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<p>Agouti is a modifier but we have given it a separate page. Simply put Agouti restricts black to the legs, mane and tail. A Horse with agouti is typed as either Aa or AA. A horse without agouti is aa.<br /><br /></p>
<p>Here are a couple examples of agouti's affects and their codes: I've put individual genetic examples in between pipes: |examples|<br /><br /></p>
<p><strong>BLACK</strong>: A black horse with no agouti is black over it's entire body. His genetic code would be very simple - either<strong> |eE aa|</strong> or <strong>|EE aa|</strong> no other modifiers. Note the two lowercase a's - a black horse has no agouti.<br /><br /></p>
<p><strong>BAY</strong>: A black horse with agouti is called a bay. His genetic code would be <strong>|eE Aa|</strong> or <strong>|EE and aA|</strong> or<strong> |eE and AA|</strong> or <strong>|EE and AA|. </strong>Note he must have at least one capital A to be a bay.<br /><br /></p>
<p><strong>BUCKSKIN:</strong> A black horse with agouti and a cream gene is called a buckskin. His genetic code would be <strong>|eE and Aa and crCR|</strong> or <strong>|EE and aA and crCR|</strong> or <strong>|eE and AA and crCR|</strong> or<strong> |EE and AA and crCR|<br /><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>NOTE!</strong> You only see agouti's affects if the horse has a black gene "E" - if the horse has two red genes "ee" agouti can hide -<strong> if the horse has at least one black gene "E" you will ALWAYS see agouti - it cannot hide on black.</strong></p>
<p>eg. a <strong>PALOMINO</strong>'s genetic code looks like this<strong> |ee and crCR and aa|</strong> or like this <strong>|ee and crCR and Aa|</strong> or like this <strong>|ee and crCR and AA|</strong> all three look identical and you cannot tell them apart except by testing HOWEVER if you are interested in breeding for color you need to know as the following example shows:<br /><br /></p>
<p>The <strong> |ee and crCR and aa|</strong> palomino has no agouti so if you breed this palomino to, say, <strong>#1 Black</strong> <strong> |eE and aa|</strong> or <strong>#2 Black |EE and aa|</strong> you will never get a buckskin - you could get a Palomino or a Smokey Black from the#1 Black because he is eE and might throw the foal the lowercase "e" to make a palomino or if he throws the capital "E" the result will be a smokey black. Breeding this palomino to #2 Black horse you will only get a smokey black because there is no agouti from either parent, there is for sure one E from the Black horse and because black is dominant it has to show.</p>
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<p><strong>NOTE! For some reason the industry standard is a lowercase e to signify the red gene and a capital E to signify a black gene. Getting your mind around this fact will help you immensely when looking at color genetics. Remember lowercase e means red based. Capital E means black based. Black is dominant so if there is a capital E the horse is black based even if you see a lowercase e too.<br /><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>All</strong> horses are born with <strong>only one of three color combinations</strong> for their base color: </p>
<p>1. ) They are red based without any black - this is coded as ee - the two lower case e's mean the horse inherited one e (red gene) from each parent. </p>
<p>2.) They have inherited one red gene and one black gene from either parent - this is coded as eE or Ee. Both mean the same thing, the horse has one red and one black.</p>
<p> 3.) They have inherited 2 black genes. This is coded as EE. The two capital E's denote that his individual inherited one black gene from each parent.</p>
<p>An ee horse cannot contribute a black gene to any offspring and an EE horse cannot contribute a red gene to any offspring.<br /><br /></p>
<p> Every single horse has one of these above three combinations - and every color of horse is one of these with a bunch of other genetic modifiers to those base colors. You can not tell the difference between an eE or an EE by looking at the horse, the only way to tell them apart is with genetic testing or with a breeding track record.</p>
<p> <strong>Next- after knowing the horse's base color we move onto genes that dilute.</strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>ASD stands for Anterior Segment Dysgenesis.<br /><span style="color: #ff9900;">WHAT IS IT?</span><br />It is an eye abnormality that is associated with the Silver color in horses. <br /> </strong></span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">The majority of affected horses have acceptable eyesight, although impairment severity varies between individuals. Horses with one copy of the gene can be affected but are usually not to affected. Horses with two copies of the gene will have more severe symptoms sometimes including cysts and malformed pupils sometimes including blindness. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Verdana;">ASD is linked to the Silver gene in horses.<br /><br /><span style="color: #ff9900;">WHAT BREEDS ARE AFFECTED?</span><br /></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>Affected breeds include </strong></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Rocky Mountain Horse, Kentucky Saddler, Miniature Horse any other breeds or individuals that have the color Silver.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /><span style="color: #ff9900;">HOW IS IT TESTED?</span><br />There are no direct genetic tests for ASD, but a test for the Silver gene is available. If your horse has the silver gene or has two copies of the silver gene have your vet do an eye exam. <br /><br /><span style="color: #ff9900;">WHAT IS THE TREATMENT?</span><br /></span></p>
<p>T<span style="font-family: Verdana;">here is no cure for ASD. <br /><br /></span></p>
<p> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">The only way to prevent ASD is to not breed ASD positive horses. If you are incorporating Silver i</span></p>
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<h3>Grey - The Wild Card</h3>
<p>Grey or Gray (used interchangeably) is a dominant gene that <strong>always expresses itself eventually</strong>.<br /><br /></p>
<p>We call it the wild card because you just never know what you are going to get with grey and your horse might turn many different shades of many colors before it finally completes the process of being almost totally white in it's old age. <br />Below is an example:</p>
<p><img alt="jamshow" src="/images/sampledata/jamshow.jpg" height="409" width="328" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The horse above is <strong>AQHA BMF Honeys Jameen</strong> - she is a Red Dun going Grey pictured here as a four year old. <strong>She has no black in her genetics.</strong> It is the grey factor that has turned her this gorgeous color. As she ages eventually she will turn completely grey. Genetics do not lie and as unbelievable as it might be this horse is not a buckskin and she will eventually be totally grey depending how long she lives. <br /> Her DNA color code is<strong> |ee DNdn Gg |<br /><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Grey can produce spectacular and varied results.<br /><br /></strong></p>
<p>More people than can be counted have mis-guessed the color of a horse because it had grey DNA. Grey will always trace back in an unbroken line in the pedigree. If you see grey skip a generation<strong> it is only because someone didn't register the horse properly</strong>. On this site we try to put the base color and dilution colors wherever we can know them, as well as indicate if the horse has the grey gene as it is the base color that can affect what color any foals produced might be.<br /><br /></p>
<p>Grey always shows itself eventually if the horse has it. Newborn foals are extremely hard to be adamant that they are or are not grey but a general guideline is that if the horse has one or more grey parents and it is born looking an adult color instead of with baby coloring it will likely go grey. Eg. A foal born that is pitch black from one or two grey parents will likely go grey - usually black foals are not pitch black when they are born but only show pitch black after they have shed their baby coat. Likewise a foal born buckskin color with sharp black legs, mane and tail from grey parents will likely go grey.</p>
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<p>Patterns don't affect color so much as they affect the overall look of the horse.<br /><br /></p>
<p>It is with Patterns that horses are classified into breeds.<br /><br /></p>
<p>We have not fully developed this section yet and will be working on it in the future. We welcome anyone with lots of knowledge in this department to submit a writeup to <a href="mailto:foals@mts.net">foals@mts.net</a> and we will use it on the site.</p>
<h4>Appaloosa Patterns:<br /><br /></h4>
<p>LP1 (DNA Testable)</p>
<p>PATTN1 (DNA Testable - New in 2015)</p>
<p>PATTN2</p>
<h4>Paint Patterns:</h4>
<p>Sabino (more of a modifier)</p>
<p>Rabicano (again more of a modifier)</p>
<p>Tobiano</p>
<p>Overo</p>
<p>Splash</p>