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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. |
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Strange
Markings
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"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."
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2006, showing normal palomino
color |
Submitted by
Gayle Sylvester |

2006 with dam, Albina
(cremello) |
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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 |
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"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
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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 |
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A Satin
gene?
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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?) |
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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.
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Exotic, Unusual, and even
Wild Color Combinations
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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. |
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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
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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.
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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."
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"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. |



agouti |
black |
champagne |
creme |
curly |
dun |
grey |
pearl
roan |
sabino |
silver |
spotted (LP gene) |
tobiano | weird |
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