This message is from: David Hagen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Hi Meredith,
Color genetics fascinates me. I agree with everything Dan Watanabe in his reply to you. That is, a white can usually only come from a parent that obviously carries the cream gene - that is, a parent who is either white or yellow. The only exception to this rule would be if grey genes are masking the cream dilution. In other breeds the result would usually be called "smokey black". I have come across one example of this. Karival's grey sire, Karibu, is recorded as having sired a white filly out of a brown mare. I have not seen the resulting offspring, <http://www.nfhr.com/ponyweb/ponyweb.cgi?horse=533&ParentID=679&Page=1&Sort=6>Lemuella. If she is indeed a white (Uls) dun, then Karibu would be the example of a grey horse carrying the dominant white gene that Dan is looking for. However, the odds of a carrier of the the dominant cream passing it along to an offspring are 1 in 2. Statistically speaking, 50% of Karibu's offspring should have been white (or yellow) if he is a carrier of this gene. Since Karibu has produced 50 offspring, and only one of them was recorded as being white (no yellows), I suspect that Lemuella might actually be a very light grey and was incorrectly registered. Genetic testing should be able to give you an answer to your question about your Karival mare. It's not as scary as it sounds and there's no bloodwork involved. All you need to do is send a hair sample (pulled from the mane or tail - with the roots attached) to one of several labs that could run a test for you. UC Davis has one of many labs that could do this for you. Check out their web site at http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/service/horse/coatcolor.html You would need to request the Cream Dilution test. The cost is a reasonable $50 and the test results should provide you with conclusive results. If you do this, please don't forget to let us know the results! David Hagen
