COAT COLOR IN HORSES 



Tabulation of Color of 42,165 Horses Allows Definite Conclusions to Be Drawn 



as to Value of Different Factors Errors in Registry and in Genetic 



Description of Colors Connection Between Gray and Roan.' 



\V. S. Anderson 

 AssistiUit in Horse Husbandry, Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, 



Lexington, Ky. 



HTRST. Wilson, Harper, Sturtc- 

 \ant, Anderson and others 

 ha\-e ])ublishcd papers on the 

 Inheritance of Coat Colors in 

 Horses. It is the purpose of the writer 

 to 'ii^WQ a summary of all the available 

 figures on the subject and his interpre- 

 tation of them. The sources of the 

 fij^ures collected are the various Stud 

 Books. As a matter of fact these can 

 not be accurate. I, myself, have used 

 the American Saddle Horse Rej.,dster. 

 This Register has been compiled within 

 two or three decades and has been 

 re\ascd within a decade. I find errors 

 in it approximating two percent, for 

 color and as great a percent, of errors 

 that might be considered of a typo- 

 grai)hical nature. There is no reason to 

 believe that other registers arc more 

 nearly accurate than the Saddle Horse 

 Register. 



As will be noticed from the following 

 table of figures the matings have been 

 groujK'd under the registered colors as: 

 chestnut x chestnut, chestnut x black, 

 chestnut x brown, etc. That is, when 

 both sire and dam arc chestnut it is 

 designated a chestnut x chestnut mating. 

 Whc-n one is chestnut and the other is 

 black it is tabulated as chestnut x black 

 and so on. No attempt has been made 

 to keep the records for sexes, for the 

 reason that color is transmitted regard- 

 less of sex. The result from mating a 

 bay stallion to a chestnut marc is the 

 same in the color of the foal as if the 

 cross had been reciprocal, a chestnut 

 stallif)n mated to a bay marc. 



The stud books recognize the follow- 

 ing colorg in horses: gray, roan, dun, ba\-, 



' The maTerial here presented has hnn i)ul)lish 

 482 ■-'■'^•^ 



brown, black and chestnut. As a rule 

 the variations of each of these colors 

 are not recorded in the stud books. 



The gray coat is made up of white 

 and black hairs and varies from the 

 almost white to the almost black, and 

 includes a large class of horses whose 

 coat is of the dappled pattern. When 

 young, the gray horse exhibits this 

 da]3plcd conditon or is what is desig- 

 nated iron gray, but as age comes on 

 the da]j]:)les disappear and white and 

 black hairs are to be found. Later on 

 the black may almost be lost and result 

 in a white horse. This white, however, 

 does not seem to be of the same nature 

 as the white found on spotted ponies 

 and some classes of horses. This latter 

 is a snow white with white skin under- 

 neath, while the white found on the old 

 horse is due to the partial disa]j]jearance 

 of the black hairs. 



The roan pattern assumes three 

 forms. One of these is the red-roan in 

 which the coat is composed of bay and 

 white hairs. The second is the blue- 

 roan which constitutes a coat of black 

 and white hairs. The other foiTn of 

 the roan jjattern is the chestnut roan. 

 The coat in this case is due to white 

 and chestnut hairs. 



DTN COLOR R.\RE. 



The dun or crt'am colored coat is not 

 found in any great numl)ers. It varies 

 in shade from the dark to the light 

 cream. Once in a while the mane and 

 tail ha\e the same cream color as the 

 body coat, but the most usual condition 

 is dun body and black mane and tail 

 with black on feet and legs. 



ed in Bulletin No. ISO of the station, July, 1<^14. 



