Seeing as all the colour genetic whizzes are about...

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BellaBee

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I just remembered that my mares dam is a grey, will that mean that mine will eventually grey out? Or is the grey gene not always passed down?
 
If a horse has a copy of the grey gene, it will grey out. If the dam was homozygous for grey, then yours will have the grey gene. If heterozygous, it's a 50/50 chance she will have got it.

My black mare had a grey sire but has not greyed out :)
 
sychnant said:
If a horse has a copy of the grey gene, it will grey out. If the dam was homozygous for grey, then yours will have the grey gene. If heterozygous, it's a 50/50 chance she will have got it.

My black mare had a grey sire but has not greyed out :)
Click to expand...


Thanks, I'm afraid I'm not sure if the dam was homozygous for grey. Though sounds like she wasn't- mines 10 now and still brown. Was more curious as she got grey specks on her bum over winter :confused:
 
Although greys do grey out at different rates, as your mare is 10 and still brown, she's not grey.

Would love to see a photo of the specks if you have one. :)
 
Hmm, its not a great photo but you can see it a bit, it was much more noticeable mid-winter.

msj7ld.jpg
 
sychnant said:
If a horse has a copy of the grey gene, it will grey out. If the dam was homozygous for grey, then yours will have the grey gene. If heterozygous, it's a 50/50 chance she will have got it.

My black mare had a grey sire but has not greyed out :)
Click to expand...

My bay mare had a grey sire, she's had 12 foals now, only one of them (by a grey) has greyed out, she obviously doesn't have what it takes to make a grey by herself :) At 23 she still doesn't have a grey hair on her body.
 
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