Shades of Bay and Chestnut

H

haras

Well-Known Member
Joined
5 June 2007
Messages
601
Visit site
Is anyone able to enlighten me on the shades of bay and Chestnut and hoe they are passed down to offspring?

My mare is bright bay, she is in foal to a liver chestnut stallion.

I know she can produce chestnut, as she was out of a chestnut mare, not sure which shade.

The stallion was by another liver chestnut stallion.

so foal has a 50/50 chance of being chestnut or bay /(black a very remore possiblility)

but any predictions on the shade?

(I'm keeping everything crossed for liver chestnut!)
 
Until recently it was thought that the Agouti gene affected shades of chestnut, but a study my sister did with early genetic testing proved that to be wrong. There does seem to be some correlation between the very very dark true liver chestnuts and black but what that is who knows.

Many what we would have described as dark bays and some horses previously thought to be black are in fact seal brown or black and tan or At which is recessive to bay A. I personally think that there is also another gene for all over brown.

Chestnut shading is still much of a mystery and it may well be that there are other genes that affect what coat shade a chestnut becomes. I looked after a liver chestnut stallion when I was young and wish I had paid more attention! The only two I really remember were a full brother and sister from his mating with quite a dark chestnut mare, the first a colt was a pale chestnut with an even paler undercarriage. His full sister was almost as dark a liver as her father.

I think we are quite a way from discovering the genetics behind coat shade at the moment.
 
I have used 2 liver sires on my homozygous fairly bright chestnut tobiano mare in the past - one came out with a lot of white and slightly brighter than the dam and the other, although with a lot more colour and darker than the dam, is still far from the liver I secretly hoped for.

So last season I put her to a black stallion and we shall probably get bay and white this year.
 
haras said:
My mare is bright bay, she is in foal to a liver chestnut stallion.
Click to expand...

Many years ago our YO sent her mares to stallions, a bay mare and a black mare, first they went to a liver chestnut stallion; the bay mare threw a chestnut filly and the black mare threw a strange "pink" coloured filly!

Odd thing was the YO was hoping to get a bay colt!



(The following year she sent the black mare back to that stallion and got a deep burgundy coloured liver chestnut filly, the bay mare went to a bay stallion and she threw a bay colt)
 
i think it's fairly random actually, but i'm not at all technical about colour - dilutes, agouti and all that confuzzle me completely!
the colour they are as a foal is often nothing like their adult shade of bay or chestnut. my bright apricot coloured filly became a very dull dark chestnut, my bright bay filly became a very dark bay, bright bay colts became mid-bay. the only one that stayed the same was a bright chestnut filly who never really changed hue.
hope you get a liver chestnut, must admit it's one of my very favourite colours, just stunning.
 
I'll just have to wait and see what I get then!

I have ordered a liver chestnut filly, therefore I am convinced that she is cooking a bay colt!

To be honest, I don't really mind, but a liver chestnut filly would be very very nice!

And don't worry... There will be plenty of pics! I'm getting really impatient now!
 
Just remember to put your camera in the foaling kit!!! Yes I usually get the opposite of what I have in mind, except last year I got some of what I wanted!! Good luck with your Liver Chestnut Filly!!!
 
http://greenfield.fortunecity.com/dreams/799/hc/red.htm

I would have called this foal a liver chestnut years ago, now though I have been told he is :

a) liver chestnut
b) silver bay
c) sooty palomino
d) chocolate palomino

:confused: Take your pick. It will be interesting to see what his summer coat turns out like.

Colour, in his case makes no difference, he's just very pretty and destined to be a gelding! Out of interest he is by a chestnut/white Paint stallion out of a palomino mare, no idea of colour further back than that. I already have first refusal on his 2011 full sibling:)
3acc2689.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top