Which breeds of horse have the greatest variety of colours

ClobellsandBaubles

ClobellsandBaubles

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There was a thread quite recently about bigger horses having less variety of colour I was reading in H&H about some registries not accepting certain colours. Colour genetics has personally become a growing interest of mine sooo... which breeds or registries allow the most weird and wonderful colours (pictures and examples most welcome as I need cheering up) or are there particular breeds that display one particular unique colouring???
 
The gypsy cob comes in any colour or marking. You get cream, duns, black, skewbald, piebald, roans, sabinos, spots, bays, greys - you name it, there is probably a gypsy cob in that colour somewhere.
 
Theresa_F said:
The gypsy cob comes in any colour or marking. You get cream, duns, black, skewbald, piebald, roans, sabinos, spots, bays, greys - you name it, there is probably a gypsy cob in that colour somewhere.
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But GC's aren't really a specific breed are they? They do come in some pretty patterns though.

I was thinking maybe Shetlands or Icelandics?
 
Fallabella's come in a variety of colours as do shetlands (although no spots allowed). Icelandics are also many different colours :)

Haflinger's are only ever chestnut despite all of the adverts you see saying they are 'palomino'
 
The true gypsy cob is a breed with a studbook, DNA database and licensed stallions - check out the TGCA website.

There are many so called gypsy cobs, but if you look at the breed standard and some of the photos you will see that the well bred gypsy cob though does come in a range of sizes and colours, all have the same breed characteristics.
 
Spanish (PRE) horses come in all the standard colours except piebald and spots (although there are possibly some, just not registerable), plus some that are unkown anywhere else, such as rabicano, champagne and all the "smokey" dilutes. The breed society is also to the fore in colour genetic research.
 
http://www.spanishmustang.org/page/colours.htm

According to this quite a spectrum.
I read on the AQHA website that you can only get 17 (seems like a lot still) QH colours but I don't think they were including paints or appys.
What about British native breeds NF, highlands, and welshies have some funky colours sometimes and I am sure I read somewhere that they had isolated a new colour in shetlands called mushrooms:confused:
And then there's Iberians who seem to have sprouted new colours eg. pearl over night!!
PS. can you tell I am trying my hardest not to revise and google is helping massively :cool:
 
Theresa_F said:
The true gypsy cob is a breed with a studbook, DNA database and licensed stallions - check out the TGCA website.

QUOTE]

Thankyou. There you are then :)

It seems terribly odd to see just two of three lines on a pedigree though, I suppose a breed has to start somewhere.
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Enfys said:
I was thinking maybe Shetlands or Icelandics?
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Icelandics come in every colour except spot. They are also classified specifically (i.e. Light bay, dark bay, grey with black points, grey with dapples, silver dapple etc) Which means a total of 82 different colours :eek:

Obviously we'd normally class bay, chestnut and grey together but it's still fascinating. I have a book that is entirely dedicated to the colours of the Icelandic horse.
 
Sianage said:
I was going to sat Icelandics :)

I have been to Iceland and I saw pretty much every colour gene in the Icelandic horse except for spots.
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Interesting site about Icelandics which share a common ancestry with shetlands which may explain the similarity in variety of colours. http://www.icelandichorse.is/History.html

This is one of my favourite colour variations ever - icelandic pony

chimera_Miljon_fra_Grund.jpg

(taken from here: http://www.whitehorseproductions.com/ecg_basics4.html)
 
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I am having visions of a rainbow herd of horses now :D
I have rather fallen in love with a little chesnut frame overo filly I found when searching. I also love the sabino colouring you see in clydies and welshies I don't quite understand what makes one 'louder' than another though, more than one gene and are 'normal' white markings part of this gene too? Oh the quandaries I really shouldn't have started this should I :cool:
 
Colour genetics is a fascinating subject especially regarding greys as grey is not a genetic colour but a modifier that causes de-pigmentation. So my welsh sec a who is dapple grey actually carries the dun/buckskin gene as thats her birth colour.
 
I love the overos, not terribly keen on tobianos pattern wise.

I have a frame overo but she is pretty minimal, looks like a chestnut from the back.

How is this for an overo? (Splash. Gambling Man)

417756_264444793631045_134862553255937_585129_1317555088_n.jpg


His other side isn't quite as striking
 
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With Frame Overo, a horse can have the gene and be completely solid (no white markings or blue eyes), or the white can be quite extensive. The TB above though has another pattern gene as Frame does not put leg white on, and neither does it like leg white, so will try and restrict the expression.

They will only pass it on 50% of the time as well, as being homozygous causes Lethal White Overo, where the foals are born with internal problems, and cannot digest food properly, so will die within 72hours of being born.
Which is why it is so important to test every horse with a frame overo in it's pedigree, even if they are 'solid'.
 
Very interesting thank you :) I think I have finally sorted my conundrum of what colour the strange plough pony was that I was schooling I am pretty sure she was a silver bay roan with pangre :p mouthful. I think she was small draft x some sort of pony so could be possible:rolleyes:
 
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