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Weird?
Alright, this last directory is for horses with just plumb unusual characteristics!
They will likely be dominant genes(?), but surely won't be homozygous -
but for those of us who are fascinated with rare / unusual equine genetics,
this "heterozygous" directory just has to be included !

homozygous agouti horses
homozygous black (EE) horses
homozygous champagne dilute horses
homozygous creme dilute horses (cremellos, perlinos)
homozygous dominant-gene curly coated horses
homozygous dun and grulla (grullo) horses
homozygous grey horses
pearl or barlink dilute
homozygous true or classic roan horses
100% sabino producing horses
homozygous silver dapple dilute gene horses
homozygous spotted (Lp gene) horses; snowcaps & fewspots
homozygous tobiano gene horses

A beautiful & unusual Hancock bred AQHA mare, aptly named "Stripper." No genetic explanation (that I know of?) to explain the strange white strip on her left flank. (She can't explain it herself.) Photo taken at DeBruycker Quarter Horses, Montana.

Genetic discussion of "weird:" ...Well? ...rare! Really odd! Bizarre! Some things just defy explanation...



Brindle
The brindle horse. Surely the rarest abberation in the equine world, no doubt left over from some primeval ancient camoflauge genetics, like the striping of primitive duns of today. The horse pictured here is (alas!) also grey, so the gradual whitening will eventually overcome his brindle pattern.

FRS Reckless Dan, AQHA #3641242, bred by Florian Selting, SD, now owned by Penny Christiansen, standing at Lee Summit, MO. Reckless Dan was foaled May 01, 1997. He stands 15.3 hh, and is well muscled with a baby doll head, good bone structure and a good hoof foundation. Dan has been started in the arena w/ team penning, roping & English jumping.

Copyrighted photo generously provided by professional equine photojournalist: © Gabriele Kärcher, Sorrel. If you want to set up a photo shoot w/ this international photographer, she will be coming to the states (Montana) in June 2007 - contact me.

The American Horse (put out by AQHA for members) has a great article about brindles in the current issue. I will get that posted here as soon as possible.



Strange Markings

"I am very interested in genetics and coloures, and am submitting a filly i bred last year 'Carnaval Gold' I have attached some pictures - her sire Carnaval Drum, international show-jumping stallion (chestnut, shown below), her dam Albina (cremello), and 3 pictures of the filly. When she was born she was a normal palomino; later she developed a strange liver band down one side."


2006, showing normal palomino color

Submitted by
Gayle Sylvester


2006 with dam, Albina (cremello)

An oddly marked Bashkir horse.

Utställning i Skåne / Czerewko, reserv Best in Show. Efter Yuri, undan Nikita. Uppfödd av Fjärens ridcenter och ägd av Katarina Linstad 2003-09-06.

http://www.basjkir.se



"Here is a photo of a mare 'Lucy' that we recently sold. She is a horse of a different color. Both her parents where solid sorrel. We bought her from a good friend who bought her dam with her at the side and he said she was colored that way as a foal." (She is now sold.)

Andrea McGregor
McGregor Ranch
N4206 810th St
Ellsworth, WI 54011

click on Lucy's picture for a closeup



Funny Foal Colors
I might be cheating a little bit including funny foal colors on this website; but sometimes foals can display the oddest colors before they shed!

Most foals shed off darker when they get their adult color. For example, often their future black legs start out white. A grulla foal starts out looking dun (with a black face). I have had foals that started out looking bay shed off to black. I have read where no black horse is born black (and it is true most are born brownish-grey) but I have definitely had a few that proved that wrong; they were born pitch black right from the start.

The champagne is an exception to the light to dark rule - it starts out a deeper darker hue, then will shed off more ivory and lighter when adult.

This fuzzy curly filly didn't stay bay w/ white legs; she went on to shed into a nice respectable bay... she is owned by Barbara Carroll, Stag Creek Curlies, TX



A Satin gene?
We (owners of this website) believe there is a satin gene in horses. In rabbits, rats & mice there is a "satin gene" - it is a hollow hair shaft (??) that causes reflection resulting in a very shiney metalic sheen to the hair coat. It is the actual structure of the hair, not a genetic color or dilute. Many champagne horses have this metallic sheen - but not all champagnes are shiney. And Akhal Tekes which characteristically have a metallic sheen coat, do not have the champagne dilute gene. Occasionally you run across horses of other breeds with this charismatic metalic shimmer...
Hi Rollin Janie
2006 AQHA 4868767 buckskin filly
bred & sold in the Billings MT catalog horse sale by Brian Walker, Huntley Montana

bloodlines:
High Rolling Roany
Satin Sunset
Blu Glo

(judging by the names of some of her relatives, it does sound like a genetic thing, doesn't it?)

Here is a familiar photo picturing the Akhal Teke breed of horse. This horse displays the characteristic metallic glow... Many champagne horses also have this metallic sheen - but not all champagnes do. And, Akhal Tekes do not have the champagne dilute gene.



Exotic, Unusual, and even Wild Color Combinations



Chapman Zebra stallion, foaled July 2004. "I plan to do some breeding with this stallion in 2007 or 2008 as he gets old enough to breed. If you are interested in breeding to a zebra in the future contact me for breeding info." Crossing zebras on donkeys produces zonkeys, and on horses produces Zorses. Bedonna's Performance Horses, OK.

A Zorse head study.
Training a Zorse is said to be similar to training a mule - the same quote often given about training a Curly Horse. Mules & Curlies are exceptionally intelligent, and use a lot of reasoning - they tend to think more than shy & react. They also need a thoughtful & knowledgable approach when it comes to successful training.
Bedonna's Performance Horses, OK


Here is a genetic combination you don't run across every day... This is *Siesta, a true blue roan medicine hat overo curly filly born in 2003. Her dam is a gaited curly and her sire is a blue roan overo Paint. Siesta is large, pretty and very sweet. She moves like a dream and should give us some super sport-type curly foals! Siesta will be bred to the Friesian stallion "Romeo de Rosa" for a 2008 Curly-Frie!
Siesta is not for sale.

Owned by Golden Gait Farm, TN.






Wednesday, 2 October, 2002, 08:56 GMT 09:56 UK
Morocco's Miracle Mule

"A mule has given birth to a male foal in a hamlet deep in rural Morocco. The 14-year-old mother mule gave birth on 28 August, 2002 in a small hamlet of three poor farms in the region of Oulmes, 80 kilometres south of the ancient city of Fez. The farm is nestled at the foot of the Atlas mountains, where the mother mule has become a cult. She and her foal have been visited by streams of people, many of whom traveled for hours to pay tribute to the miracle birth and bring gifts to the owner and the animal. The mule has become a local attraction The mule's aged owner, a farming woman whose face is covered in traditional local tattoos, did not realise the mule was pregnant and rode her 20 kilometres to market the day before the birth."

"No big deal, you may think, but in fact the birth was a minor scientific miracle. A mule is the hybrid of a horse and a donkey and should be sterile - except in this instance. There have only been two substantiated cases of a mule giving birth in the past quarter century: one in China in 1988 and the other also in Morocco in 1984. A horse has 64 chromosomes and a donkey has 62, so a mule is left with 63, an uneven number which cannot divide into chromosome pairs. This normally makes a mule unable to reproduce. However there have been, since 1527, (when records began on the issue) a total of 60 reported cases of mules giving birth. "The occurrence is so historically rare that the Romans had a saying Cum mula peperit, meaning 'when a mule foals', the equivalent of our 'once in a very blue moon'," explained Dr Gigi Kay, a horse vet with the charity, the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad ."
Genetic Discussion: A mule is 1/2 horse and 1/2 donkey. Each pair of chromosomes has 1 of each. There is a random chance that a zygote will have all the horse or all the donkey chromosomes. If the zygote is so endowed, then the egg or sperm will be equally fertile as one coming from that species. So you could get a pure horse from a mule/donkey cross, or another mule, or a pure donkey from a mule/donkey cross.





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