Passing on blazes and socks to offspring

[Santi]

Hi,
i'm looking for a stallion to breed my welsh Section D mare to this spring and I am wondering what happens with her white blaze and socks.

I have seen foals who haven't got their mother's markings. I thought white was fairly dominant so if i choose a stallion with no white do i have a one in four chance that the foal gets the white from his mum?

She is liver chestnut with black and grey in her mane and tail, so i assume she has some kind of bay gene (so i can't get a black foal).

I've attached a photo of her. She had her mane pulled when i got her (awful idea as it would have still plaited into footballs!) and stood funny because her feet hadn't been looked after... But her summer coat shows the colour better.

[chev]

White markings are governed by several factors, including environmental, genetic and probably some we don't understand as yet. It's not particularly a dominant thing at all.

Lots of Welshies (including, by the looks of it, your mare) carry sabino, which causes white socks, some roaning, blazes and belly splashes - at its loudest it actually causes quite extreme white patches on the body too. But there's no guarantee that the white will be passed on at all.

I have a mare with four white legs, white blaze, small belly splash and white on her flanks; last year she produced a filly with no white at all save a tiny star, this year a filly with four big white ragged socks and a blaze.

I'm afraid it's just one of those things you take a chance on!

[intouch]

We once had a Connemara stallion who ALWAYS passed on a big white star, to each of his foals. The stallion we used last year had no white on him, the mare had a small amount on one foot, the foal is pure dark bay, not a white hair. If you can view the stallion's progeny, you might be able to see if he "stamps" his offspring.

[chev]

Even then I'm afraid there's a lot of chance involved (especially with sabino). For a start, sabino is usually more loudly expressed on a chestnut base; so the base colour of the foal has a big impact.

My little mare with the four whites and the blaze has two foals by the same stallion. One had three big white legs, and a long blaze. The other was teh black with the tiny tiny star I mentioned. Even using teh same parents doesn't guarantee similar results.

Studies with twins show that it cannot be genetic; identical twins (so genetically they are the same horse) have been born with wildly different markings. That in itself shows that there's far more to it than just genetics and hereditary, or the white markings would be the same.