colours when breeding from a chestnut

No_Angel

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2003
15,230
814
113
Ireland
ive been looking at a few stallions now, and just wondering what sort of basic colours do you get from crossing a chestnut with differnt colours.
so far ive seen a nice looking mahogany bay and a few greys.
is chestnut a recessive gene?
i love chesntuts, i think they are very striking and would love another (already have 2) but obviously if its a really nice stallion it doesnt have to be chesnut.
 
Chestnut is indeed reccessive; a chestnut has two red alleles so can only ever pass red on to foals, so chestnut x chestnut will only ever give you another chestnut.

All other possibilities depend on the exact genetics of the stallion and mare. If you use a stallion that's thrown even one chestnut, then you'll have a 50% chance of a chestnut. There are two sets of black genetics; heterozygous black (where there is one black allele and one red) and homozygous black (two black alleles). Heterozygous black will give you a 50% chance of a black base, homozygous black will always mean you get a black based foal.

Bay is a difficult one. Because bay works by modifying a black base, a chestnut can carry bay and you won't know about it. They could even be carrying two bay alleles; in which case, they'll never throw black, even to a homozygous black. Put to a bay with one chestnut allele, and one black, you still have a 50% chance of a chestnut foal; but put to a bay with two black alleles it depends wholly on what bay alleles both the stallion and mare carry. If either one of them is homozygous for bay, you're guaranteed a bay foal.

Grey is a bit simpler; if the stallion has thrown non-grey foals, then he's heterozygous for grey and you have a 50% chance that the foal will go grey. If he's thrown all grey foals, there's a chance he's homozygous for the allele, and if he is, every foal he throws will eventually go white.
 
This really interests me.
Just to get my head round it could you give me an idea about my Jess, she is chestnut.
Jess' sire was palimino (Desired Vision, QH), DV's sire was also pally and the dam chestnut, DV's dam was chestnut and both her parents were chestnut.
Jess' dam was chestnut, her dam was chesnut (TB of unknown decent) but her sire was paint sorrel overo, his sire was red dun overo (apparently) not sure about his dam just know she was a paint.

ta
 
newrider.com