Genetics...

[CMR]

I have a newly aquired horse, and he is expecting his only baby in March or April. I was just wondering some of the possibilities at the foals color. He is a spotted draft(black and white) His father was black and white(almost all percheron) and his mother was a dappled grey percheron. The mother of the foal is a flea bitten grey TB. (Don't know anything about her parents, one had to be grey for her to be grey, right?) Is there any chance of a black and white baby? I'm thinking it will probably end up grey, am I correct?

[chev]

When you say spotted draft, do you mean spotted or patches of colour? If we're talking patches like tobiano it's fairly easy to predict the foal's colour in one way.

TBs don't carry tobiano, which is the gene responsible for the black and white pattern. Nor do Percherons - so we know that dad has one Tobiano gene and mum has none.

That means that the foal has a 50% chance of being tobiano (having patches).

Dad is black and white, so has a black base - so there is a chance that foal will too. We don't know what colour the greys in his breeding are underneath the grey, so there's also a chance of chestnut and bay base. Nor do we know if mum has one or two grey genes; if she has one, there's a 50% chance foal will grey out, if she has two, it's guaranteed foal will.

So; foal could be black, bay or chestnut, with a 50% chance of being tobiano, and at least a 50% chance of going grey.