur is not black nor the end of the legs, they don't have dorsalt stripe, their skin is gray just like their hoof. The Isabelle gray is similar to the ones that are cream colored. The color substance is limited in their cerabin.

We call a horse roan if there are some white hair in its black, brown or yellow fur. Based on the base color we speak of red roan, black roan. If the white fur reaches the 50% we call it roan, we also indicate the base color such as: black roan or red roan. If the horse has more white fur on it we called it falcon color. The roans are darker at wintertime than at summertime. As time goes by their fur becomes lighter. The gray color is strongly a dominant one, the homozygota gray horses' every descendant is gray (this rule does not stand for the heterozygota gray). The gray horses born with "dirty" black or red color. As they grow up they turn to gray: it means they have more and more white fur.

The horse is multicolored if the big white spots are varying with colored ones. The leopard colored horse has spots as big as an apple or they can be smaller like a coin. The greyhound horse's color spots' edge is gray.

(C) Csilla Szerepi

What Color Is Your Horse?
http://petcaretips.net/horse_color_markings.html


There are five basic body colors of horses. They are:

BROWN A brown horse has a mixture of black and brown in his coat. In Europe, a "bay" is considered to be a brown horse.

BAY A bay horse can be any shade of brown (which is a mixture of
red and yellow), with points such as tail, mane, muzzle and lower
legs being black. The brown can range from a light, almost tan or
chestnut to a dark, seal color.

BLACK A black horse is completely black, including muzzle and
flanks. Most horses that look black are actually a very dark bay.

CHESTNUT A chestnut horse has brown skin and the hairs are
actually red. The shades vary from a light yellowy color to dark
liver. The mane and tail are usually the same color as the body
but can be lighter. The lighter coloring is called flaxen.
Lighter colored horses are called sorrel; very dark chestnut is
called "liver chestnut".

WHITE A truly white horse is born white and remains white. His
hair is snowy; he has pink skin and blue eyes. Cream horses are a
variation, also having unpigmented skin and pink or blue eyes,
with a pale colored coat. Most "white horses" are actually light
grey.

There are also three major color variations in horses and three
major color breeds.


DUN Duns have black skin with an evenly distributed coat color
and a black mane and tail, similar to bay coloring. The coat
color can range from a pale yellowish color to the color of a
dirty canvas. Dun horses usually have a dorsal stripe down their
backs and some have stripes on their forearms. The lighter shades
are called buckskin.

GRAY A gray coat is actually a mixture of black and white hairs
on black skin. A foal may be born a solid color with a few white
hairs sprinked in his coat, but more white hairs will appear in
the coat until he is gray at maturity. "Dappled grey" looks
mottled, while greys with clusters of darker hair which sometimes
include a reddish brown, are called "flea bitten".

ROAN Roan is a mixture of white and colored hairs. White with
brown is called red roan; white with red is strawberry roan;
white with black is called blue roan.

PALOMINO Palominos are golden horses with light colored, or
"flaxen" manes and tails.

PINTO Pintos have a mixture of white and colored areas on their
bodies. Horses with black and white splotches are called piebald,
while horses with any other color than black are called skewbald.
Pinto is a Spanish word meaning painted. Painted horses are
divided into two categories: Tobianos, the most common, have
white splotches across their backs which extend downward. On
Overos, the white extends from the belly and legs upward toward
the back but does not actually cross the back. Overos often have
a "War Bonnet" or white face.

APPALOOSA This is a color breed. It is divided into three color
patterns:
Leopard is a white horse with dark spots all over his body;
Snowflake is a dark horse with tiny white spots;
and the "blanket", the most well-known Appy pattern which usually
consists of a white blanket with dark spots on the rump.
Appys must meet three minimum requirements: striped hooves,
unpigmented sclera (white around the cornea of the eye) and
mottling of the skin, particularly on the nostrils, muzzle, and
genitalia. There are solid colored appaloosas but they must meet
the above requirements.


MARKINGS

Many horses have markings on their faces and legs. Here are the
more common ones.

BLAZE A white mark spread over the forehead and the length of the
face. If the blaze is exaggerated to cover the entire front of
the face, the term "bald face" or "war bonnet" might be used.

STRIPE A white mark down the face, similar to a blaze but
narrower.

STRIP A white mark running partway down the face.

STAR A patch of white on the forehead.

SNIP A white or pink patch on the nose or lip.

WHORL A patch of hair swirling opposite to the surrounding hair,
usually found on the forehead.

SOCK White hair on a leg, looking like human ankle socks.

STOCKING White hair on a leg, extending from hoof to hock or
knee.

A full, legal description of a horse would include: name, age,
color, breed or type, sex, height, parentage, natural marks (such
as those listed above and patches on the body), whorls, acquired
marks such as scars.


This article was kindly provided by Michelle Staples, Staples
Stables
Lash LaRue & Rush


referencia linkek

http://www.curlyhorseweb.com/colors.html

http://www.geocities.com/colorgallery/genetics.html

http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/lvmillon/coatcolor/coatclr3.html

http://www.geocities.com/Baja/Outback/2936/index.html

http://www.coloredhorses.com/

http://www.coloredhorses.com/colorkey.html

http://www.rightlead.com/Educational/colors.htm

http://www.equinecolor.com/

http://www.horsecolor.com/