Why are there no blue or green horses?

[cptrayes]

Does anyone know?

We have blue and green birds, fish, insects and reptiles.

Why do we not have blue or green horses? Are there any blue or green mammals? I can't think of one.

I've decided I'd like my next horse to be blue with a turquoise mane and tail. How about you?

 

[noodle_]

because they would look like ;;

and frankly thats some scary ****.............







id like a pink one with a purple mane

 

[numptynoelle]

How funny, we were chatting about this at work the other day - one of the guys is just back from Kentucky and there is a legend of a horse turned blue through eating all the blue grass Link here!

Maybe 'Big Lex' is who you need to be searching for

 

[TicTac]

oooooooooook have you been smoking something you shouldn't have? lol Actually my grey boy has been know to turn the odd shade of green occasionally, especially when it involves grassy poo and the rolling or lying in such stuff!

Blue? no, can't help you there as as for one with a purple mane and tail, there are plenty of my little pony's out there in a variety of colours AND they are all bare foot!!!

 

[JFTDWS]

How funny, we were chatting about this at work the other day - one of the guys is just back from Kentucky and there is a legend of a horse turned blue through eating all the blue grass Link here!

Maybe 'Big Lex' is who you need to be searching for

 

[TicTac]

because they would look like ;;

and frankly thats some scary ****.............









id like a pink one with a purple mane

Ha ha love it!

 

[catkin]

id like a pink one with a purple mane

Get a grey and live in Devon - you'll soon get a pink horse

 

[cptrayes]

Get a grey and live in Devon - you'll soon get a pink horse

But that's cheating! I don't count dying them, naturally or not

Pink with a purple mane. Ooh, bit girly but I can see the attraction.

 

[stargirl88]

Mostly because blue is a primary colour, so no mix of any other horse colours will get you a blue one.... which as a result kills off the any possibility of breeding a green horse

 

[cptrayes]

Mostly because blue is a primary colour, so no mix of any other horse colours will get you a blue one.... which as a result kills off the any possibility of breeding a green horse

But why can dragonflies and ducks do it brilliantly, but not a horse?

 

[smellsofhorse]

Is like the horse from the Wizzard of oz.

He changed colour!

 

[JFTDWS]

But why can dragonflies and ducks do it brilliantly, but not a horse?

Evolutionary advantage? Given that most animals don't have advanced colour perception, I doubt there's any evolutionary benefit to a blue horse.

I also imagine that a blue hair colouration might be molecularly more challenging than feathering or skin pigmentation , but I'm not sure I could justify that off the top of my head.

 

[stargirl88]

Because of their environment, they would probably need such colours to blend in. Although green land mammals would make sense, most predators cannot actually see green as we do anyway. Insects that actually spend a lot of time on leaves NEED to be green because birds searching for then have better colour vision than mammals (which is by most of them are so wonderfully coloured - to attract each other) so the green gene is necessary!

 

[KSR]

 

[amandap]

Evolutionary advantage? Given that most animals don't have advanced colour perception, I doubt there's any evolutionary benefit to a blue horse.

I also imagine that a blue hair colouration might be molecularly more challenging than feathering or skin pigmentation , but I'm not sure I could justify that off the top of my head.

I think I agree here. Horses are prey animals so need to blend in. Some monkeys have bright blue around their faces and genitals but it seems linked to communication around sexual/breeding success rather than pure survival.
I've linked to a forum thread that has some interesting links. Easier than picking them out. Lazy day today. lol http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=103207

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Just wait - someone will decide that it would be a great idea to have a blue, green, purple, pink et al racehorse and will do their utmost to make one! And to be fair with all the money the betting levy puts into veterinary research it should be possible within a few years!

 

[tallyho!]

Love it!!! xx

 

[cptrayes]

Ah, yes! Blue monkeys. And some of them are really bright blue in places. So mammals can do it if they happened to get the right gene mutation and if that mutation was advantageous to getting a mate and breeding more blue offspring.

What a shame that horses either never mutated or that it wasn't advantageous to be blue. I'd love one

EKW I think a race with horses of different colours in it would go down really well with the public. They always love a white horse because they stand out so. We have luminous rabbits already. Like you I don't put it past the scientists to do it one day.

 

[Tinsel Trouble]

Stephen Fry said there were no mammals that were blue, or green. The closest they came up with was the Sloth but that's green due to algae!

It just can't be done!!

 

[mandwhy]

Have you heard about the scientists putting jellyfish genes into cats for HIV research? They glow in the dark! I would like a glow in the dark pony. It would be real easy to find at night and extra hi vis, but the other horses would probably think it was a weirdo :-(

 

[debsg]

Have you heard about the scientists putting jellyfish genes into cats for HIV research? They glow in the dark! I would like a glow in the dark pony. It would be real easy to find at night and extra hi vis, but the other horses would probably think it was a weirdo :-(

A glow in the dark horse! Brilliant idea! Jas is jet black with no white and it's a bugger trying to find her in the dark!
Some of these replies are very intelligent and scientific Afraid I've just finished 4 x 12 hr night shifts in a row and cannot possibly think of anything intelligent to contribute
But I would like a lovely deep purple horse, please, with glow in the dark spots on her bum!

 

[Jesstickle]

Have you heard about the scientists putting jellyfish genes into cats for HIV research? They glow in the dark! I would like a glow in the dark pony. It would be real easy to find at night and extra hi vis, but the other horses would probably think it was a weirdo :-(

They've put GFP (green fluorescent protein, from jelly fish) into loads of animals as a gene expression marker. They don't actually glow in the dark. You have to to excite them at specific wavelengths to see them glow. UV IIRC

I don't want to sound like a party pooper but them's the facts!

 

[Pale Rider]

There are lots of green horses about.

 

[tallyho!]

Pale rider... hee hee!!

You can ones with blue tongues too... they seem to be the favoured types of all top dr riders...

 

[Suechoccy]

This thread reminds me ...

did you know...

All Dinosaurs were fluorescent pink or fluorescent yellow in colour.

That is why they became extinct - their colours made them impossible to camouflage themselves, so the carnivorous fluorescent pink dinosaurs were able to spot the herbivorous fluorescent yellow prey dinosaurs a mile off, gallop up and eat them. And once all the herbivorous fluorescent yellow dinosaurs had been eaten and became extinct, there was nothing left for the carnivorous fluorescent pink dinosaurs to eat, so they became hungry, weak and starved to death and became extinct.

copyright: Suechoccy's History Of The World ;-)

 

[cptrayes]

Stephen Fry said there were no mammals that were blue, or green. The closest they came up with was the Sloth but that's green due to algae!

It just can't be done!!

Stephen Fry forgot to tell the blue faced apes

 

[cptrayes]

You have to to excite them at specific wavelengths to see them glow.

Would Classic FM do it?

 

[Joyous70]

My horse is pink (well pink skin) blue eyes & he sometimes turns green depending on what he's been rolling in

 

[mandwhy]

I don't think we should let a few technicalities like that spoil it jesstickle! Let the wavelengths be excited!

 

[stencilface]

Stephen Fry forgot to tell the blue faced apes

TBH when you mentioned blue monkeys I wasn't thinking about their faces

google vervet monkey balls