How to Determine Equine Color Genetics

Equine coat color is a factor in the popularity and breeding of horses. Colors such as palomino, buckskin, cremello, perlino, champagne, and coat patterns such as tobiano and overo are all color or white distributions that come from genes. Knowing exactly what pattern your horse has can help you make informed breeding decisions.

Things You'll Need

  • Comb
  • Horse's mane
  • Ziploc bag
  • Postage envelope
  • Licensed laboratory
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Instructions

  1. Determining Equine Color Genetics

    • 1

      Begin by locating a licensed genetics laboratory that provides coat color testing as a paid service. Contact it and find out the process for testing for coat color. Most require a hair sample. Pull these hairs from the mane or tail by wrapping a few strands of hair around your finger or a mane comb and pulling them out by the roots. You must have the roots for the test. Most tests require a minimum of 25 to 50 hairs with roots. The hairs do not need to be cleaned or moistened.

    • 2

      Place the hair samples in a Ziploc bag or the bag the lab provides and send it to the lab for testing. The lab will send you the results of your testing within a week or two. Reading the results of your testing is usually fairly simple. Most labs will put your test results in layman's terms: i.e., palomino, buckskin, cremello. The labs will also supply a genetic "marker" definition, such as for "agouti," a black pigment marker.

    • 3

      Reading the coat color markings can be tricky. "E" stands for the dominant black color. "e" stands for the red color. "Ee" means that both coat colors are represented. So, if a horse carries an "EE" marker, is has no red factor and can only produce black. If it has one copy of black and one copy of red, it will be "Ee." If it is chestnut only with no black, the marker will be "ee."

    • 4

      The "agouti" gene controls the way the horse is marked by black. "A/A" means that the coat will be marked with black in the pattern of a bay horse. "A/a" means that there is a 50/50 chance of the coat being a bay, or the black being evenly distributed across the entire coat. "a/a" means that the black will be uniform throughout the coat, i.e., a solid black.

    • 5

      There are a host of other coat color possibilities. From champagne to cremello, perlino to grey, and tobiano to overo. In almost all these cases, the same pattern is used. "N/N" means that there is no gene for the tested color. N/(marker) means that whatever marker is being tested for is carried with one copy of the gene. (marker)/(marker) means that the horse is dominant with two copies of the tested gene. So, for example, when testing for cremello N/N means that the horse does not carry any copies of the creme gene. N/Cr means that the horse carries one copy of the creme gene and is recessive for it. Cr/Cr means the horse carries two copies of the creme gene and is homozygous for that trait.