Another colour question...

MrsElle

MrsElle

Well-Known Member
Joined
21 November 2008
Messages
6,183
Location
Back Where My Heart Is :)
Visit site
Stallion is chestnut roan, his sire is chestnut with flaxen mane and tail, dam is strawberry roan.

Mare is registered as skewbald, but looks more blue and white at the moment. Her sire is skewbald, her dam is black roan (which is what mare's dark patches look like). Mare's darker patches are getting greyer with every year.

What colour/s could foal be?
 
Do you have photos of the sire and dam?

If the mare is grey then you have 50% chance that the foal that will grey out. What colour was she before she greyed out?

If mare has one copy of the coloured gene (probably tobiano) then you have a 50% chance of the foal being coloured. If she has two copies then the foal will be coloured.
 
I'll upload some photo's shortly.

Mare is 4 years old and registered as skewbald. However, she is more piebald, or blue and white, with the black patches being black roan. I did wonder if her passport was correct, but the markings are identical, and she does have a chestnutty tinge to bits of her in the sun. I would say she is more tri-coloured.

Photo's on way........
 
Last edited:
Stallion, chestnut roan:

IMAG0455.jpg


Mare yesterday, supposedly skewbald:

IMAG0116.jpg


And an old photo of her with an old owner, not sure of her age, but guessing around 2 years old:

securedownload.jpg
 
OK. Mare is a grey tobiano. Do you know what colour her grey patches were when she was born?

50% grey foal.
50% tobiano foal (if mare is heterozygous)
100% tobiano foal (if mare is homozygous)

50% roan foal (if stallion is heterozygous)
100% roan foal (if stallion is homozygous)

Base colour.
Sire can only pass on chestnut.

If the mare has a chestnut gene, then you could get a chestnut based foal.
If the mare does not carry chestnut then you will get a black based foal (even though the sire can only pass on chestnut).

If you're lucky, you could get a chestnut roan tobiano foal. If the foal gets the grey gene, then it doesn't really matter what colour it is when it's born, as it will grey out over time and end up white.

ETA. If either parent carries agouti, then you could get a bay or bay tobiano (black based) but again, grey would over-ride that too.
 
Last edited:
Blimey, my brain is hurting just reading that!

I am assuming that her coloured bits that look black roan now were chestnut or bay when she was born as she passported as a skewbald. As I said, I did wonder if it was the wrong passport as she is not skewbald now, but perhaps her dark patches were very dark bay.

I am off to google tobiano's! I hope the foal isn't grey, anything but another grey shetland!

Thank you :)
 
Technically she is still skewbald - just a grey and white one. Piebald is Black & white, everything else is skewbald.

Piebald and skewbald are very out of date now. I'm not a fan of the term tri coloured for bay and whites or dun/buckskin and whites.

I personally prefer to say the base colour and then the specific coloured gene, EG bay tobiano or palomino frame.
 
Is sire a tested roan as he looks as if he may not be a true roan and instead have a high density of white ticking which is caused by different genes
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top