Horse genetics in real life vs EV

A few more interesting papers I've tracked down:


The paper claiming dominant black exists.

As proof this paper cites a single stallion, Serr Ebony Star, which always produced black or near-black foals and no other colours. Specifically, when bred to a variety of bay mares he produced 12 black/near-black foals, and when bred to some chestnuts he produced 16 black/near-black foals. They label these horses based on phenotype only, and don't do genetic tests, possibly because tests didn't exist when this paper was written. I'm keen to hear everyone's take on this, i.e. whether it sounds like dominant black could exist, or whether alternative explanations are more plausible.

My take on this: Based on the author's description, it seems plausible that "near black" is simply very dark bay, in which case what they're seeing would be an "EE aa" horse with a gene that produces dark shades. I also found this bay horse which claims to be sired by Serr Ebony Star, which was born after the above study was published. There's no guarantee his pedigree details are accurate, but something to look into perhaps.

This information casts far too much doubt on the dominant black theory, so I'm willing to say it doesn't exist.


On a related note, here is the German paper I mentioned earlier for the thing I called Sooty 2. It found that dark shades of bay and chestnut seemed to be inherited in a recessive manner. I suspect the way it acts is:
NN = not darkened
Nsty2 = darker
sty2sty2 = very dark
Just an educated guess though.


I can't find the paper about ea just yet. Wish I'd bookmarked it now. :P I'll post it when I find it.

Last edited on 2017-06-02 at 05:52:45 by UlyssesBlue