mum chestnut, dad dark bay...

[mad mare1]

what colour is foal likely to be?

[Mehitabel]

depends on dad's parents - possibly chestnut, possibly bay.

[teabiscuit]

little foal will get a red gene from mum and could get a red gene from dad so would be chestnut.
if dad passed on his dominant black gene, foal will be black.
mum or dad or both could pass on a bay gene and foal will be bay if it inherited dads black gene.
i think :confused:

[mad mare1]

well, daddy's last 3 foals..two to chestnut mares, have been black! here's hoping!

[Mehitabel]

little foal will get a red gene from mum and could get a red gene from dad so would be chestnut.
if dad passed on his dominant black gene, foal will be black.
mum or dad or both could pass on a bay gene and foal will be bay if it inherited dads black gene.
i think :confused:


not quite - chestnut is recessive, so mum only has chestnut genes to pass on as she needs to have 2 copies of it to be chestnut herself. if dad had one chestnut parent he has a chestnut gene too, but it won't show because of it being recessive. but he has a 50/50 chance of passing it on.

[teabiscuit]

mehitabel isn't that what i said :confused:
thought it was

[Mehitabel]

no - you said mum, dad or both could pass on a bay gene - mum has no bay genes to pass on.

[teabiscuit]

little foal will get a red gene from mum

and then i said the bit about the dad giving a black or red gene :)

[Mehitabel]

little foal will get a red gene from mum and could get a red gene from dad so would be chestnut.
if dad passed on his dominant black gene, foal will be black.
mum or dad or both could pass on a bay gene and foal will be bay if it inherited dads black gene.
i think :confused:



the bit is red is what i was disagreeing with - only dad can pass on bay. the rest is right.

[Tangle]

the bit is red is what i was disagreeing with - only dad can pass on bay. the rest is right.
But surely the bay gene will only be visible on a black base? So couldn't mum be carrying 2 "invisible" bay modifiers?

In which case the foal could have either a chestnut or black base (depending on whether dad is homo- or heterozygous for black), and IF the foal has a black base, he could be black or bay - and the bay modifier could come from either parent.

[teabiscuit]

mum could carry a bay gene, it is reccesive in chestnuts as it acts by restricting black to the hocks etc. so it wouldn't show up on a chestnut but they can carry it i believe
cross posted there tangle

recessive is the wrong word i think, it just won't show is what i'm trying to say

[chev]

Mum can indeed carry bay. Bay is only visible on a black based horse, since it works by restricting black pigment to the points. Since there is no black to restrict on a chestnut, a chestnut can in fact have two copies of bay and will still be visibly chestnut.

Foal will be bay, black or chestnut. We know dad has only one copy of bay, but we don't know if he has a hidden red gene or not (unless he's thrown chestnut foals in the past at all?).

If he has two copies of black, then you have exactly a 50/50 chance of black or bay. Any black based colour (black or bay) will be heterozygous.

If dad has a red gene hidden in there, you have a 50% chance of chestnut, 25% chance of black and 25% chance of bay.

Things get more complicated if mum has bay hidden. If she also has one copy of bay, the chances of bay go up and black go down accordingly.

If she has two copies of bay, then there's no chance of a black foal; it's be bay or chestnut if dad has a red gene.

[Mehitabel]

in tat case i stand corrected! :)