Foals turning grey

[JanetGeorge]

[ QUOTE ]
hi, yeah i appreciate what you are saying, i wasnt talking about heterozygous coloured stallions though just coloured stallions in general, im no expert its just i was talking to a breeder at addington last week and they were telling me that alot of breeders wont use grey mares with the coloured stallion as theres even less chance of a coloured foal than with say a bay mare or chestnut. prehaps they were passing on incorrect information

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep! A heterozygous coloured stallion has a 50% chance of producing a coloured foal to a non-coloured mare of ANY colour including grey. If the grey mare is heterozygous for grey, then there's a 50% chance that a coloured foal will grey out.

So they were right in ONE way - because while your chance of a coloured foal from a grey mare is exactly the same as from a bay or a chestnut mare (50%) your chance of having a foal that STAYS coloured from a grey mare is only 25%.

 

[timmy1977]

they were yor typical "i know what im talking about people!" you know the kind of people who always have to be that bit louder than everyone else so everyone can hear they're opinions. so you are probaby right. thekind of people who wear a porsche baseball cap and drive ford escort!

 

[CrazyMare]

Just a quick one - can you have the mares tested to find out if they are hetero or homozygous for the grey gene? Or can my dark dark bay filly be tested to see if she has the grey gene?

Filly just has a dot of white on her face at 4 months old. Has had that since birth

 

[SirenaXVI]

[ QUOTE ]
Just a quick one - can you have the mares tested to find out if they are hetero or homozygous for the grey gene? Or can my dark dark bay filly be tested to see if she has the grey gene?

Filly just has a dot of white on her face at 4 months old. Has had that since birth

[/ QUOTE ]

What colour were her legs when she was born? If they were dark, she will def go grey. if they were a sort of buff colour, she will stay bay.

The test for the grey gene is not yet available, they are working on it as we speak. One thing can be guaranteed, as your filly has only one grey parent, she (if she does turn grey) will be hetero and not homozygous grey and will have a 50% chance of having a non greying foal if she is put to a non grey stallion. However, looking at your picture I would hazard a guess that she will stay bay(as long as no dark legs at birth) which means that her mum only has one grey gene which makes her heterozygous.

If your filly stays bay, no point in testing for the grey gene, it won't be there. Grey is dominant and cannot hide so in order to have a grey foal, one or both of the parents must be grey.

Lovely filly

 

[CrazyMare]

This is her legs when she was about 2 months old. Fairly light I think?

 

[SirenaXVI]

I would be willing to bet she will not go grey, which also means that mum only has the one grey gene

 

[CrazyMare]

Thanks Sirena!!! To be honest - the colour doesn't matter to me, however she is such a gorgeous shiney colour that it would be lovely if it stays!

 

[DanielleP]

nikkiportia> wow i have never seen the rings around the eyes quite so prominent and white as that!

 

[DanielleP]

rufus blue moon> Really! have you got any photos? I must admit my mare can be a bit of a handful to ride!

 

[no_no_nanette]

Here she is, the witch! (She's feeling very sorry for herself at the moment, as one of the other brood mares has just kicked her in the fleshy part of the inside hind, poor old thing, so she's getting lots of cuddles!)

This is Fionn at a few months old .... at 14 months, he's now a kind of bay/roan, and is definitely going to end up grey

 

[friskimagic]

http://www.myphotos.yahoo.com/s/21a0llbdlfnvgnw8nm3v this is pics of my 5 month old foal and pics of his dad...both parents were grey but foal born a palomino with pale legs,he now has a dark muzzle and face and mane is silver but legs still same pale colour, mums dam was a palomino and mum had a dun foal too also dad has thrown both a bay and a chestnut foal in the past what colour will my foal be?

 

[amy_b]

I have a chestnut mare I bought when she was 6 who's sire is grey,she has always had fleck of grey in her coat but nothing more. she is now 11 and the flecks year on year are increasing to the point where this year her blaze is smudged and she has a white patch on her bum. I spoke to a genetics expert and he said it is most likely she is turning grey and they recently tested an andalucian who was 18 and took nearly all of his life to turn grey!! we are having her tested for the grey gene out of interest!

 

[amy_b]

Just a quick one - can you have the mares tested to find out if they are hetero or homozygous for the grey gene? Or can my dark dark bay filly be tested to see if she has the grey gene?

Filly just has a dot of white on her face at 4 months old. Has had that since birth

There is a test to find out if your horse is hetero/homo for grey gene

http://www.horsedna.co.uk/

 

[kirstyc]

Hi
ive been learning alot about colouring since my foal was born in september. They have to have atleast 1 grey parent to turn grey and most greys end up all white (grey) as they get older, but it would be interesting to find out how the colour is decided before they turn grey wether it has anything to do with parentage etc...I was once told they are a dark solid colour when they are born because most foals are born during dark hours in the wild and its to stop preditors seeing them again dont no how true it is...My mum has had a foal born this year foals mum is a grey welsh A ( all grey parentage) and dad is a liver chestnut Welsh B ( mostly grey and chestnut parentage) and the filly foal was born dark bay but now turned grey.This has probably not answered your question but i thought id just share my thoughts on this subject

 

[xena_wales]

What colour were her legs when she was born? If they were dark, she will def go grey. if they were a sort of buff colour, she will stay bay.

That's not necessarily the case, though it does seem to hold true a lot of the time. My foal was born with dark legs, so I had him tested, and he doesn't carry grey:

 

[KarynK]

Hi
ive been learning alot about colouring since my foal was born in september. They have to have atleast 1 grey parent to turn grey and most greys end up all white (grey) as they get older, but it would be interesting to find out how the colour is decided before they turn grey wether it has anything to do with parentage etc...I was once told they are a dark solid colour when they are born because most foals are born during dark hours in the wild and its to stop preditors seeing them again dont no how true it is...My mum has had a foal born this year foals mum is a grey welsh A ( all grey parentage) and dad is a liver chestnut Welsh B ( mostly grey and chestnut parentage) and the filly foal was born dark bay but now turned grey....

Kirstyc Grey is not a colour but an effect on the cells that make colour it is similar to grey hair with age in humans but a lot quicker. The genetic mutation that causes Grey is a one off that was prized and spread by humans several thousand years ago, every grey that is around today is descended from that one horse. So there would be no grey in true wild horse populations, but greys are known to survive in feral horse populations in the USA that are prey to Mountain Lions, because the foals are a solid colour at birth they survive where foals born coloured are much rarer as they are easy prey.

Every grey will still have genes for normal colours, and every grey is born with a colour apparent, which is how you get a solid coloured horse from two greys, once grey is lost the colour becomes apparent. So your mum's welsh mare is actually a black base colour possibly bay, the foal therefore is a bay carrying chestnut but because she also has the grey gene she will go grey herself if that makes sense.

 

[devilwoman]

There is a test to find out if your horse is hetero/homo for grey gene

http://www.horsedna.co.uk/

I'm tempted to have my filly tested, I don't mind if she greys but would love her to stay dark, one grey is enoug to keep clean !

Her mum is the grey and her dad is Bay - she is 7 weeks old now and still doesn't have a single white hair on her - she doesn't have any "goggles" in fact she was starting to have some show but they were bay and where her foal coat is thinning out in places its very dark underneath, atlhough I know that is not an indication that she won't grey out.

This is her yesterday at exactly 7 weeks old ;-

 

[HBBambee]

Sorry pics quite big...
This is bramble just minutes old, he had goggles from day one

And this is him now at 4 months...

His sire who is chestnut has so far produced all foals that are the same colour as the dam, apart from one foal with a bay dam who turned out chestnut.
Brambles dam was once iron grey when she was 4yrs she is now 10 yrs and white.

We also bred a foal from this mare 4 yrs ago the sire was chestnut roan, pic at a week old..

And now aged 5 yrs

 

[lillith]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but having spent a long time cellectively looking at foals and working out the likely colours another forum I frequent has come up with a theory. It seems that most foals who go grey are born proportionaly darker. Obvioulsy there are some exceptions but generaly a black foal is born slate coloured and bays have paler legs. Foals that go grey are often born proper black or bay or whatever the base colour is. Just an observation but interesting.