Grey mare = grey foal?

[loverly]

As title...

I know very little about colour genetics and having looked on the colour calculator I am no more the wiser!

So my mare was (apparently) born bay and is now a lovely iron grey.

I'm considering breeding her next spring (she's the mare who I had a bit of bashing about). Before anyone jumps to conclusions - she is absolutely fine, I have seeked help from a experienced rider/trainer and the vet sees no reason not to put her in foal as we believe her issue is not due to a physical or psychological problem - just been badly broken in previously which has left trust issues.

As shes grey does this mean that the foal WILL be grey even if the stallion is homoygzous (sp?)?

 

[EstherYoung]

If your mare has two copies of the grey gene then her foal would be grey no matter what colour dad was.

If your mare has one copy of the grey gene then there is a 50% chance her foal would be grey.

Do you know what colour her own parents were?

 

[loverly]

Sire is grey and dam is bay.

 

[crellow4]

Your mare will only have one copy of the grey gene and therefore any foals stand a 50% chance of being grey - unless you use a grey stallion lol!

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

50% chance if using a normal stallion. If you use a homozygous coloured then the offspring will be coloured regardless.

Most greys are born either black, bay or chestnut hence why many passports done during the first foal coat are wrong.

 

[GinnieRedwings]

EKW, Grey is not a colour. It's a modifier. All horses have a base colour, black or chestnut. Additional genes are responsible for patterns - agouti for bay, tobiano for coloured. Then there is a myriad other modifiers, white, black & tan, etc. But the grey gene overrides them ALL. A homozygous sire will NOT prevent a foal with the grey gene from going grey.
If a horse has the grey gene, he will go grey, then progressively lighter and lighter until eventually he is white. The speed at which he gets lighter is different in individual horses, but if you see a nice dark iron grey horse, he is likely to be under 7 years old.
As other have said, if the OP's mare has a bay dam, so she has 50% chance of passing on the grey gene (provided the stallion isn't grey) and if she does pass it on, the foal will eventually go grey.

 

[EstherYoung]

ps this is what happens when a horse inherits the grey gene and the coloured gene:

He's completely white now.